Category: Counting the Cost

When John and Ann started working on January 1, 2013, John had something of an advantage. Because women earn 77 cents for every dollar John earns, it will take Ann until April 11, 2014 to earn the same amount of money that John earned in the calendar year of 2013. The issue of unequal pay is so pressing that President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act 50 years ago. While we have “come a long way, baby”, the pay gap has remained stubborn. This is why President Barack Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act as soon as he assumed office.

I love voting. Every time I go into the booth, I see little girl me, pigtails and all, plaid skirt, white blouse and green sweater… part of my Catholic school uniform. Most of my family were democrats, though my grandmother voted Republican a time or two because “Lincoln freed the slaves.” In 1960 I had the privilege of pulling the lever to elect John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the candidate that the nuns at Immaculate Conception Elementary School rhapsodized over.

If you missed the news about the disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370 over the Indian Ocean, you must have been buried in sand. For two weeks we have been bombarded with theories–was it terrorism? Pilot error? Something else?

In a world that is dominated by men, especially White men, feminism is, for me, an empowering concept. It is a movement, which in the United States—according to Wiki, is aimed at “defining, establishing and defending equal social, economic and political rights for women.” It is certainly possible to argue that women have come a long way, but while we out-enroll men in college attendance, we don’t out earn them, no matter our level of education. We don’t out-represent them in elected office, or even in the higher echelons of employment, such as the Fortune 500 corporations. Women are doing better than we ever did and we still have a long way to go.

During his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama promised to use the power of his pen to achieve the policy objectives that Congress continues to block. After advocating fairness and being rebuffed by Congress, the president chose to use the power of his pen to require federal contractors to pay workers at least $10.10 per hour, or $21,800 per year. That puts a single parent with two children below the poverty line.

Since March is Women’s History month, who are the women you are celebrating? Do you know about Elizabeth Keckley? Maggie Lena Walker, Sarann Knight Preddy, Gertrude Pocte Geddes-Willis, Trish Millines Dziko, Addie L. Wyatt or Marie-Therese Metoyer? What about Ernesta Procope, Dr. Sadie Alexander, Or Dr. Phyllis Wallace? What about Bettiann Gardner, Lillian Lambert, or Emma Chappell? What about Ellen Holly, Mary Alice, or Edmonia Lewis? If we knew anything about these women, it might cause all of us, African American men and women, to walk a bit more lightly, hold our heads a bit higher, and revel in the accomplishments of our foremothers and fathers.

President Barack Obama has announced My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative to help young Black and Brown men succeed in the east wing of the White House. Many present described the announcement of this initiative as “an emotional moment” for President Obama and for many of the others gathered there.

In the years after enslavement ended, Southern Whites did all they could to return to a manner of slavery. No White person “owned” a Black person, but many behaved as if they did.

Had he not massacred Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman would be an average White man holding down a mediocre job, living under the radar, and aspiring for a law enforcement job. He and his wife would probably be divorcing (as they are now) on account of his brutality (she cites his beatings in her divorce proceedings). Nobody, but nobody, would know his name or give a hoot about him.

In President Barack Obama’s State of the Union (SOU) address, he appealed to our nation’s employers to raise wages from the current minimum of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour.