 The GPMW held their quarterly membership meeting on Saturday, January 29th at St Stephen's Church in Columbia Heights, Washington D. C.
We were pleasantly surprised to find invited guest speaker John Hughes, the new General Manager of WPFW, had arrived early and was able to start the evening's program. (WPFW was off the air as, just as for many of us, they were out of power. We hope everyone managed to keep warm and safe during our extreme weather event of last week.)
Mr. Hughes has resided in Washington D. C for five years and was formerly employed with Howard University's WHUT-TV as their chief operating officer. He brings a long history of public communications experience to WPFW from his years in Atlanta, Georgia working for Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Mr. Hughes reported that he sees his work at WPFW as reconfirming the core team, giving the station and the community an idea of direction for the coming years and committing to WPFW's motto--Jazz and Justice. He also had to report the not-so-great news that WPFW is underfunded and staff are working with 50% salaries. Their fund drive, a New Day A'Coming, runs from 2/3 - 2/29, and we strongly encourage those of us who can to offer our support for the station that brings us such diverse programming as Amy Goodman and Askia Muhammad. Listen to 89.3 FM in the coming weeks for pledge drive information and to keep entertained and connected, of course. One can also find more ways to contribute at http://www.wpfw.org/index.php?db=content/Support&tbl=Support&id=1
Our moderator, Michele Tingling Clemmons,gave a rousing introduction to the rest of the evening. Michele is a member of the National Gray Panthers Board and filled us in on the many activities underway. One project has seen results. In response to President Obama's State of the Union Address and potential cuts to Social Security, the Gray Panther national office, National Board members, and local networks developed an editorial and submitted it to national and local publications. The message: Tell Obama to Keep the Promise--No Cuts to Social Security. The editorial has been published in papers ranging from San Francisco to Massachusetts.
You can join in the action and find the sample editorial here-- http://graypanthers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=155&Itemid=29
In addition to sending out the editorial, the board members met with members of Congress to educate them on the many benefits of Social Security.
To keep up on news and actions on the national level, please pay a visit to http://graypanthers.org. You will find information on our current issues and ways to get active, find events, and connect with local Gray Panthers all over the country.
Another sad sign of the times, the National Gray Panthers are facing funding cuts as well. Susan Murany, the Executive Director, moves to working on a part time basis until more funding is secured.
Mark Anderson, with We Are Family (WAF), started out our next round of speakers. We Are Family serves more than 500 seniors by providing 4,500 monthly grocery bags, more than 650 round trip rides, and close to 400 outreach visits as well as many other services. Many of these services are provide by a volunteer roster that exceeds 700 people. We Are Family sees itself as a bold experiment in building caring, just and inclusive communities. They offer services in Shaw, North Capitol Street, Adams-Morgan, Petworth and Columbia Heights neighborhoods.
Mark started out his community service in his early years by forming Positive Force, a socially conscious activist collective of punk rockers, back in 1974. We Are Family was born in 2004, and Mark reports that he has had his life transformed from his experiences with WAF. He has found that "What we do is maybe not as important as how we do it".
A big concern for WAF currently is gentrification, and they work to keep people in their homes as rising housing costs lead to the very real fear of losing homes for people on fixed incomes. WAF hopes to awaken a sense of community and to work on the simple premise--those who need receive; those who have give. You can find out more and connect with WAF at http://www.wearefamilydc.org/
Next up, Joni Eisenberg, host of WPFW program "To Heal DC", and recipient of the GPMW Geraldine Brittain award for Outstanding Community Service, shared with us her ideas for getting more effective messages on the airwaves, and ways to recruit our youth, and she recalled her early work with the Committee for a Nation Health Service with Gray Panthers founder, Maggie Kuhn. Joni has a 3 0-year background in public health with a focus on community empowerment, elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities, healthcare access and wellness. You can learn more on these topics by tuning into "To Heal DC" on Mondays from 11:00 am - 12:00 noon on WPFW, 89.3 FM.
Our last speaker, Lou Wolf, currently with Rock Creek Free Press, shared with us the many lessons he has learned from his investigative work with Covert Action Quarterly and his travels around the world. He reported that the news media often use disinformation tactics to mislead the public. They use slogans and mythologies to keep us entrained in their message rather than truly reporting the events occurring.
We finished the evening with a discussion on the looming crisis due to budget cuts and on what we can do to educate and activate people. One easy way to undertake action is to write letters to the news media, Congress, clergy, and others to educate them on important issues. A good resource to get you started is the already referred to Action Page of the National Gray Panthers -- http://graypanthers.e-actionmax.com/alertlist.asp . We also expressed the need for more community forums as a way to get people educated and involved.
On this note, please be sure to partake in EmpowerDC's upcoming National Day of Action called: Have a Heart--Save Our Homes on Monday February 14th. the District of Columbia "Have a Heart" demonstration will take place at the Hart Senate office Building at Constitution and 2nd Streets SE.
For more information and/or to sign-up, cal Linda Leaks at EmpowerDC 202-234-9119 x101.
linda@empowerdc.org
Below is more on this important event:
Tenants and concerned supporters are urged to get involved and say no to these proposed devastating cuts.
Deep Cuts Threats Future Of Affordable Housing (Low Cost Housing)
The New Republican majority of the US House of Representatives have not waited any time in cutting federal assistance to low income people.
On January 5, shortly after receiving the gavel from the Democrats, the new speaker of the House,John Boehner (R-OH), received approval from fellow legislators to make a 21 percent across the board cut of the federal discretionary budget except, of course, the military budget.
If a 21 percent cut is adopted by the Senate, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, (www.cbpp.org) nationally, 750,000 low income tenants could loss their Section 8 based assisted housing, 500,000 Housing Choice Vouchers could be lost, and 25 0,000 Section 8 Project-based units could be lost. in addition to the likely devastating cuts to the section 8 subsidy, we are also looking at major cut to public housing and other housing programs.
Because the United States Congress did not adopt a budget for fiscal year 2011, it approved a Continuing Resolution (CR) in late December 2010 to keep the federal government running at its FY 2010 funding level.
If the 21 percent Budget cut is adopted By the Senate whICH returned to work on January 25, 2011, HUD (Housing and Urban Development) - funded housing assistance to low and moderate income tenants could be eliminated by March 4, 2011 upon expiration of the Continuing Resolution.
In the District of Columbia more than 5,000 low and moderate income families who live in a project-based Section 8 unit or live in public housing are facing the risk of losing their housing assistance if the 21 percent cut to the discretionary funding budget is adopted by both Houses of Congress.
Take action and say no to harmful cuts on February 14 at the Hart Senate Office Building, Constitution Avenue and 2nd Street SE .
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Angela Flynn
Admistrative Assisant
angelaflynn80@msn.com
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