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Page A 4
O pinion
December 3. 2008
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Struggling Workers in Difficult Times
exam ple - are struggling in this
econom y and jo b opportunities
are scarce.
Add to this the fact that many
recent college graduates are now
Recession hits poor, young most
may be forced to take a
pay cut.
D esp ite w hat som e
M o st lo w - s k ille d
w ould have us believe,
w o rk e rs an d y o u n g
A m erica is not headed
people, how ever, are not
toward a recession: it is in
so lucky and are having
the throes o f one.
the hardest tim e finding
Most, o f us have, at
even entry-level jobs.
som e le v el, been im
They are hardest hit by
pacted by this econom ic
dow nturn. M any live in fear this recession and the U.S. gov
dow nsizing as businesses look ernm ent needs to step in and offer
forced to take any job, even those
them som e relief.
for ways to save money.
R ecent statistics show that, in that d o n ’t require adegree, ju st to
H undreds o f thousands have
already lost their jobs. If they’re the last year, the num ber o f w ork earn a paycheck, and you have a
lucky, they have the jo b skills ing 16- to 19-year-olds fell by 8 situation where young unskilled
needed to secure new em ploy percent. T hat’s the largest drop w orkers are com peting against
ment; but even then the w ait for a in any age group. T he industries degreed applicants for low -wage
new jo b may be long and they that usually hire them - retail, for jobs. Blackmales in theirlate teens
B y J udge G reg M a i his
or early tw enties are the hardest
hit of all the struggling young jo b
seekers.
Labor w orkers are also having
a hard tim e in the jo b market.
The American government must
throw a life line to those at risk o f
going under.
Construction workers, especially,
are finding it hard to secure em
ploym ent. T he industry has a
nearly 11 percent unem ploym ent
rate, com pared with 6.1 percent
ju st a year ago.
The national unem ploym ent
rate for al I w orkers is 6.5 percent.
Entry level laborers have a d iffi
cult tim e getting their foot in the
door in these industries as more
experienced workers, mirroring the
ex p erien ces o f recent college
graduates, are snapping up low er
paying jo b s in an effort to stay
em ployed.
It’s a given that a recession
will impact some sections of soci
ety more than others. W ithout
the necessary assets to cushion
y o u r fa ll d u rin g a v o la tile
econom y or the skills to maintain
em ploym ent, an individual is sure
to fillth eeffectso fth isd o w n w ard
econom ic spiral.
But som e groups are m ore
vulnerable than others. And the
American government must throw
a life line to those at risk o f going
under.
W hile C ongress and the finan
cial industry considers strategies
for bailing out m ortgage ow ners
in the midst o f the U.S. housing
crisis, they should also think
through w ays to provide a safety
net to our low -w age, unskilled
and young workers.
There are a few things that can
be done: extending unem ploy
m ent benefits is one o f them. In
creasing food stam p benefits to
poor fam ilies is another. W ith
som e thought and effort, the U.S.
can deliver a plan that truly sup
ports our struggling w orkers d u r
ing this difficult time.
■■ ■■■■
1st Time Homebuyers
Now is a great time to buy! Why rent when you can own??
The US Government is ottering a $7,500 tax credit to
1st
Time home buyers..
Fired Up and Ready to Go
Goals to end
poverty are
achievable
by C harles S heketoff
This won't be available forever so, act quickly to take
advantage.
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□
Portland Me
KELIJER WILLIAMS
Cell 503.890.1181
jparis/fl/kw.com
M IS
Aswtutirf of Realtor*
yding
122 N. Killingsworth St.
Portland, OR 97217
(503) 281-0255
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Caring hands in your time of need
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Pastor J.W. Friday
(
Pre-need is alw ays better than at need. Like M am a said, “ It is
alw ays better to have and not need than to need and not have.”
Death is certain; just like we plan for retirem ent, we should plan for
our hom e going.
Re: Cox & Cox Funeral Chapel
I have seen Cox & Cox work with families that have had nothing
and create som ething special. T hey have heen a com m unity staple
for all 56 years o f my life and they are still here.
Schawna Tanner and Jerome Cox-Tanner
■Tam t/u ('tr u e r / ri ( /in a /e t /f t O
Advertise with diversity
yean!
in ït,rÏ J o r t la u b
2736 NE Rodney.
Portland, Oregon 97212
(O b & c ritrv
('a ll 5()3-2XN-(X)33 ads(®portlandob server com
pressing, but the Shriver Center's
plan got me fired up and ready to
go. Here's the 12-point plan and
the steps O regon can take to
tackle them:
Strengthen the Legal Founda
tion for Civil Rights and Racial
Justice. Im proving access to law-
by K athyrn
GI FT CERTIFICATES AN D LAYAWAY PLANS AVAILABLE
Re: Pre-Planning
I f assembled in one place,
Oregon's poor would comprise ti
state's second largest city, bigge
than Eugene and Salem combine
A new direction for
the Supreme Court
NEW SINGLE SPEEDS FROM $299.00
è va
yers for our poor w ould help
strengthen the legal foundation
for civil rights and racial justice.
Establish A ffordable Quality
Health Care for All. The legisla
ture should breathe life back into
the O regon Health Plan so that it
can get closer to its goal o f co v
erage for all w orking poor adults.
Add to that expanding coverage
to all O regon children and we
would at least be making progress
tow ard affordable health cover
age for all.
Guarantee Economic Safety for
People with Em ploym ent C hal
lenges. O regon's unem ploym ent
insurance system needs to be
continued
on page A9
Justice, Equality and Opportunity
I f f ' off last
T year’s models
^èvadf
The morning after the election,
I watcheda videoofBarackObam a
telling how, on a rainy m orning
last June, Edith Childs o f G reen
wood, South C arolina, energized
a room full o f people w ith her
chant, "Fired up! Ready to go!"
The chant becam e a signature o f
the O bam a campaign.
W ith the chant still echoing in
my head, I turned to a blog post
by an advocate I've adm ired for
years, John Boum an, president of
the Sargent Shriver National C en
ter on Poverty Law.
Noting that "the State o f Pov
erty is Am erica's m ost populated
state — 37 million people," the
Shriver C enter recom m ended a
12-point plan to confront pov
erty.
In reading over the plan, I real
ized how relevant it is not ju st to
the new O bam a adm inistration
but also to the new Oregon L eg
islature.
A bout one in eight O regonians
today lives below the federal pov
erty line, the sam e share as 40
years ago. If assem bled in one
place, O regon’s poor would co m
prise the state’s second largest
city, bigger than Eugene and Sa
lem com bined.
T hose num bers may seem de-
K oi . bert
N ow that election season is
finally over, Am ericans are left
to exam ine the results and ask:
W hat does it all m ean? Among
other things, it m eans a new di
rection for our Suprem e Court.
And that’s a very big deal.
It's incontrovertible that on Nov. 4, voters
delivered a sw eeping m andate for Barack O bam a
to appoint federal judges who are com m itted to
core constitutional values: justice, equality, and
opportunity for all.
T he public rejected the efforts o f the right wing
to stack the federal courts with ideological jurists
like Justices Anton Scalia and Samuel A lito - often
called “strict constructionists.”
Rather, the public selected now President-elect
O bam a after his repeated commitment to support
com passionate judges who are faithful to the C on
stitution, its values, its principles and its history.
For his part. Sen. O bam a spoke about the court
during the cam paign with more energy than any
D em ocratic candidate in recent memory. Lilly
Ledbetter, the victim of a particularly egregious
decision authored by Justice Alito, had a prim e
tim e speaking slot at the D em ocratic N ational C o n
vention in D enver and w as also featured in a
cam paign ad in heavy rotation. In the vice presiden
tial debate, Joe Biden, unprom pted, pointed to his
opposition to Robert Bork as an important m ile
stone in his career.
L atein th ecam p aig n .G o v . Sarah Palin and other
conservative activists attem pted to discredit S ena
tor O bam a over com m ents he made on the W arren
Court, pointing out how lim ited the court's d eci
sions really were. But the allegations never caught
fire, and the I ine o f attack was com pletely discarded.
A m ericans m ade clear that they are com fortable
with Sen. O bam a's vision for the judiciary, even
when it was caricatured as extrem e or outside the
m ainstream At the same tim e, voters w ere unin
spired by Sen. M cCain's frequent repetition of
right-w ing code w ords like "judicial restraint and
“strict constructionist.”
In fact, the difference betw een the candidates’
stances on the future o f the Su-
prem eC ourt was an im portantdis-
tinction in several key endorse
ments. In his endorsem ent o f Sen.
O bam a on M eet the Press, Colin
Powell pointed to the court, stat
ing, “ I w ould have difficulty with
tw o more conservative appoint
m ents to the Suprem e Court, but
that's what we'd be looking at in a
A
M cCain adm inistration.”
■ The public rejected the efforts
o f the right wing to stack the
federal courts with ideological
jurists like Justices Anton
Scalia and Samuel Alito.
In past years, w e've seen Republican candi
dates m otivate their base with pledges to appoint
judges to the bench who bring a conservative
political ideology to their decisions. T his year, it
was progressives who were m ost able to rally
support on judicial issues.
Exit polling m ade clear that the Suprem e Court
was a w inning issue for Obam a. V oters w ho said
the Suprem e Court was a factor in their votes broke
for O bam a 53 to 45. V oters who said that the
Suprem e Court was the most im portant factor
provided O bam a an even more lopsided victory -
57 to 4,1.
T hroughout the prim ary election and into the
general. Sen. John M cCain repeatedly focused
attention on his support o f G eorge W. Bush’s
nom inees to the Suprem e Court, and prom ised to
appoint sim ilar jurists should he be elected.
Sim ilarly, at the D em ocratic
National Convention both Al G ore and Hillary
Clinton discussed the Suprem e C ourt as a critical
reason to support Sen. O bam a's candidacy.
M eanw hile, dozens o f new spaper and m agazine
editorial boards pointed to judicial appoi ntm ents as
a crucial issue in their endorsem ents o f Barack
Obama.
In the next four years, there might be three or
more vacancies on the Suprem e Court, along with
num erous vacancies on the low er federal courts.
G iven the results o f the election, we should
expect President-elect O bam a and the United States
Senate to nom inate and confirm judges who will
defend our personal freedom s and ensure that
every person has equal access to justice. The
Am erican people have asked them to do ju st that.
Kathry n Kolhert is president o f People fo r the
American Wnv.