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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 1998)
-c . « » i S E P T . 3 0 ,1 9 9 8 Page A6 (Elje ÏJortlanb ©bseruer Child Care Now! Children’s Sabbath by by -M arian 1 • - / 4 * 1 ,z»/ « : ï •4 * ■r '.i •»• : I • >. ■. f > . '■■ * •> • * / • ■ & •?.* *-■ /> * • > “> ■ 5*: •V- •.' . N, K-<.>’• V /< ' ,r-z ' ' t ó This year, the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) is celebrating 25 years o f research, public education, policy development, and advocacy for chil dren. We are also celebrating our seventh year o f promotion the Na tional Observance ofChildren’ s Sab baths celebrated each year in thou sands o f faith communities nation wide during the third weekend o f October. I ’ m asking you to join with us this year on October 16-18, 1998. Ask your church, mosque, or synagogue to devote one day a year to children, and then to follow up with action throughout the year to Leave No Child Behind. This observance begins with services in synagogues and mosques on Friday evening and concludes with services in churches and interfaith celebrations in communities through out the country on Sunday. Congre gations focus prayer, educational opportunities, community outreach, and advocacy initiatives on the needs o f children and commit to help meet those needs. Since Children’s Sabbaths began, thousands o f congregations and reli gious groups have joined this move ment, which is currently endorsed by over 200 religious denominations and organizations. By last year, 50,000 congregations had joined in solidar ity to provide a strong moral witness in response to the needs o f this nation’s children. Children’s Sabbaths have a theme each year. Last year we lifted up the needs o f our children for health care. This year, we are focusing on an other essential need: to nurture, love, protect, and care for children by pro- :v au iwA-^W-fÎ Kf'VgP* Ç > ; ?■ &CÌC- 7 Ä viding affordable, quality child care and after-school programs. This year’s theme, “Gifted and Called to Raise Up Our Children,” reminds us o f our responsibility to use and share our giftedness to ensure that ever child receives the care he or she needs to grow and develop to their God-given potential. Everyday in this country, 13 mil lion preschoolers— including 6 mil lion infants and toddlers— are in child care. Every day in this rich country, five million children are left home alone after school because too many parents simply cannot find quality child care they can afford. ThisyearCDF is engaged in “Child Care Now!”— a national campaign to im p ro v e the q u a lity and affordability o f child care and after- school activities for America’s chil dren and families. We are urging communities of faith to join thousands o f national, state, and local organizations and individuals in the crucial effort. Many congregations have worked diligently to provide for the physical, intellectual, and spiritual needs of our children. Through solemn promises we make to children and to God in a baby naming, baptism or infant dedi cation, through rites o f initiation and passage such as first communions and confirmations, through religious education and social, cultural, and recreational activities, the religious community seeks to live out its call to nurture children. Many congregations have also taken seriously the opportunity and responsibility to care for children in programs without explicit religious content, expressing their faith by pro viding safe, developmentally appro priate child care for children, as well as after-school, weekend, and sum mer programs for school-age chil dren. In fact, congregations are the single largest provider o f center- based child care. For all these reasons and more, the religious community is a vital voice that must be heard in the “Child Care Now!” campaign. It can speak with moral authority and experience because o f its long tradition o f nurturing children, its commitment to justice, and its expe rience in providing child care, after- school, and summer programs and supporting parents in raising their children. E ach year CD F p u b lish e s a Children’s Sabbath manual that pro vides valuable information and prac tical suggestions about how your re ligious community can participate. The manual includes suggested prayers, hymns, sermons, homilies, lesson plans for children, appropri ate references from the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran, as well as how-to sections for organizing, com municating with the media, and ad vocating for children at the local, state, and national level. You can obtain copies o f our Children’s Sab baths manuals by writing to CDF Religious Affairs Division, 25 E Street NW, Washington D.C. 20001, or calling 202-662-3589. Mother Teresa said, “Love cannot remain by itself; it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action and that action is service.” W on’t you join with us this year in service, prayer, and advocacy for children? Share your gifts and lift your voices to God, to each other, and to the leaders o f our national until not one child is left behind, hurt, or aban doned, and every child flourishes as God intends. H BIG has been a leader in the Wash ington State fight along with a coali tion o f civil rights, civic, and union organizations. Pointing to fraudulent and decep tive practices used in efforts to pass an anti-affirm ative action law in W ashington State, the president o f Blacks in Government (BIG) warned that plans are underway to use simi lar practices in other states. Oscar Eason, Jr. told delegates attending the 28th Annual congressional Black Caucus legislative Forum that“ifthey are successful in passing the law on the November 3rd ballot, your state may be next.” “Having failed to persuade the Congress to pass an anti-affirmative action bill, they are now concentrat ing on the states. They succeeded in California and have not been able to win elsewhere. Now they see the possibility o f a victory in Washing ton State that could reinvigorate their campaign in other states,” Eason said. Proposition 200 was placed on the ballot when the backer obtained the necessary signatures. Like its Cali fornia prototype, it would prohibit states from considering race or gen der in hiring, promotion, contract ing, and other state business. De spite efforts in other states, only Washington State has an anti-affir mative action initiative on the ballot in 1998. Eason ,a resident o f Seattle, WA, said many people who sign the peti tion were contused by language which gave the impression that it would expand rather than curtail affirma tive action. The initiative stated that “the state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treat ment, to any individual or group on the basis ofrace, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of M arian W right E delman You wouldn’t leave you house without ensuring that your chi Id care needs are satisfied, would you? Well, we need to make sure that Congress doesn’t leave the House o f Repre sentatives and the Senate without making sure A m erica’s child care needs are satisfied. This is an election year. Congress will be coming back to Washington after the summer recess, but they’ll be focused on adjourning early and getting back to their states as quickly as possible to campaign for re-elec tion. They need to hear our voices, they need to know that we don’t want to see them back home until they’ve taken care o f important business for children and working parents. Spread the word in your commu nity: w e’re asking all children’s pro grams, day care homes and center, summer camps, libraries, religious congregations, community center, and children’s advocates to create hand-drawn banners, posters, and pictures including the message “Act Now! We Need Quality Child Care and Safe After School Activities!” on each drawing. Mail them to the Children’s Defense Fund“ChildCare Now!” at 25 E. Street NW, W ashing ton, DC 20001. We will be holding a national press conference this fall and will deliver your drawings to Congress. We hope to present them with thousands o f drawings from all over the country asking them to do what they need to do to keep our children safe and positively engaged when parents have to work. There are so many children and families affected by this urgent need. Each day, over 2 million Black chil dren under six—or two-thirds o f all Black pre-school children who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten— spend some or all o f their day being card for by someone other than their parents. Children o f working moth ers are entering care as early as six weeks o f ageand can be in care for 40 hours a week until they reach school age. Child care and early education have become a fact o f life for many Black families. In 1997, 72% of Black women with children under six, and 77% o f Black women with children between the ages o f six and 17 years old, were in the labor force. Child care is a major household expense for working families. Full- day child care for one child costs $4,000-$ 10,000 per year—more than what many families pay for college tuition at an in-state public univer sity. For example, the average an nual price o f child care in a center for a four-year old is $4,630 in Los An geles, $4,990 in Atlanta, and $7,700 in New York City. Child care for infants and high quality care is often even more expensive. Many hard-working Black fami lies earn too little to be able to afford the high cost o f child care. About half o f Black families with children earn less than $23,000 a year, and half o f Black families with children Our biggest advantage is being part of a big family Big Sees Affirmative Action Showdown in Washington • < • ■' ¿ W right E delman public employment, public educa tion or public contracting. “This is an effort to conceal the true nature of the measure,” he said. The backers used substantial money from out-of-state sources to gain the necessary signature, con trary to the grassroots, civic nature of the referendum process. Much o f the input comes from the same people who backed the California initiative, Eason said. According to press re ports, some o f the workers recruited from out-of-state to solicit votes said they were told it was a civil rights bill. BIG has been a leader in the Wash ington State fight along with a coali tion o f civil rights, civic, and union organizations. The organization is composed o f government employ ees from federal, state, and local agen cies concerned with excellence in government through equality o f op portunity. To us, being part of a big family means... * Sharing responsibilities among only the most qualified, highly trained professionals... * Sharing ideas and programs to protect our children and benefit our neighborhoods... * Sharing resources with the families and communities we serve. and understanding the importance of sharing. TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM PLAN DISTRICT WORKSHOPS We need your input! Join us for one of these interactive work sessions to discuss and plan transportation improvements in your neighborhood to be built within the next 20 years. S.E.- Sept. 30 at Cleveland HS, 3400 SE 26 (at Powell), 7-9 pm N o rth -Oct. 1 at Columbia Cottage, 0Ì * 430N. Killingsworth Street Portland, Oregon 97217 503/283/1976 u 4339 N. Lombard (in Columbia Park), 7-9 pm Far S.E.- Oct. 3 at East Portland Comm. Center, À 740 SE 106 (at Stark), 1-3 pm N.W .- Oct. 6 at Northwest Service Center, 1819 NW Everett, 7-9 pm N.E.- Oct. 7 at Grant HS, 2245 NE 36 (between Tillamook & Knott), 7-9 pm ■ - Complete Funeral Package Starting at $2895 (includes casket) Proud to be a member of the world's most experienced family of funeral homes. ' VC- » • «‘- V > ; ■ -’ .V When the time comes to select a funeral home, please remember our total commitment is to you. Complimentary videotapes and books are available on coping with grief. Want more information? Call Cece Noel Portland Office of Transportation 823-7733 j. - • under six earn less than $20,500 a year. The cost o f providing care for children can easily exceed a family’s rent, mortgage, car payment, or gro ceries. A family earning $25,000 could easily spend one-quarter of their income to pay for child care for one child— and the average family has two children. Families simply cannot afford the cost o f good qual ity child care in addition to all o f the other demands on their monthly bud get. i Because for many families there seems to be no other choice, it has been estimated that nearly 5 million children nationwide are left unsuper vised by an adult after school each week. Research suggests that chil dren who are left home alone are more likely to use alcohol, mari juana, and cigarettes, and it is a fact that juvenile crime peaks between 3:00 and 7:00 pm when many chil dren are unsupervised after school. Since Black youth are overrepre sented at every level o f the juvenile justice system— they compromise only 14% o f the total population but 28% o f those arrested, 41 % o f those detained, and 52% o f those waived into adult court— it is particularly crucial to offer safe and affordable quality care for o u r c h ild re n ’s afterschool time. Write to your representatives in congress today. And send us those drawing by your children those we elect to represent us must respond to the child care crisis today. We have to make them listen! .'•$ ’• Ï ’ ♦ « ■ ’ i • - i . . • • ...— • ; /. ' • I* 15
