Oct. 29, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After three weeks of chaos, the Republicans got their man. In a party-line vote, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was finally elected speaker of the House, with Johnson receiving the votes of all 220 Republicans who cast a ballot while all 209 Democrats present voted for Hakeem Jeffries.

During his first speech as the 56^th speaker of the House, Johnson vowed to “rebuild and restore” the trust of the American people, which he acknowledged had been damaged by the turmoil of recent weeks. “We want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations. Let the enemies of freedom around the world hear us loud and clear: The People’s House is back in business.”

As the American people listen to Johnson and all factions making up the House Republican caucus, it is obvious that the internal enemies to America’s freedom and democracy are a greater threat than those from around the world. As the House members report back to duty, it is not simply a House divided between Democrats and Republicans, but Republicans versus Republicans.

The negotiations and compromises by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy resulted in a bipartisan temporary funding bill, which ultimately passed with more Democratic than Republican votes. One small act of leadership and bipartisanship triggered a motion to remove McCarthy. Hard-right Republicans turned on McCarthy just as they had turned on Paul Ryan and John Boehner. Former Speaker Boehner was previously threatened with a motion to vacate but escaped the removal process.

Johnson was the party’s fourth nominee to replace the ousted McCarthy. The previous nominees, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Rep. Jim Jordan, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, failed to unite a dysfunctional Republican caucus. The Republicans went as far as to blame the Democrats for failing to throw McCarthy a lifeline to save his job. While the predictions of a Republican red wave never materialized in the 2022 midterm election, the GOP still flipped the House, resulting in a small majority. Despite becoming the majority party in control, Republicans continue to show they remain the “party of no.” Seeing how the extreme factions of the party have taken control, few agents of unity remain within the GOP.

Therefore, is it realistic to believe that the new House speaker will have the ability to “restore and rebuild” trust after the American people witnessed how a bitterly divided GOP caucus used bullying tactics and death threats against their members over speaker votes? If there is no respect for their fellow GOP members when they disagree with each other, how can any responsible person lead this group while working in a bipartisan fashion with the Democrats when the circumstance of the nation calls for it?

With either their support or opposition to the advancement of critical legislation, the individual who holds the House speaker’s position has tremendous power that can impact the lives of every American. Therefore, any American who stands for democracy and against authoritarianism cannot trust Johnson, who, like Jordan, supported Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections. While some will passionately vote for the protection of the Second Amendment, the same degree of passion needs to be given to the Fourteenth Amendment.

A key element of the Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship to all persons “born or naturalized in the United States,” including formerly enslaved people, and provides all citizens with “equal protection under the laws,” extending the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states. The amendment authorized the government to punish states that abridged citizens’ right to vote by proportionally reducing their representation in Congress. It banned those who “engaged in insurrection” against the United States from holding any civil, military, or elected office without the approval of two-thirds of the House and Senate.

Donald Trump and his allies consistently promoted the idea of massive voter fraud and irregularities in big cities and counties with large populations of people of color. It is the votes of minority voters that Trump, Jordan, and Johnson sought to invalidate in cities such as Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. Therefore, we cannot overlook the Fourteenth Amendment concerning the new speaker. Johnson had argued Biden’s win was bogus, and he appeared to pressure 125 House Republicans to join him in filing a brief to the Supreme Court supporting a Texas lawsuit to overturn Biden’s win in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He told them Donald Trump was watching.

 To end this chaos, the Democrats must flip the House back to the Democrats and make Hakeem Jeffries the House speaker.

David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America. He can be reached at www.davidwmarshallauthor.com

Oct. 1, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Unless warring factions of Republicans in the House of Representatives can come to their senses, the United States government will shut down next Sunday. Some may not notice – we tend to rely on government only when we are in need. But the impact – and the hurt – will be immediate – and will grow over time. Nearly a million federal employees will be furloughed and sent home without pay until there is a resolution. Everything we rely on from the government will slow down or be halted. Home mortgage and loan applications will be delayed.

The inability to get government permits will impede everything from commercial fishing to health research to visas and passports. National parks will struggle to stay open, but they will overflow with human waste. Health and scientific research will be disrupted. As we continue to get hit with extreme weather, the emergency help provided by the government will start to run out. Some vital services will continue. The military will stay on the job – although civilian defense workers will either be sent home or work without pay. Social Security and Medicare checks will go out – but the newly retired are likely to find their applications delayed. As always, the vulnerable will be hurt the most. The janitors that clean offices, the food workers that serve food in cafeterias, the security guards who provide safety and others who work for government contractors will not be paid – and may never be paid for what they lose. Many of these earn poverty wages. Their families will suffer if they lose income for a few days, much less a few weeks.

The White House reports that 10,000 children from low-income families would lose access to the Head Start preschool program. Pell grants will continue, but new applications will be delayed. An extended delay will constrict federal aid to schools, parks, police, and arts programs. Families living in public housing will get hit. With HUD employees sent home, funding to fix furnaces, roofs, and windows will be disrupted. As contracts for low-income housing expire, HUD will be unable to renew them. Those seeking to start a new business will be unable to secure loans from the Small Business Administration. Subcontractors across the country – the smaller businesses that supply vital services to bigger government contractors – will go without pay; many will be forced to the edge. This shutdown – if it occurs – will be worse than the one that took place when Donald Trump was president. At that time, Congress had passed appropriations for several major agencies – from the Defense Department to the Department of Education. They continued to operate as normal. This time, the House has failed to pass any appropriations bill.

Republicans could not even agree on a Defense Appropriations Bill to send to the Senate. The threat comes directly from the chaos in the Republican Party. This isn’t a battle between the parties. The Republican majority in the House hasn’t even begun to negotiate with the Democratic majority in the Senate. Republicans can’t agree among themselves on what to pass, with their leaders held hostage by an extreme right that even Republican House members call the “clown show.” The objectors claim to be concerned about deficits but that’s not true. Any serious effort on deficits would have to include reversing the deep tax cuts given to the rich and getting control of soaring medical and defense spending. The objectors want more tax breaks for the wealthy, more money for the Pentagon, and oppose even modest steps to rein in prescription drug costs. Their main target is any provision that goes to the vulnerable. Republicans already blocked extension of the child tax credit that reduced childhood poverty by 40 percent during the pandemic.

Now they want to cut aid to schools, food stamps, support for low-cost housing, Pell grants for students and more – and, of course, reverse Biden’s programs to rebuild our infrastructure or begin to deal with the climate crisis. In order to avoid a government default on our debt earlier this year, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated an agreement with Joe Biden on funding levels for the coming year. Now the zealots in McCarthy’s party refuse to abide by that deal. McCarthy could sidestep them and put together a majority, drawing from the bulk of his party and moderate Democrats, but he refuses to reach out to Democrats. The result: a handful of right-wing zealots are barreling toward forcing a shutdown of the entire government.

Efforts will be made this week simply to pass a short-term “continuing resolution (CR).” That would fund the government at current levels for a few weeks or months providing more time to figure a way out. Hopefully, there are enough sensible Republicans in the House to join with Democrats to pass the CR and keep the government running. Millions will suffer if that doesn’t happen – and they will suffer for no good reason at all.

Sept. 3, 2023 

Lee Saunders 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - As we celebrated Labor Day, it was an exciting a time as any in recent memory to be a part of a union. Working people are seeing what the union difference is all about, and they want to be a part of it.

Unions are overwhelmingly popular as the newest Gallup poll on attitudes toward labor unions shows.

Across the country, there is a bold surge of worker activism, as more people raise their voice on the job and claim their seat at the table. Workers are organizing with renewed vigor and winning some of our best contracts in decades. In the cultural sector, for example, 6,000 workers at museums, libraries, zoos and other cultural institutions have joined AFSCME since 2019. Municipal workers in New Orleans – a part of the country that hasn’t historically been labor-friendly – won collective bargaining rights this summer.

In city after city, we are seeing that same energy and enthusiasm during local job fairs that AFSCME is sponsoring as part of “Staff the Front Lines” – our new initiative to recruit qualified people for vacancies in public service. Job seekers are flocking to these hiring events in droves – nearly 200 people showed up in Philadelphia on a recent Monday afternoon.

They have heard our message that public service jobs are good jobs that can support a family and provide a career path. These are very often union jobs that come with strong protections, plus a unique sense of solidarity and fellowship with your co-workers. You get excellent benefits, including a pension so you can one day retire with dignity. These are also jobs with a purpose that allow you to make a difference in the lives of your neighbors.

Our strategy is working. After a huge drop in public sector employment during the pandemic, we are seeing a bounce back, especially in places where we enjoy strong partnerships with employers. Those best-in-decades contracts we’re negotiating are helping retain valued public service workers. And many employers are making steady progress bringing in new people who want to do work that strengthens their communities, while enjoying the rights and freedoms of union membership. Nationwide, July was the 16th consecutive month of growth in state and local government jobs, with a total of 315,000 added since the beginning of this year.

But there are still many positions to fill, and so we are casting a wide net. In many places, we are doing grassroots outreach to young people, to communities of color and to populations that are underrepresented in these jobs. That means, for example, working with faith leaders, asking them to spread the word in their churches and mosques that public service employers are looking for new talent – for nurses, corrections officers, sanitation workers, school bus drivers and more. We will do what it takes, because it’s critical that the public service workforce look like our communities.

Diversity in the public service has a rich history. Jobs in state and local government have been an economic lifeline for generations of Black people, especially when other doors of opportunity were slammed shut. This is my family’s story, so this is personal for me. My father drove a city bus in Cleveland, Ohio – a good union job that gave us some modest security and stability. We weren’t living on Easy Street for sure, but there was food on the table for dinner and a roof over my head at night.

We want to give more people of all races that chance – the chance to be one of the everyday heroes of public service, the chance to be a part of something bigger than yourself by joining a union.

This Labor Day, we honored the sacrifice of all working people. And we affirmed that life is better in a union. In the months and years to come, through “Staff the Front Lines” and other campaigns, we will keep fighting to help more people discover the union difference.

Lee Saunders is president, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

August 29, 2023

Martin Luther King III speaks as his wife, Andrea Waters King, and daughter, Yolanda King, prepare to march alongside him. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News Wire

Rev. Al Sharpton gives the last speech before leading the march from the Lincoln Memorial to the King Memorial. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News Wire

March on Washington 2023. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News Wire

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Sixty years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood at Lincoln Memorial and offered his dream for a racially diverse America, his 15-year-old granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King, said her generation is ready to carry MLK’s unfinished legacy in new ways.

While the size of the crowd on Saturday was a fraction of the 250,000 people who gathered in Washington on August 28, 1963, the gathering was more diverse and those who spoke said racial and economic challenges were more daunting than ever before.

“If I could speak to my grandfather today, I would say I’m sorry we still have to be here to rededicate ourselves to finishing your work and ultimately realizing your dream,” she said. “Today, racism is still with us. Poverty is still with us. And now, gun violence has come for places of worship, our schools, and our shopping centers.”

Miss King’s speech came before her father, Martin Luther King III, and Rev. Al Sharpton spoke. They,  along with her mother Andrea Waters King,  organized the event that brought thousands to the nation’s capital to essentially continue the 1963 fight for freedom, justice and equality.

Martin Luther King III said, “I’m very concerned about the direction our country is going in. And it is because instead of moving forward, it feels as if we’re moving back. The question is, what are we going to do?”

In his speech, Sharpton said it is time to push back against racial and social injustices at a time when conservatives are fighting more than ever to turn back the clock.

“Sixty years ago Martin Luther King talked about a dream. Sixty years later we’re the dreamers. The problem is we’re facing the schemers,” Sharpton said. “The dreamers are fighting for voting rights. The schemers are changing voter regulations in states. The dreamers are standing up for women’s right to choose. The schemers are arguing whether they are going to make you stop at six weeks or 15 weeks...They are trying to tell gays to go back in the closet but we are not going back in the closet,” said Sharpton. "We are going to stand up for who we are and where we are and what we are and we are going to make changes. They are not going to turn back the clock. “

Like at the August 28th, 1963 March on Washington, busloads of people rolled into DC from Detroit, Cleveland, and Atlanta while others  drove in or flew in from cities across the country.

Dr. Ben Chavis, President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association didn't speak at the March but had a special moment when he ran into Larry Hirsh, a Jewish man who recognized him.

“We were here 60 years ago and we were both 15,” Chavis said. “As I reflect on the last 60 years there is a tendency to underestimate the progress we have made,” Chavis said. We still have problems, racism is still alive, antisemitism is still alive and hatred is still alive however we have made significant progress.”

In her speech, young Yolanda King challenged veterans of the movement.

“All my life we have worried about environmental Justice for communities of color and under-resourced people but this summer we will be worried about global boiling,” she said. “We need to do more than to end racism on our planet, we need to do more than to end poverty on our planet,  we need to save our planet.”

On Sunday, Rev. Sharpton told students at Howard University’s Rankin Chapel that African-Americans have come far since the 1963 March on Washington but often they can't believe what is being said about people of color.

Sharpton, who quoted from the 13th chapter of Numbers in the Old Testament, said the problem with the children of Israel was not the size of their enemies but they were reading a bad report.

“And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come of the giants. And we were in our sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight,” he quoted Numbers 13:33.

“The problem we had in America is that we were getting a bad report, we had a grasshopper complex,” Sharpton said. “Sixty years ago we came to Washington in the back of the bus because they couldn't ride in the front, they came with paper bags because they couldn't stop in the road to eat in a restaurant. It was against the law. They had to go into the woods to relax and release their bodies because they couldn't use the toilet.”

Sharpton said after the March he learned about the fatal shooting of three Blacks by a white man with an AK-47 at a Family Dollar in Jacksonville Florida.

“This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people," Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters told reporters at a press conference. Reports say that the assailant attempted to enter Edward Waters College, an HBCU, but was turned away.

“Before we could rest, hate jumped back up again to remind us,” said Sharpton who reminded the students that despite the oppression African Americans have endured there were “some folks who didn't have a grasshopper complex.”

Sharpton’s message was proceeded by musical selection by the student choir that included one of Martin Luther King’s favorite songs: “If I Could Help Somebody. Then my living shall not be in vain.”

Sharpton reminded the students that their parents, and grandparents sacrificed so they could come to Howard, which just completed its first week of classes. "Don’t forget that people paid a price for you."

Sharpton reminded the students that in their lifetime, “We have elected the first Black President, one of your alumni is the Vice President, and if you have faith over few things you can be rulers over much.”