By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — New Jersey, Colorado, Los Angeles, Raleigh-Durham — the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students reel off their upcoming travel schedule at a dizzying pace. This is their new life, traveling the country advocating for gun control, all while trying to keep up with their studies about two months after 17 people were killed in a shooting at their school.
“I’ve been invited to synagogues and churches and colleges and high school walkouts, and it’s so much, and I wish I could go to everything,” said junior Jaclyn Corin, who is part of the core group of “Never Again MSD.” ”It’s the best problem in the world where everybody wants to help us and wants to include us.”
Almost overnight, Corin became one of the leaders in a huge organization that is looking to build on a grassroots movement that spurred hundreds of thousands around the globe to rally for gun reform on March 24. The students’ mantra is “vote them out” — a message that applies to any lawmaker who accepts support from the National Rifle Association or declines to talk with them about gun rights. They’re inviting lawmakers to town halls, with more than 200 scheduled around the country.
They are also trying to register as many teenagers as they can before November’s midterm elections.
At a town hall near Parkland last week, supporters passed out red bumper stickers that called for a ban on assault rifles. Dozens of people were still waiting at microphones to ask questions when the event ended after two hours. Florida Congressman Ted Deutch said another town hall would be held later.
Near the entrance, a sign at a voter registration table let students know they can pre-register to vote as early as age 16.
“Nothing we did on March 24 is going to mean anything if no one goes out to vote in November because that, at the end of the day, that’s where our voices are going to be heard,” said Alex Wind, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Classmate David Hogg, who has received personal attacks from conservatives falsely accusing him of being a crisis actor, is crisscrossing the country visiting Iowa, Tennessee and possibly Missouri.
“I’m going to different congressional districts, specifically ones where there is a politician, either Democrat or a Republican, that is supported by the NRA … I’m also going to a lot of these places where the politicians have called us out, like Steve King,” he said, referring to the Iowa congressman who has repeatedly criticized the students on social media.
King lambasted student Emma Gonzalez for wearing a Cuban flag patch at the Washington march last month.
Some of the students said they’re struggling to find balance as grassroots leaders and students with homework, Advanced Placement exams and college applications. They’ve outgrown an office donated by a Stoneman Douglas parent and are moving to a new, secret location after their past address was leaked to the press. Most of their engagements are now handled by a professional booking agent and a public relations firm.
Many have missed classes. Corin, whose course load includes several Advanced Placement classes, missed an entire week of school before spring break.
“I’m kind of overwhelmed because I’ve always been one to value my academics and now school is kind of becoming on a level playing field with everything else,” she said.
Several students will head to New York at the end of the month to be honored at a Time magazine event after they were on the cover last month. Chris Grady and a few others will speak at an event in Colorado on the anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. On top of their travels, Cameron Kasky is juggling the school play and Gonzalez is trying to focus on school work.
The frantic pace can be exhausting, the students said. Deutsch was so booked up last week, he asked a reporter to schedule an interview on Easter Sunday.
The students feel pressured that “If we don’t stay in the media, the media is going to go away,” Wind said.
But they’re also getting help from organizations such as Everytown for Gun Safety and Women’s March, which provides training and resources. Both groups have chapters in colleges and high schools across the country.
“I feel like now ’til midterms is what we’re calling our Phase Two, but there’s going to be a Phase Three and a Phase Four and a Phase Five,” Corin said. “As much as I want assault rifles to be banned, that probably won’t be a reality for another four or six or eight years — or ever.”
The students are keenly aware of the dismal youth turnout in general elections, and that it’s practically non-existent in midterms.
“The youth have been shot down for far too long, both literally and metaphorically,” senior Ryan Deitsch said, citing young voter turnout of less than one in five. “If we can get it to three out of five, we could control and shift every major election to come.”
National News
Trump says “no more” to DACA
(Associated Press)
President Donald Trump on Sunday declared “NO MORE” to a deal to help “Dreamer” immigrants and threatened to pull out of a free trade agreement with Mexico unless it does more to stop people from crossing into the U.S. He claimed they’re coming to take advantage of protections granted certain immigrants.
“NO MORE DACA DEAL!” Trump tweeted one hour after he began the day by wishing his followers a “HAPPY EASTER!”
He said Mexico must “stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!” The U.S., Canada and Mexico are participating in tense negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement at Trump’s insistence. Trump says NAFTA is bad for the U.S.
“Mexico has got to help us at the border,” Trump, holding his wife’s hand, told reporters before the couple attended Easter services at an Episcopal church near his Palm Beach, Florida, home. “If they’re not going to help us at the border, it’s a very sad thing between our two countries.”
“A lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA,” he added.
Read More [3]
Is DACA really dead or is President Trump just posturing?
Democratic congressman calls Trump’s bluff on killing DACA deal: ‘This is a ploy’ [4]
Talk to any immigration expert to localize.
As an immigrant herself, Pallavi Ahluwalia knows the pathway to citizenship better than most immigration attorneys. She represents individuals to Fortune 500 companies, throughout the world on matters related to corporate and employment based Immigration Law.
African American Millennials in the Workplace are More Inclined to Use the Free Agent Option
By Lee E. Meadows, Ph.D, Human Resource Consultant
NATIONWIDE (BlackNews.com) — The concept of freedom is not lost on anyone who spends time thinking about their range of options, but for African American millennials in the workplace, the exercise of freedom is elevated and broadened by a mindset of career-movement-through-free agency-as-opposed-to-hierarchy
In doing so, what I have observed is an unwillingness to endure the tricks and taunts of a bygone era of ‘wait and see’ if your career has a chance here. While their predecessors were encouraged to take biases head on, bounce against the barriers with tenacity and remain loyal for a lifetime, I suspect it was the physical and mental strain of stress and duress, as seen on their faces, that moves this collection of millennials to consider other, less, toll taking options.
Preceding generations, generally, managed to build their careers by climbing the corporate ladder, one rung at a time, across a stretch of time in which the 30 to 40-year marathon ended with a gold watch and a retirement package that was strong enough to include not returning to work. It goes without saying that the organizational landscape of that era also masked a minefield that could derail a career. Once flung into this purgatory carb barrel, the only option left was to survive. Legends were created and lives were lost. To merely survive and live to tell the story was considered a badge of honor and that was enough. My conversations with some of the 11.5 million African American millennials who are working their way through the new social media hierarchical landscape reveal a much different way of thinking about the marathon.
For them, it is not enough to say, 40 years later, that ‘I survived!’ Their willingness to seek greener pastures is a testament to how the race has changed. While I have, humorously, coined the term ‘Free Agentology’ and define it as, ‘the act of packaging and marketing a set of skills to an employer who is willing to pay above market value in order to gain a competitive edge to the extent that a contract binds the relationship together’, these millennials don’t view themselves as ’employees’, but as skilled agents who achieve their status by being twice as skilled, but not staying twice as long. Wait-and-see is viewed as ‘Wait-and die’ (direct quote from an African American millennial who switched jobs prior to this article), and ‘loyalty is present at the place where I am present.’
A Free Agent markets their skills to the highest bidder, knowing that, thanks to the growing span of entrepreneurial activities, the highest bidder could just be themselves! For African American millennials, the range of career/workplace options is augmented by the Talent Wars, the lack of strong Employee Engagement programs, bias built into the organizational culture, globalization, micro-aggressive scrutiny and leadership gaps the prevent advancement. I could argue that the process of relying on the benevolent ‘cradle-to-grave’ trust-me-to-take-care-of-you organizational/social contract ended when this group felt the impact of the Enron-like bankruptcies, the housing market plunge, musical retail chairs and student debt that could see them using their Social Security to pay the remaining balance of their student loans. Free Agents can consider a full range of employment options because only having one option is too restrictive and provides less control over the outcome.
Any employer paying attention to social trends has to know that much of their Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, however well intended, well stall at recruitment if they don’t make an effort to look at and change many of the internal cultural practices that restrict the career advancement of African American millennials and, by definition, broaden their Free Agent options to be ‘anyplace but here!’
Lee E. Meadows, Ph.D is a Human Resource Consultant and the author of the leadership novel, “Take the Lull By the Horns! Closing the Leadership Gap,” available on Amazon . He can be contacted at [email protected]
April 3 & 4: The Collective PAC to Join 50th Anniversary Activities Commemorating Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Memphis, TN — On April 3 and 4, 2018, the nation’s leading organization working to elect Black candidates, Collective PAC, will head to Memphis, TN to observe the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination.
On Tuesday evening, The Collective will host a fundraiser reception honoring three African American candidates they have endorsed at the local level in Shelby County. Wednesday, Founder and Executive Director, Quentin James will participate in the official #MLK50 panel discussion addressing the political, legal, and cultural aspects of social justice activism.
Events:
A Seat at the Table: Fundraiser & Reception
What: An evening celebrating the campaigns of local Shelby County Candidates
When: TOMORROW, Tuesday, April 3 from 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Where: Jack Robinson Art Gallery, 400 S Front ST, Memphis, TN 38103
Who: The Collective Founder and Co-Founder, Quentin and Stefanie James
Collective PAC Endorsed Candidates
- Lee Harris, Candidate for Shelby County Mayor
- Tami Sawyer, Candidate for Shelby County Commission
- Jamal Whitlow, Candidate for Shelby County Clerk
An Evening of Storytelling Featuring The Collective PAC’s Quentin James
What: Intimate discussion featuring living icons of the early civil rights movement and emerging social justice leaders of today
When: WEDNESDAY, April 4, 2018 at 7:00 pm
Where: 1350 Concourse Ave, Memphis, TN 38104
Who: The Collective PAC’s Founder and Executive Director, Quentin James
The events will address a troubling narrative haunting Memphis 50 years after the assassination of Dr. King at the Lorraine Motel. Memphis, a majority black city seated in the majority black Shelby County, does not have any major elected black leadership on the city-wide or countywide level outside of the Shelby County Probate Court. The highest ranking African American local elected official in the entire state is the Mayor of Brownsville, TN, a city of less than 10,000 people. There are about 1.1 million African Americans in Tennessee, yet there are no Black elected officials at the federal or statewide levels. This is unacceptable.
More information on both events can be found at: www.collectivepac.org/MLK50 and mlk50.civilrightsmuseum.org/a-
Inspired by the March for Our Lives, 50 Students Tour through Civil Rights Monument in the South with Sojourn Project
San Francisco, CA – Today, the California based organization Sojourn Project announced their trip through the South in which 50 students, many of whom participated in the March for Our Lives, will get to experience the Civil Rights Movement firsthand. The educational project is in its 19th year and has taken over 6000 teachers and students through this powerful and transformative week-long journey.
Sojourn Project explores key points of the Civil Rights Movement—from Mississippi to Alabama to Tennessee. Along the way, students meet with civil rights leaders, among them Congressman John Lewis and Minnijean Brown Trickey of the Little Rock Nine. Students learn about their experiences as young civil rights leaders and are inspired to continue the struggle against racial inequality and for social justice.
“Sojourn Project has had an incredible impact on me,” said Ana Maria Vazquez, a 2-trip Sojourn Alum and first year college student. “I came back home and became politically involved. I joined the March for Our Lives because this is my generation’s Civil Rights Movement against gun violence and police brutality.”
Students get to experience the civil rights movement first hand at each stop by learning about each location, seeing it for themselves, and meeting the people that were there. It is often an emotional experience and touches every student in a different way. Sojourn Project’s award-winning program transforms the lives of every young person that has had the opportunity to attend, most go on to become community activist and even elected officials.
The upcoming trip will take place between March 31st and April 6th stops include the National Civil Rights Museum in Tennessee, and 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, among others.
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About Sojourn Project: Sojourn Project is a unique, transformative, and empowering academic immersion program that takes middle school students, 11th and 12th graders, and college students on a life-changing journey along the path of the Civil Rights Movement through the American South. Sojourn Project’s holistic, educational approach incorporates music, text, and video into a rigorous curriculum that introduces students to historical sites, monuments, and museums. Most importantly, students are able to interact with the actors of the Movement themselves. To date, more than 6,000 students and teachers have participated in over sixty journeys.
Common, Danny Glover, Andrew Young, Dr. Bernice King, Martin Luther King III, Civil Rights, Labor and Faith Leaders to Launch “I AM 2018” Movement in Memphis
Congresswoman Gwen Moore on the Affordable Care Act
To mark the eighth anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-04) took to the House floor to discuss the law’s impact nationwide and in Wisconsin. Below are Congresswoman Moore’s remarks:
Good morning Mr. Speaker, as you recall, eight years ago this week, the Affordable Care Act became law. And since then, we’ve seen a historic increase in health coverage with millions of people gaining access to better, quality healthcare.
Under the ACA, we saw the non-elderly uninsured rate cut almost in half, from 18 to 9.4 percent. Individuals, previously denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions, saw life changing improvements in benefits and coverage. And seniors, who are finally able to spend less on Medicare coverage and prescription drugs, had a chance at a secure and peaceful retirement.
In my state alone, Wisconsin, 224,000 people became covered by ACA exchanges. From 2013 to 2016, the number of uninsured individuals declined by a whopping 42 percent. But we all know, Mr. Speaker, that hardworking Americans were taken advantage of this less expensive superior health care coverage, while, at the same time, the GOP embarked on their all-out war against the ACA. I mean they took no prisoners, hell-bent on sabotaging, butchering, and repealing this law at the expense of our nation’s most vulnerable.
I mean let’s get down to the nitty gritty depths of this depravity. How do you think, for example, Mr. Speaker, that the GOP, this Congress, is going pay for the $1.8 trillion dollar deficit hold created by these tax cuts for the richest Americans and for corporations?
Mr. Speaker, you well know the answer. What we’re going to do is plunder Medicare and Medicaid; we’re going build public sentiment for these actions by demonizing the poor and targeting people who already have limited access to jobs and healthcare. Oh c’mon now, we all know, Mr. Speaker, that you have been dreaming about slashing Medicaid ever since you were drinking at college keg parties—you said so yourself, Mr. Speaker.
Well now, with the help of our president, you’re acting on your dream, your dream is coming true. We’ve already seen an influx of states; including our own state of Wisconsin, submit work requirement waivers. And this administration has already approved three of them, and there are sure to be more.
These attacks are unprecedented. Never has any administration gone this far to kick needy Americans off the only healthcare they have. Our own state’s governor, Scott Walker, is spearheading one of the most restrictive welfare reform proposals in the nation. He wants harsh working requirements, drug testing restrictions, and other barriers to our state’s most at-risk families to access social services. These folks that are being targeted are already struggling to find work, and they’re marginally connected to the workforce—how does throwing them off health care help?
I say we need to uphold the ACA. Thank you for your indulgence, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back.
America, desperate for happiness, is getting less and less happy
Article courtesy of Fast Company via “The Rundown”
For a country that prides itself on pursuing happiness (it’s in the Declaration of Independence, even), America isn’t particularly happy in international terms. European nations regularly top the U.S in surveys of happiness, showing how well-being isn’t necessarily linked with economic growth.
The United Nations’s latest World Happiness Report shows this once again. Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Switzerland occupy the top five places, as they have in previous years (though in slightly different orders). The U.S. is in 18th place, and our happiness levels may, in fact, be falling.
The ranking, which is overseen by three well-known happiness academics, is based on Gallup survey data from 2015 to 2017. In each of more than 150 countries surveyed, 3,000 respondents were asked to assess their life on an imaginary ladder, on a scale of 1 to 10. The top rung (10) means they are living the best possible life; the bottom means the worst.
Americans give an average rung-number of 6.8, while the top four countries all score more than 7.5. Our score has fallen by 0.315 points since 2008-2010, according to the report, which is produced by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network. We were in 14th place overall last year.
Behind Trump’s Cabinet Churn
(Press Herald)
In what has been yet another tumultuous week for the White House, the Trump administration appears to have kicked off a Cabinet reshuffle, where several Cabinet members are replaced at once or in close succession.
Though they’re not uncommon in Western democracies, they’re a rarely used political tool in the United States. In parliamentary systems, a Cabinet reshuffle allows the governing majority party to revamp its administration in the face of slipping public support. It’s easier to accomplish in a parliamentary democracy, as Cabinet members don’t face confirmation fights. In the United States, it only regularly occurs at the beginning of a president’s second term, when turnover of Cabinet members traditionally gives the president the chance to appoint someone new to fill their place.
Things haven’t been quite so stable under the Trump administration. The original secretary of homeland security, John Kelly, lasted just seven months on the job before he switched over to become White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, a former Georgia congressman, also resigned after less than a year in office following a controversy over his use of government aircraft. They’re not the only ones to leave this administration, just the highest ranking; a variety of staff have left their jobs as well.
For 14 seasons on “The Apprentice” most of the episodes ended with Trump telling one of the contestants, “You’re fired.”
‘We Disagreed on Things.’ read President Trump’s remarks after firing Rex Tillerson
Earlier this month President Trump boasted about his management by conflict style:
“I like conflict. I like having two people with different points of view. And I certainly have that. And then I make a decision. But I like watching it. I like seeing it. I think it’s the best way to go. I like different points of view.”
What Trump calls ‘conflict,’ many Americans call ‘chaotic’
It’s his cabinet. Trump can do whatever he wants. But at a certain point, too much uncertainty and conflict takes a toll.
Trump’s ‘cascade of chaos:’ What happens when there’s too much turnover at the top
Talk to any business strategist to localize.
Bobby Albert is a workplace expert and the author of the just-released leadership book Principled Profits: Outward Success Is an Inside Job.
NAACP Critical of Ben Carson’s Move Attempt to Change HUD’s Mission Statement
The NAACP is deeply concerned by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson’s move to dilute the agency’s long-standing mission.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development Act which established HUD as a cabinet-level agency declared a purpose: “[T]o provide for full and appropriate consideration, at the national level, of the needs and interests of the Nation’s communities and of the people who live and work in them.” This purpose is sustained through the agency’s mission to “build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.” Secretary Carson’s action not only threatens HUD’s founding purpose but also reveals plans of regression.
“Dr. Carson’s attempt to diminish HUD’s mission comes on the heels of the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission’s report which affirmed that discrimination and segregation had long permeated much of American Life and continues to threaten the future of every American; and at a time when the Trump administration seeks to cut billions of dollars in housing aid for low-income families,” said NAACP’s Sr. Director of Economic Programs, Marvin J. Owens, Jr.
Despite these attempts, the promise of discrimination-free practices lives on in the Fair Housing Act which has the central objective of prohibiting race discrimination in sales and rentals of housing. The hope of continued progress in America rests in the hands of communities across the country that continue to push their elected leaders to preserve programs designed to help disadvantaged communities and promote policies that make economic inclusion a reality.
The NAACP recognizes the importance of an inclusive economy and economic policies that address the challenging realities facing our country including poverty, lack of jobs and disproportionate high unemployment, lack of affordable housing, and foreclosures. The NAACP Economic Department’s work enhances the capacity of African Americans and other under-served groups through financial economic education; individual and community asset building initiatives; diversity and inclusion in business hiring, career advancement and procurement; and monitoring financial banking practices.