Tag Archives: politics

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Homeless and in College ~~ reminder


I know firsthand how hard it is to be a homeless college student. Please sign my petition calling on Congress to pass landmark legislation that would make it easier for homeless kids like me to go to college

by Jessie McCormick

.As a formerly homeless young person, I’m so proud to be in my final year attending college. It is estimated that only one out of four homeless youth graduates from high school, so achieving a post-secondary education is quite an accomplishment. However, the journey has not been easy.

I fought through my circumstances to go to college, because I knew that was my best chance for a road out of poverty. Now I’m fighting to make it easier for other young people like me to go to college, too.

The thousands of students who are homeless or foster youth in college often have to worry about where they will live during breaks when campus housing shuts down, often right before midterms or finals. I’ve heard about how some must jump through hoops to “prove” they are homeless every year or risk losing financial aid. And sometimes they cannot qualify for in-state tuition because they have no address. The list of barriers goes on and on, on top of the obvious: it’s really hard to get to college in the first place when you don’t even have a home.

Luckily, there is a new bill in Congress, the Higher Education Access and Success for Homeless and Foster Youth Act, that would make it much easier for students like me to go to college. Will you sign the Change.org petition I started with two other homeless students urging Congress to pass this landmark legislation?

Being homeless in college hasn’t been easy. Other students go home to their families for Christmas, but I would need to spend weeks trying to find a housing plan for the coldest time of year. Sometimes, offers to go home with friends would fall through last minute. Several years, I spent parts or all of school breaks outside or wandering around my city of Grand Rapids.

Finally, I started a successful campaign on Change.org to change my school’s policies about break housing — and I am proud to say that my college, Aquinas College, is now a leader in taking the initiative to develop safe and effective solutions for students like me.

I have seen firsthand how powerful collective action can be, but I have friends who continue to spend their breaks wandering the streets, and I have seen dozens of my fellow homeless students drop out of their studies after encountering traumatic situations. We need to harness that power of collective action now that this crucial legislation has its first real chance of passing Congress.

Will you sign our petition calling on Congress to pass the bill that would make it much easier for homeless and foster kids to go to college?

I am just one student, and there are thousands of young people in your own community who are waiting for their chance to shine. On behalf of all of us, please consider giving us our opportunity to rise above.

Thank you,

Jessie McCormick
Grand Rapids, Michigan

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

South Carolina …do you have a history of exiling the Homeless ? reminder


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Carolina City Approves Plan To Exile Its Homeless

 

via @thinkprogress

 

~ my 2cents ..., ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

TGIF thoughts as Barack Obama returns to citizen


Reality vs. Fabrication

TGIF to everyone and Thank you for reading my blog … rants

I admit I want to cry be sad that so many drank the #trumpkool-aid and voted for a man who quite possibly will be the worst president ever. I will post over and over how much Barack Obama will be missed. In this era of trump, we must refuse to sit back,  or give up the fight! Please be alert, challenge mainstream media, political entertainers, pundits on/in the airwaves as the news creeps up on the blurriness of truth, political, edited and alternative fact-based.

The high expectations and or higher standard people put on President Obama are points of contention for any sane person and should make us all want to shake somebody but ranting seems a lot more therapeutic…

So, not that anyone needs to be reminded but, the house of Bush gave tax breaks to the wealthy in 2001 sold as a stimulus or that ever-popular republican phrase “trickle-down economics/theory” and again in 2003 when he invested ” in 2 Wars count them t-w-o, which resulted in massive debt and a quick trip to the road of recession just short of a huge depression, actually it was huge. I have to say now that it’s 2016 many parts of America have NOT felt the recovery, which quite possibly is because Republicans refused to help folks in certain area codes… is anyone paying attention! If you dig deep some governors misused, abused and or plugged their budgets with stimulus funds.  While you may NOT want to believe it, Bush allowed his government to spend $$ like a “drunken soldier,” lest we talk or question Bush’s inability to regulate his financial House/banks which led us into an effing ditch!

White the party of Barack Obama tried to move Americans into the 21st Century, most of us thought it was obvious we couldn’t afford to go backward and who would want to because Republicans don’t seem or didn’t seem to believe in inclusion, fairness, or fair share… a phrase that will always ring true to most who lean left of center: Republicans do not have our best interests in their minds or hearts and what better evidence is there then the constant NO votes that could have gotten us out of a number of crisis sooner rather than later, lest we talk about the many short term deals made between Ds and Rs that used to be 1-2yrs now only last weeks and or a month because of a group of seemingly racist men and women who continue to behave unlike any Congress ever since bush left. Tell me …prove to me it isn’t about race.

TGIF, my first post was six years ago,i tweaked it and while it’s now 2016, it has been a long week of clichés we all indulge in and some we can laugh at though most are very accurate as our workweek ends on this day and President Obama becomes a regular citizen again. The thing is, the #workweek didn’t end for President Obama, he has been at work getting our economy back on track for less than two years, and though pundits,cable heads and of course republicans would have you believe progress  is not happening, they are wrong. The recovery has had many obstacles placed in the way of this President, some include members of the Democratic Party, called Conservadems btw which is very odd yet should give the public a better view of how hard this whole thing was going to be. If anyone remembers at all, our then young Obama and candidate for President stated many times that he cannot get the change we believe in or need alone. It still is true that the change we need is one that everyone has to take part in which means that independents should be calling legislators to act in the best interest of the people, stop stalling, holding back and up appointments the President has a right to have to govern.

 

Speaking of governing, in a year of major elections that will change how our Congress looks many Economists state few in Congress have the courage to commit to change and act boldly to get America straightened out. If you listen to those pushing the negative poll numbers at us, should we all give up just because they say so, this is not the time for democratic supporters, voters the 53% that put this President in office to now turn their backs. The fact is we have 2 political parties and one nation under god but Republicans have forgotten that and have instead set out on a mission to not only bring down this President but in doing so will take the rest of us down with them.

 

We have Republicans who continue to be obstructionists along with a couple of members of the Democratic Party and that being said, people need reminding. The President was given the worst economy since the depression and has pulled the US back from the ditch that we all faced; actually, a huge percentage of people did fall into that ditch and are now collateral damage the house of Bush failed to stop while he was still in office. In fact, most of the people I talk to cannot even remember where he was after the announcement of just how bad a crisis we were in before this President took over. The President had an agenda during the 2008 campaign that did not include a complete financial crisis. The Mccain/Palin ticket said oh our economy is fundamentally sound and that was the first sign as to whom we all needed to vote into office. The facts slowly came out and we probably have not heard all the truth which means things obviously were worse than they knew people on the right keep trying to hold this President to the original numbers; the fact is everything is relative and the numbers have to adjusted folks. The President can give Congress an agenda but it is up to them to move us into the 21st Century, which means creating and voting on legislation that will put those laws on the books but they continue to say no or treat them as failures.

 

There have been major changes not failures made by this President and reports of him being weak are just a joke that Americans needed to fight.  The verbal beat downs that people on the right are engaging in… and while we said please who has time for that; unfortunately this ish worked though it was obvious President Obama was not only too busy saving our asses, he wanted republicans to side and act for the “greater good.” which they opted out of for 8yrs. I preferred then and am happy now that his choice was to make progress into the 21st Century and when the move stops we must challenge him or those who continue to stall block and vote against it.

 

The progress President Obama and our Congress has made seldom got the airtime it should which is annoying, disappointing but what is even more sad to hear that the President’s own advisors pleaded with him to give up on Health Care Reform, we all should be thankful he did not listen as there are at least twenty million plus who have never had healthcare, had it but lost a job or are now stabilized because they qualified for Medicare due to the ACA rules and policies

  – Nativegrl77

 

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Stop Spraying Pesticides in State Marine Waters


CHP Washington State Banner

Don’t let large corporate shellfish growers poison our marine waters with the pesticides Imazamox and Imidicloprid!

ducks4.jpgTake Action Button

As Washingtonians, we all enjoy having salmon, waterfowl, diverse marine life and bees as part of our world.

Large corporate shellfish growers’ efforts to spray pesticides in our marine waters to increase unsustainable shellfish production threatens a myriad of aquatic life.

Both, protected native and non-native eelgrass will be eradicated, migratory waterfowl food sources will be eliminated, salmon smolts will lose important cover and bees will be exposed to a destructive neurotoxin that has been blamed for colony collapse disorder all over the world.

Send a message to the Washington Department of Ecology today: “Do not approve the spraying of Imazamox, Imidicloprid or any toxic chemicals in Washington marine waters.” We need to protect our marine life and human health. The proposed spraying will add to the chemical burden of years of spraying the pesticides Glyphosate, Imazapyr and Carbaryl on Willapa Bay shellfish areas.  The WA State Attorney General already referred to Willapa Bay as “chemical soup” in a 2012 motion for summary judgment.

Your comments will lend a voice to prevent destruction of wildlife that cannot speak for itself. The Dept. of Ecology will take note if thousands of citizens tell them we noticed and care about their actions. 

Thank you for all that you do for Washington’s environment and human health.

Dorothy Walker, Sierra Club
Washington State Marine Ecosystem Campaign
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

What does Social Security mean to you?


In one of the first acts of this session of Congress, House Republicans adopted a rule that manufactured a crisis in Social Security. Their hope is to use a manmade catastrophe in the Social Security Disability program as a Trojan horse for their attacks on Social Security as a whole.

We’re not going to let them win. Social Security has served our nation in good stead for nearly 80 years. It works, and it will continue to work so long as Republicans don’t break this sacred promise.

I want to tell my Republican colleagues exactly what an end to Social Security would mean to the American people. Help me by sharing your stories — click this link, and tell me how Social Security helps your family.

Thanks,

Ed