Class-Action Discrimination Case Against Wal-Mart

The following is an excerpt from an Associated Press article published June 22.

Click HERE to learn more about this vital case against Wal-Mart, one of the biggest abusers of today's greedy corporate environment in America.



Judge approves class-action discrimination case against Wal-Mart

By David Kravets, Associated Press, 6/22/2004 11:31

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A federal judge on Tuesday approved class-action status for a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that has become the largest private civil rights case in U.S. history.

It could represent as many as 1.6 million current and former female employees of the retailing giant.

The suit alleges Wal-Mart created a system that frequently pays its female workers less than their male counterparts for comparable jobs and bypasses women for key promotions.

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, sought to limit the scope of the lawsuit that was filed three years ago.

Bridging the Gap for Health Care

Mark your calendars now: next SATURDAY, JUNE 19TH, tens of thousands of people--those who have health insurance and those who don't, those who fear losing coverage and those who have too little--will join together across the country to bridge the gap in health care.

I find it ironic and maddening that most states in this country have compulsory auto insurance and yet there is NO PLACE in the United States where health insurance is compulsory for everyone!! Our cars are more protected than our own health!



Click on the image above to learn why your participation in this movement is so important.

In the last 60 seconds, 5 people lost their health care coverage.

By this time tomorrow, 7,000 more will lose theirs.

8 out of 10 of the 44 million people who lack health insurance come from WORKING FAMILIES.

It's a national problem. We need a national solution. It's going to take a national action to help achieve it.



Click HERE to find an event near you to participate in Saturday, June 19th (there are currently 108 events scheduled in 40 states, with more being added by the hour).

Click HERE to learn more about the Bridging the Gap for Healthcare movement.

Reagan's Lies Will Live On, Too

The following are excerpts from an article written by George Hesselberg which I think presents an interesting perspective on the 40th President of the United States:

"Ronald Reagan, with his twinkling eyes and rouged cheeks, had a way of making people feel good, though there were often some hidden costs involved.

The exaggerations continue, even after his death."

"Besides spawning a couple of generations of right-wingers whose idea of public service was to find a way to cut benefits to poor people, Reagan gave astrologers some short-term credibility and was the best speech-giver the White House has ever seen.

(And while he was a hero to some of the elderly, he also, in 1983, signed into law a bill taxing Social Security benefits and increasing the retirement age.)"

"It [a list of Reagan's lies] was included in the September 2003 Washington Monthly, which printed a few of Reagan's doozies: His 1980 statement that "trees cause more pollution than automobiles do," his claim that he had served as a photographer in a U.S. Army unit assigned to film Nazi death camps (he never left Hollywood), and his claim in 1986 that "we did not, repeat, did not, trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we."

But the whopper that became legend, and was used to usher in welfare policy changes, is the story of the "welfare queen" living a life of lavish leisure while collecting welfare.

Reagan frequently told a version of the story in speeches, beginning in 1976, of the "Chicago welfare queen" who had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards, and collected benefits for "four nonexisting husbands," bilking the government out of "over $150,000."

Suddenly, the enduring image of a person on welfare became a black woman in a mink coat driving a Cadillac to pick up her welfare checks.

The real "Chicago welfare queen" used two aliases to collect $8,000 and didn't get away with it."

"The media tried to debunk it [Reagan's "welfare queen" lie], but it had mutated into common knowledge by the time a newspaper reporter, David Zucchino, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, spent a year with two welfare mothers in that city. The result in 1996 was a highly praised book, "The Myth of the Welfare Queen."

Click HERE to read the article in full.

NAACP Boycott of South Carolina

The display of the Confederate flag is costing South Carolina big-time.

The illuminated flag flies on the South Carolina State House grounds in Columbia near the Confederate Soldier monument and is located just 200 feet from the African-American Monument.

As James Gallman, president of the South Carolina Conference of Branches of the NAACP, said: "The racial attitudes that permeate the halls of government in South Carolina refuse to give way to more enlightened thinking. The common thread between this issue and the Confederate flag debate is the blatant disrespect for people of color in South Carolina."

PLEASE...I URGE YOU to join the NAACP in the South Carolina boycott until this symbol of racism and bigotry is removed from a position of sovereignty. Please do not travel to South Carolina and do not spend your hard-earned money there. I've talked previously about "voting with your wallet," and this is the quintessential opportunity for you to voice your opposition to this racist, hurtful and humiliating symbol in South Carolina.

There is no need for South Carolina to cling to and perpetuate its racist past. Until the state decides to take a bold and courageous stand against this symbol, racism and xenophobia will continue to flourish in South Carolina.



Above: The Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina

Click HERE to learn more about the NAACP boycott of South Carolina.

Click HERE to learn more about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

NAACP TO CONTINUE SOUTH CAROLINA ECONOMIC SANCTIONS

Kweisi Mfume, President & CEO, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), today said the economic sanctions being imposed on the South Carolina tourism industry would continue until the state General Assembly votes to remove the Confederate flag from a position of sovereignty.

"While the South Carolina General Assembly has taken an important step toward removing the Confederate flag from atop the Statehouse, actions by both the House and Senate fall far short of bringing finality to this issue," said Mfume.

Over the weekend and early today, NAACP officials met with legislative leaders in South Carolina in an attempt to convince the General Assembly to approve a consensus on legislation to remove the flag from a position of sovereignty.

"It is now time for the South Carolina General Assembly to amend the Senate proposal to remove the flag and approve one of three options: encase the flag in the Confederate relic room at the University of South Carolina, erect a granite and bronze monument emblazoned with an emblem of the flag or display the flag as one of several carried by South Carolinians during battle in the major wars."

The NAACP has worked to have the Confederate flag removed from a position of sovereignty since it was first flown atop the statehouse in 1962.

"Unfortunately," Mfume said, "the South Carolina legislature has chosen to avoid seriously working to resolve this issue until now. But the House vote to illuminate the flag on a 30-foot flagpole on the statehouse grounds was an insult and a slap in the face of all people who want an end to the division of the races in South Carolina over this issue. It's now up to the state Senate."

Mfume said the battle over the Confederate flag was always more than an issue of simply taking it down from the statehouse. The NAACP Board of Directors approved a resolution in 1999 that called for "the removal and relocation of the Confederate battle flag to a place of historical rather than sovereign context."

James Gallman, president of the South Carolina Conference of Branches of the NAACP, said: "The racial attitudes that permeate the halls of government in South Carolina refuse to give way to more enlightened thinking. The common thread between this issue and the Confederate flag debate is the blatant disrespect for people of color in South Carolina."

The South Carolina tourism industry has lost more than $100 million since economic sanctions were enforced beginning January 1, 2000. Many national and regional organizations and entertainers have canceled meetings in the state, including: the National Association of Federal and Postal Employees, the New York Knickerbockers basketball team, the American Bar Association, Southeast Conference United Church of Christ, the National Urban League, Progressive National Baptist Convention, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Founded in 1909, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter registration drives and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

Contact: NAACP Office of Communication 410-486-9227

"Make Gentle The Life of This World" - RFK

"It is simple to follow the easy and familiar path of personal ambition and private gain. It is more comfortable to sit content in the easy approval of friends and of neighbors than to risk the friction and the controversy that comes with public affairs. It is easier to fall in step with the slogans of others than to march to the beat of the internal drummer--to make and stand on judgments of your own. And it is far easier to accept and to stand on the past, than to fight for the answers of the future."

- Robert F. Kennedy