Oct. 6, 2013

The Real Lesson of ‘Green Eggs and Ham’
By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.  

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - America just celebrated the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s great “I Have a Dream” speech. Everyone says that they “love” Dr. King (now), but the media did notice that no top Republican Party leaders attended any of the main anniversary events. Maybe it was this line of Dr. King’s that they don’t like: “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification…”

What is nullification? It’s one of the last-ditch philosophical stands of the slaveholders, the historically disreputable — and thoroughly discredited — concept that a state could “nullify” a federal law by declaring it null and void.

The idea of the Slave Power was that the Southern states would “interpose” themselves between the national government and the slaveholders, and prevent our laws from being enforced. The concept was most famously expounded by South Carolina Sen. John C. Calhoun almost two centuries ago. It has been struck down repeatedly by the courts and was never accepted outside the Confederacy.

Since it was used mainly to protect slavery in the South, it eventually helped lead to a horrible Civil War, and eventually the idea was totally discredited. But we forgot to drive a stake through its heart. The idea has never completely died away and keeps creeping into our politics in dangerous forms.

Now we see it raising its ugly head in the battle to block Obamacare, risking the economy of the whole country, as Republicans in Washington act at the beck and call of the one-quarter of America that calls itself the Tea Party. We’re not talking the Boston Tea Party here. We’re talking the Fort Sumter Tea Party. We’re talking about a modern, right-wing movement built on a new Republican South in reaction to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A “Southern Strategy” led by Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms led directly to the elections of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and eventually to Speaker Newt Gingrich and President George W. Bush. The Fort Sumter Tea Party has never accepted the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency. A huge chunk of the right wing has subjected the first African-American president to massive abuse, name-calling, vicious threats.

Unfortunately, due to John Boehner’s lack of leadership in the House, the tea party minority faction now dictates policy and rhetoric to the entire GOP. This means that the GOP continues to try to delegitimize, defund and delay Obamacare. They have spent the last 5 years trying to keep poor and working Americans from getting health care. This is wrong, it’s immoral, and it’s very undemocratic, since Barack Obama was re-elected by a large margin.

But as I write this, the GOP has taken our nation to the brink of disaster, holding our economy hostage to extort the Senate and the president to defund or delay Obamacare. The GOP is holding our hospitals hostage. They’re holding our universities hostage. They’re holding the Smithsonian Museum, Grand Canyon National Park, the baby panda cam at the National Zoo hostage — along with our slowly recovering economy, the same one they drove into the ditch with their deregulated free market fantasies five years ago.

Don’t let them get away with it, President Obama, Sen. Reid. Don’t let them nullify Obamacare. Don’t let them shut down our fragile economy. I can’t end this column without making one more point. During his filibuster, Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) read from the Dr. Seuss classic “Green Eggs and Ham.”

Now, I know a bit about “Green Eggs and Ham.” Some readers are no doubt old enough to remember the night I read this great story on the air, during a “Saturday Night Live” skit. (Look it up; it’s a funny bit!) I know the story of “Green Eggs and Ham.” But Sen. Cruz must not. Apparently, he doesn’t understand that the story is about a loud, stubborn character who rejects something based entirely on looks, without even trying it. When he’s finally convinced to taste it, he discovers, much to his surprise, that he likes it.

In the book, the dish on the table is “Green Eggs and Ham.” In America today, the issue on the table is Obamacare. Maybe the Republicans should let people try the new health care law before they hold the economy hostage in an attempt to nullify it.

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. is president/CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. See more at: http://rainbowpush.org/commentaries/single/the_real_lesson_of_green_eggs_and_ham#sthash.flGrTEsl.dpuf

Health Care Sign Ups Begin Amidst Government Shutdown
White House Outlines Health Benefits for African-Americans

By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) came fully into the law this week amidst desperate political acts to stop it from happening – including a Republican-led government shutdown which could last for days, weeks or even longer.

In a nutshell, the closure of certain government offices and services has taken place as of midnight Monday after a divided Congress failed to reach an agreement to fund federal agencies. Amidst bitter disagreements over the ACA, the Republican-led Congress has allowed the closure of non-essential services of the U. S. Government in attempt to force the President to delay the effects of the health care law. But the President has refused.

Some parts of the ACA are already in effect, but this week, Americans can begin shopping for and signing up for full benefits by going to a recently created website, HeathCare.gov, to review the Health Insurance Marketplace. This website offers competing insurance agencies and help guide people to the best insurance choices for them.

Republicans in the House of Representatives, who argue that the ACA is too expensive for small businesses, continued their attempts to defund what they call “Obamacare” this week, but none of the political moves would pass the Democratically-led Senate. Even if it did, President Obama has promised to veto it. The ACA sign up, which started Tuesday, Oct. 1, is encouraged by President Obama despite government closures.

“The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. That funding is already in place.  You can’t shut it down,” he told reporters in a briefing Monday. “This is a law that passed both houses of Congress; a law that bears my signature; a law that the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional; a law that voters chose not to repeal last November.”

The White House recently released a detailed report listing the benefits of the ACA to African-Americans. Those benefits include:

• Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act will provide 6.8 million uninsured African-Americans an opportunity to get affordable health insurance coverage.
• Already, an estimated 7.3 million African-Americans with private insurance now have access to expanded preventive services with no cost sharing. These services include well-child visits, blood pressure and cholesterol screenings, Pap tests and mammograms for women, and flu shots for children and adults.
• The 4.5 million elderly and disabled African-Americans who receive health coverage from Medicare also have access to many preventive services with no cost-sharing, including annual wellness visits with personalized prevention plans, diabetes and colorectal cancer screening, bone mass measurement and mammograms
• More than 500,000 young African-American adults between ages 19 and 25 who would otherwise have been uninsured now have coverage under their parent’s employer-sponsored or individually purchased health plan.
• Major federal investments to improve quality of care are improving management of chronic diseases more prevalent among African-Americans.
• The health care workforce will be more diverse due to a near tripling of the National Health Service Corps. African-American physicians make up about 17 percent of Corps physicians, a percentage that greatly exceeds their 6 percent share of the national physician workforce.
• Investments in data collection and research will help establish greater clarity on the causes of health care disparities and develop effective programs to eliminate them.
• Targeted interventions, such as community transformation grants, will promote healthy lifestyles, lower health care costs, and reduce health disparities.
• Increased funding available to more than 1,100 community health centers will increase the number of patients served. One of every five patients at a health center is African American.
• States have new opportunities to expand Medicaid coverage to include Americans with family incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level (generally $31,322 for a family of four in 2013). This expansion includes adults without dependent children living at home, who have not previously been eligible in most states.

As the ACA takes effect, factions of Congress continued to wrangle over budgetary matters with hopes to reopen the government as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the President has made it clear the ACA is non-negotiable as he outlined the effects of the government shutdown.

“If the United States Congress does not fulfill its responsibility to pass a budget today, much of the United States government will be forced to shut down tomorrow,” President Obama said Monday. “And I want to be very clear about what that shutdown would mean - what will remain open and what will not.”

He first ticked off the services that will continue:

• If you’re on Social Security, you will keep receiving your checks.
• If you’re on Medicare, your doctor will still see you.
• Everyone’s mail will still be delivered.
• Government operations related to national security or public safety will go on.
• Military troops will continue to serve and will be paid.
• Air traffic controllers, prison guards, those who are with border control will remain on their posts, but their paychecks will be delayed until the government reopens.

Then, he listed the shutdowns.

• NASA will shut down almost entirely, but Mission Control will remain open to support the astronauts serving on the Space Station.
• Office buildings would close.  Paychecks would be delayed.
• Several hundred thousand workers will be immediately and indefinitely furloughed without pay.
• Some vital services that seniors and veterans, women and children, businesses and the economy depend on “would be hamstrung,” the President said. Those services include some programs that provide health meals to 2.5 million seniors; compensation, pension and education benefits for veterans and nutrition assistance to mothers with young children. An estimated $10 could be lost if the shutdown lasts a week.
• Business owners would see delays in raising capital, seeking infrastructure permits, or rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy.
• Veterans support centers will go unstaffed.
• Federal tourist destinations, such as national parks, monuments, including the Smithsonian and the Statue of Liberty, will be closed. Cleanup crews and concession workers will also be laid off.

These closures will affect “communities and small businesses that rely on these national treasures for their livelihoods will be out of customers,” said Obama. He appeared especially concerned about how the shutdown will affect furloughed people already fighting a struggling economy.

“What, of course, will not be furloughed are the bills that they have to pay - their mortgages, their tuition payments, their car notes,” the President said. “These Americans are our neighbors. Their kids go to our schools. They worship where we do. They serve their country with pride. They are the customers of every business in this country.  And they would be hurt greatly, and as a consequence, all of us will be hurt greatly, should Congress choose to shut the people’s government down.”

Oct. 6, 2013

Women of the Civil Rights Movement
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Last week, I attended yet another funeral of an important civil rights figure.  Generally, when we say that, we’re talking about a man.  This time, I am talking about a woman who was the spouse of a very important civil rights figure, but this figure is a woman who was referred to in the celebration as “General”—which means she, too, was in charge of something important.  No matter what we read or hear at events where civil rights figures are remembered, rarely is the story of a woman of the Civil Rights Movement is lifted up.

On Tuesday, October 2, 2013, things were different.  Hundreds of people turned out at the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College for the Celebration of Life of Evelyn Gibson Lowery.  While she was the spouse of Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, she was a woman worthy of honor not only for what she endured as the spouse of a civil rights icon, but also for what she did to make ours a better world.

Among the many well-know figures turning out to honor Mrs. Lowery were Dr. John Wilson, Jr.—President of Morehouse College; Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed; Martin Luther King, III; Dick Gregory;  Xernona Clayton,—Founder and CEO of the Trumpet Awards Foundation; Bernice King; Dr. Christine King Farris—Associate Professor of Education at Spelman College; Ambassador Thandi Luthuli  Gcabashe of South Africa; Dr. Carlton Brown—President of Clark Atlanta University;  Rev. Al Sharpton and numerous members of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc.  There were wonderful messages of remembrance from President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, from Attorney General Eric Holder and more.

The Cascade United Methodist Church Mass Choir, Jennifer Holliday and Cassandra Davis provided great music, but I was especially moved by the tribute in song paid Mrs. Lowery by her three daughters—Yvonne Lowery Kennedy, Karen Gale Lowery and Cheryl Jo Lowery as their voices rang out with “Total Praise”—which was followed by Bishop Woodie White’s masterful sermon.

Mrs. Lowery worked in the Civil Rights Movement by her husband’s side, but she did more.  She highlighted the contributions of women in the Movement who often went unnoticed.  When her husband was elected to head the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), she began concentrating on the often unnoticed contributions of women in the Movement.  Being passionate about the issues greatly impacting women and children, in 1979, Mrs. Lowery brought together a group of women and gave birth to SCLC/W.O.M.E.N. (Women’s Organizational Movement for Equality Now).  She remained its National Convener from its inception until the time of her death.  She started the first national conference on “The Survival of the Black Family”.  In 1980, she added a national conference for youth.  In 1981, she added a golf tournament and both events served as fundraisers for the programs of SCLC/W.O.M.E.N, Inc.  Mrs. Lowery believed in the recognition of others and thus created the Drum Major for Justice Awards Banquet.  She was so concerned about recognition of others that she led in erecting at least 13 monuments along the civil rights trail—and was in the process of developing the 14^th monument in Montgomery, Alabama to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

She addressed issues of AIDS/HIV education, GED and computer training, mentoring girls, and Christmas parties for children and seniors.  Because she personally invited me to work with her on some of her programs, I’m very much aware of the work she did on voter education, registration and get-out- the- vote efforts.  Just as she arranged for young people to learn their history on civil rights tours, so we must continue to preserve our history by highlighting women like Evelyn G. Lowery.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is National Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc.  www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788)

To Be Equal 
Affordable Health Care Arrives October 1
By Marc H. Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Nearly 6 in 10 uninsured Americans will be able to get coverage for $100 or less.” President Barack Obama

We fought and won a battle three years ago to improve access to affordable health care for every American and finally it’s here.  On Tuesday of this week a key component of the Affordable Care Act was set to take effect when the new Health Insurance Marketplace opens for business, allowing millions of Americans to shop for a variety of quality, affordable health plans that best meet their needs.

Here is how it works.  First, if you are among the vast majority of Americans who already have health insurance that you like, you can keep it and you don’t have to change a thing. The only changes you will see are new benefits, better protections from insurance company abuses and more value for every dollar you spend on health care.  For example, you can no longer be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition and you can’t be canceled because you get sick.  Young people can be covered by their parents up to age 26.  Most people will now be eligible for free preventive screenings like blood pressure and cholesterol tests, mammograms, and colonoscopies.  Insurance companies will no longer be able to set a life-time dollar limit on what they spend for your essential health services. In addition, 47 million women will gain access to preventive health services.  The law makes it illegal to charge women different rates than men. And seniors on Medicare will have access to cheaper drugs, and free preventive care.

For the millions of Americans who currently have no health insurance, the new law offers a long-awaited lifeline of protection.  Beginning October 1, with a visit to the Health Insurance Marketplace at www.HealthCare.gov, you can learn if you can get lower costs based on your income, compare your coverage options side-by-side, and enroll.

When you use the Marketplace, or “health insurance exchange”, as it is also called, you'll fill out an application and see all the health plans available in your area. You'll provide some information about your household size and income to find out if you can get lower costs on your monthly premiums for private insurance plans. You'll learn if you qualify for lower out-of-pocket costs.

The Marketplace will also tell you if you qualify for free or low-cost coverage available through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  The open enrollment period runs from Tuesday, October 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014.  Coverage begins on January 1, 2014.   
You can also get help by phone, 24/7, by calling 1-800-318-2596.  And local help can be found by visiting LocalHelp.HealthCare.Gov.  President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, 2010.  It was upheld by the Supreme Court on June 28, 2012.  This week the law begins to take effect.  While there will inevitably be some start-up wrinkles to iron out, this law is good for the health of the American people and good for the Nation.  Congressional extremists bent on stopping its implementation are fighting a losing battle and only putting their own political futures at risk.  Obamacare is here to stay.