Equal Voice News online report on “2013 in Review: Congress Bickers, People Take Action” includes an interview with Charles Jenkins, a long-time community leader and Speakers Bureau member at CCH.
From reporter Maureen O’Hagan’s Dec. 17 report:
“In Illinois, the people are pushing for a living wage as well, through lobbying, signature-gathering, and acts of civil disobedience. In November, ‘Black Friday’ rallies in front of Wal-Mart, often cited as a major retailer paying low wages, led to a number of arrests.
“Charles Jenkins is among them. As an activist, he puts himself in the middle of every social justice campaign that hits Chicago.
“‘I may be out in the street in the morning at a rally, and then that afternoon I may be door-knocking or flyering or phone banking,’ he said. ‘Whatever moves the barometer a bit closer to a just society. You name it, we’ve done it,’ Jenkins said.
“He feels they’ve been successful, even though the minimum wage hasn’t budged. Legislation was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly earlier in 2013, calling for a series of increases. Meanwhile, in Chicago, advocates announced in December that they had gathered enough signatures to put a non-binding referendum on the city ballot.
“Jenkins is optimistic.
“‘I know it’s going to happen,’ he said. ‘It’s a tough grind, but I also know that when you (want to) make something happen, you don’t worry about how much work you had to put in yesterday, or today. You continue to stay positive and do positive things, and it’s impossible to fail.'”
Legislative gridlock surfaced so often in Congress in 2013 that historians will have ample room to chronicle a “do-nothing” Congress.
Lawmakers managed to shutdown parts of the U.S. government for 16 days. They averted a near default by the government and held so many philosophical disagreements about policy and priorities that many people outside Washington, D.C. openly groaned when they heard the impasse of the day.
Meanwhile, cupboards across the country went bare as the food stamp program shrunk by $5 billion just weeks before Thanksgiving. Millions of families lived in limbo as Congress failed to pass long-promised comprehensive immigration reform. And 57,000 children were kicked out of Head Start because of sequestration, the budget-bludgeoning that occurred because members of Congress were too busy fighting to agree on where to trim.
– See more at: http://www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org/2013-in-review-congress-bickers-people-take-action/#sthash.dLI5Guha.dpuf
Legislative gridlock surfaced so often in Congress in 2013 that historians will have ample room to chronicle a “do-nothing” Congress.
Lawmakers managed to shutdown parts of the U.S. government for 16 days. They averted a near default by the government and held so many philosophical disagreements about policy and priorities that many people outside Washington, D.C. openly groaned when they heard the impasse of the day.
Meanwhile, cupboards across the country went bare as the food stamp program shrunk by $5 billion just weeks before Thanksgiving. Millions of families lived in limbo as Congress failed to pass long-promised comprehensive immigration reform. And 57,000 children were kicked out of Head Start because of sequestration, the budget-bludgeoning that occurred because members of Congress were too busy fighting to agree on where to trim.
– See more at: http://www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org/2013-in-review-congress-bickers-people-take-action/#sthash.dLI5Guha.dpuf
Legislative gridlock surfaced so often in Congress in 2013 that historians will have ample room to chronicle a “do-nothing” Congress.
Lawmakers managed to shutdown parts of the U.S. government for 16 days. They averted a near default by the government and held so many philosophical disagreements about policy and priorities that many people outside Washington, D.C. openly groaned when they heard the impasse of the day.
Meanwhile, cupboards across the country went bare as the food stamp program shrunk by $5 billion just weeks before Thanksgiving. Millions of families lived in limbo as Congress failed to pass long-promised comprehensive immigration reform. And 57,000 children were kicked out of Head Start because of sequestration, the budget-bludgeoning that occurred because members of Congress were too busy fighting to agree on where to trim.
– See more at: http://www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org/2013-in-review-congress-bickers-people-take-action/#sthash.dLI5Guha.dpuf