Browsing: Opinions

Retied Vocational Education Teacher

      As with many issues raised by this pandemic, the problem of hazard pay is fraught with deep, multiple inequities.  Like the compensation that traditionally remunerated particularly dangerous work in such fields as military service, mining, or construction, hazard pay was introduced early in the pandemic to recognize the risks and dangers that frontline essential workers face every day.  

Earth to Portland: Dispatch from the Nation’s Problem Child

     Come January 20, 2021, we will have a new President of the United States in Joseph Biden and the first female African American Vice President Kamala Harris. This election was a hard-fought, intense race full of division and emotion. But in the end, as a record number of voters turned out (in person and via mail), it was a fair and legal vote that now gives us a leader who has been a long-time friend of labor, and an individual who represents much needed progress for this country. I want to thank all my brothers and sisters from coast to coast for making sure our voices were heard in this election.

Friend,

       Now is the time for the people to stand up and fight back. Over the summer, we witnessed a historic rebellion that created the conditions that led to Trump’s defeat. Thousands have taken to the streets to defend the election results, and we must remain in the streets to stop Trump from stealing the presidency. The nation that has orchestrated dozens of coups overseas in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia is now witnessing Trump and his cronies’ attempting a coup here at home. We must follow the example of the people and national liberation movements like that in Bolivia who have defeated coups by mass demonstrations.

     Imagine an intervention of presidential losers in the Oval office—sitting in an oval—offering a wake-up call to the newest member of the losers’ club. Led by Jimmy Carter, who lost to Ronald Reagan in 1980, members include: Walter Mondale, (Mr. Reagan, 1984); Michael Dukakis, (George H.W. Bush, 1988); Bob Dole, (Bill Clinton, 1996); Al Gore* (George W. Bush, 2000); John Kerry, (Mr. Bush, 2004); Mitt Romney, (Barack Obama, 2012); and Hilary Clinton, (Mr. Trump, 2016). Cindy McCain might represent her late husband John to increase gender diversity, (Mr. Obama, 2008).

     Thanksgiving Day was Proclaimed by our very first Black President of America. His name was John Hanson. It was during the articles of confederation that Congress assembled in 1781-1782. In 1782 he Proclaimed November 28 to be known as Thanksgiving Day if you didn’t know. This information is just to enlighten you with a hidden History fact, of which we have many hidden from Black and Brown people and others.

  The Bureau of Prisons then detailed a plan for a new socially responsible residential reentry center in Ward 7 and awarded CORE DC the contract to run the center.

     “What is becoming clear each hour is that record numbers of Americans of all races, faiths and religions chose change over more of the same,  giving us a mandate for action on Covid-19, the economy, climate change, and systemic racism. They made it clear. They want the country to come together, not continue to pull apart,” says President-Elect Biden.