I work with low income families, and this is the hardest holiday I can remember..

[Peacetrain]

The weather is bitter, and so many are out of work. Donations are down, and people are genuinely scared of what their futures hold for them.

I honestly do not think this economy can turn around in 3 months, 6 months a year. This is a situation like a boil that was allowed to fester, and the infection has set in deep.

I hope the infusion of income from a stimulus package can help these families find work that pays enough to cover rent, and food.

So many fall between the cracks, if we could get a universal health care bill through, it would take the heat off of small employers who have had to cut back, and many of these parents could go back to work.

Most of the parents do not have health insurance, and they are one accident or illness away from total disaster.

Please please, write and call your congressperson, to push for health care, it is so important on so many levels.

[canetoad]

1. Very proud to kick and rec

This is an issue that overrides glbt marriage, abortion, fundies and just about everything else; simple survival.

It's hard to find space in my heart to feel sympathy for investors who have lost money, and home owners who whine because their property has lost it's resale value while they still have a roof over their heads.

Your economy will not turn around in a year or two years. Health cover for all could provide a means of righting it in many years time.

Thank you for posting such a heartfelt and sincere sentiment.

Edit: whoops misplace apostrothingy

[Mari333]

17. as for glbt issues, its the same thing the OP is speaking of

marriage rights are about poverty, health care, and loss of income....see this:
Here are some of the legal rights that married couples have and gays and lesbians are denied:
http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/wedding/f/MarriageBenefit.htm

1. Joint parental rights of children
2. Joint adoption
3. Status as "next-of-kin" for hospital visits and medical decisions
4. Right to make a decision about the disposal of loved ones remains
5. Immigration and residency for partners from other countries
6. Crime victims recovery benefits
7. Domestic violence protection orders
8. Judicial protections and immunity
9. Automatic inheritance in the absence of a will
10. Public safety officers death benefits
11. Spousal veterans benefits
12. Social Security
13. Medicare
14. Joint filing of tax returns
15. Wrongful death benefits for surviving partner and children
16. Bereavement or sick leave to care for partner or children
17. Child support
18. Joint Insurance Plans
19. Tax credits including: Child tax credit, Hope and lifetime learning credits
20. Deferred Compensation for pension and IRAs
21. Estate and gift tax benefits
22. Welfare and public assistance
23. Joint housing for elderly
24. Credit protection
25. Medical care for survivors and dependents of certain veterans

thats why dismissing glbt issues as non economic issues is not appropriate. they are economic issues.they are health issues. they are poverty issues.

[canetoad]

21. Please don't presume that you can lecture me

an anyone's rights.

Mari, I don't doubt your sincerity, but I think you have lost sight of the First Principle.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. We need real CHANGE in this Country and we NEED IT NOW!

[canetoad]

6. if you were given the chance to identify

the FIRST big change needed to turn things around, what would you pick?

[SammyWinstonJack]

Universal Health Care.

[canetoad]

25. Spot on Blue state

downthread I wrote about how once we got it in Aust. you can be damned sure no one is going to take it away. The best thing I ever heard on the issue were Tony Benn's word on Sicko. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3HyK5rB9jY

"An educated, healthy and confident people is harder to control."

[canetoad]

3. kicketty

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I have been teaching low income kids for nearly 30 years

And your OP is spot on. I can't remember it ever being this bad.

[Lyric]

5. Another thing to start pushing for--the reinstatement of America's welfare system

The 1996 legislation abolished welfare in most practical ways. It is now almost impossible to qualify for, and the red tape and hassle discourage thousands of needy families from trying. Our current system no longer guarantees assistance to families who meet income guidelines; states are permitted to refuse help to families based on their own guidelines, which are often social engineering rules meant to control and suppress the sexuality and independence of poor women.

This is urgent. It's time to lay the myth of the welfare queen to rest for good, and start rebuilding our broken welfare system, because the Big Crash is coming--is already underway--and the system we have right now CANNOT handle the levels of poverty and need that we are about to witness again, heaven help us.

[canetoad]

9. I've wondered about your state vs federal powers

OK, in Aust. we have 6 states and 2 territories. Laws vary from state to state, but not by very much at all. Social security is Federal.

I still find it hard to get my head around 50 states, all with differing laws, being able to constitute a united country.

[dkf]

10. Another irony...the first things we ask to be overturned are welfare and DOMA.

Am I the only one kind of bemused at this?

[Lyric]

13. Perhaps because these things are hurtful to innocent people?

In regard to welfare, I recently wrote a paper for my English 102 class on the subject. Here's an excerpt that seems pertinent to the discussion:

          Cash welfare assistance (TANF) is nearly universally reserved for families that contain at least one member that is elderly, a child, or disabled; it is practically impossible for an able-bodied relatively young adult with no children to get welfare assistance, and that has been true since long before the 1996 reforms. With that in mind, the idea of restricting welfare assistance in order to keep able-bodied adults from getting a “free ride” seems strange, since these adults weren’t eligible for welfare even under the old system. The social myth of freeloading adults drinking the work-sweat of the nation and living the high life on welfare checks is a classic logical fallacy of composition. Just because some welfare recipients might be undeserving does not mean that all, or even most, recipients are undeserving. The adults who receive welfare are generally single mothers with young children, elderly people, and disabled people. Reforms that restrict and limit welfare assistance based on the “freeloader” myth do not make logical sense, because most of the people suffering in the aftermath of tightened restrictions and dramatically increased hassle are the exact people that Americans generally consider to be “deserving” of help. Even academics who otherwise approve of the work requirements that welfare reform implemented have recognized this serious flaw within the system, as public policy professor Brendon O’Conner observes:

          I believe the emphasis on work in the (1996 welfare reforms) should be continued because it has been more
          successful than many, including myself, might have imagined; but what is needed in addition to this policy
          is a backup program that offers greater help to the hard to employ and a welfare safety net for children
          regardless of their parents’ behavior… (O’Conner).

Welfare reform based on the illogical “welfare queen” urban legend has the implied goal of cutting out “freeloaders,” but the practical effect of disproportionately hurting the innocent people who have the least resources to care for themselves; those who need a compassionate society’s help most of all. There is nothing just, moral, or ethical about forcing children to suffer for the sake of punishing their parents.

(emphasis for this use, but not in the original paper)

[dkf]

16. Oh, I guess you didn't get my joke that we want to overturn Clinton laws before Bush laws.

[Lyric]

20. I don't consider welfare reform a Clinton law--at least not mostly.

He did sign the bill, but the "Republican Revolution" Congress drafted the legislation and did the legwork in convincing Americans to support it. Clinton actually wanted a much, much kinder version of the reform bill. If Congress had sent him such a bill, he would have signed it without hesitation--and in fact, he and the Congressional Dems did manage to soften the bill a bit. Not nearly enough, of course--dropping welfare as an entitlement program alone was utterly devastating, and that doesn't even consider the rest of the horrific changes that were implemented. The minute that deeply poor people were no longer guaranteed help, the entire nation was placed at risk. It's almost like the Republicans saw today's economic crash coming, and acted to make sure that the government would not be responsible for helping to keep people from starving in the streets.

DOMA, on the other hand, is a lot more Clinton's fault than welfare. He's a bigot in regard to the same-sex marriage issue, no bones about it, period. He made that perfectly clear in his 1996 interview with The Advocate, in which he bluntly stated, "I remain opposed to same-sex marriage. I believe marriage is an institution for the union of a man and a woman. This has been my long-standing position, and it is not being reviewed or reconsidered."

Clinton is certainly not a friend of gays, any more than Obama is. If anything, because Clinton happily signed the DOMA law, he is actually worse than Obama.

And this is coming from someone who was a Hillary supporter during the primaries. I am certainly not a Clinton-hater by any stretch of the imagination. I just know reality when I see it.

[JerseygirlCT]

7. You're right. nt

[DBoon]

8. p;rogressive have to make the economic crises a first priority

or someone else will make it a priority. Someone who does NOT share our views on the other issues

[canetoad]

12. In one way I think you are correct

but in another, I feel that you have entered a lenghty period where the political pendulum swings leftward, caused by the callousness of the Bush admin.

But never forget the pendulum will swing back after 8, 10 or 12 years. Because of the dire straits you are in from the last 8 years, I believe there will be a mandate towards a more compassionate form of government. This is where I disagree with you; the window of opportunity to make seriously lasting changes is about 5 years. I don't believe there will be a serious opposition within that time.

Also note, nationalised health cover was institued in Aust. in 1973, under Gough Whitlam, by the most lefty federal gov. we have ever had. Subsequent conservative govs. had made attempts to abolish it, but now we have it, no bastard is taking it away. Even right wingers will not give up their universal health care.

Once you have health care you will have it forever. No populace will allow any future government to take this away and that's why I think this is your most crucial issue just now.

[killbotfactory]

11. We need to demand our rights

If we have a right to live, we have a right to the things which all humans require in which to live.

Food, shelter, healthcare, etc.

These must be enshrined as the right of all, not as some easily threatened "privilege" granted to you by the state or some private enterprise.

[canetoad]

14. That's all lovely killbot

but how do you get the strenght to demand your rights when you are sick, homeless and without education?

[killbotfactory]

22. with time, coordination, and effort

above all we need a willingness to take these matters into our own hands rather than wait for our political representatives to get off their ass and do something about it.

[canetoad]

24. What exactly do you mean by taking into your own hands?

You have elected a democratic president. Are you advocating riots and violence? Anarchy? (Not that I'm against a little polite anarchy). Remember that all revolutions were grown and nurtured by the idealists but the execution was the job of thugs. The foot soldiers of any revolution are the crude, violent, self-interested and physically robust. A nasty combination, whichever side of the fence you are on.

But... it is the quickest way to change in the USA. Is that what you desire?

[killbotfactory]

26. Whatever is effective

Factory occupations like we've seen in Chicago, protests, marches, community gardens... whatever works.

Social justice is more important than property.

[acmavm]

15. So very true.

[tofutti cutie]

18. But what about those of us who haven't worked in the past year?

We didn't get a stimulus check. I think that is a huge mistake: there are people who may be students, not getting their taxes taken out (my part-time employer made our status as tutors as 'self-employed,' but I made less than $3,000 for the brief time I worked there), etc.

Another push should be to provide transportation vouchers for low-income workers. Either let them ride free or reduced fares.

[Odin2005]

19. We need a new New Deal more then ever right now.

I work at a daycare run by the YWCA and the cook down at the YWCA shelter brings up the lunch for the kids. He told me that there has been a sharp increase in the number of single moms with kids at the shelter but donations are down. :(

[Giant Robot]

23. Here at my agency we have the conventional wisdom

that crisis lines are the bellwether for the country. If we are correct, and I do believe that we are, things are A LOT WORSE than we are even conscious of yet. People are cold, hungry, scared and desperate. This is not going to be a good year coming up unless a miracle happens.