Greene County Democrat

Month: January 2018

  • Senator Doug Jones chooses Dana Gresham, an African-American with legislative experience, as Chief of Staff

     

    Dana Gresham.jpg

    Sen.-elect Doug Jones (AL) announced on Tuesday that he has hired Dana Gresham as his chief of staff, which will make him the only Democratic senator to have an African-American in that position.
    Gresham, a Birmingham native, has served in leadership roles in presidential administrations and for members of Congress. He led the Legislative Affairs Office at the Department of Transportation during all eight years of the Obama administration and has also worked on Capitol Hill for 14 years. He previously served as chief of staff for Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama. He also worked in the congressional offices of Bud Cramer of Alabama and Eva Clayton of North Carolina.
    The two other Black chiefs of staff in the U.S. Senate both work for Republicans—Jennifer DeCasper in the office of Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and Brennan Britton in the office of Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS).
    Although African Americans account for 23% of Democratic voters, before this announcement they accounted for just 1% of top Democratic Senate staff, both of whom are legislative directors (Clint Odom in Senator Harris’s office and Roscoe Jones in Senator Feinstein’s office).  According to a 2016 report from Roll Call, only 5 percent of nearly 3,600 Senate staffers are Black.

    Jones also announced three other senior staff hires Tuesday, including Mark Libell as legislative director, Ann Berry as transition adviser and Katie Campbell as deputy legislative director. All three are Alabama natives and have extensive experience working for Senators and House members.
    “Today I’m proud to announce that we have recruited four outstanding individuals to join our team,” Jones said in a statement. “Each of them possesses long and impressive careers in public service, and as Alabama natives, share my commitment to the people of our state.”
    The Joint Center for Political And Economic Studies, a Washington D. C. think-tank, which last week had urged Senator-elect Jones to employ a diverse staff was quick to commend his actions. Don Bell, Director of the Black Talent Initiative for the Joint Center said, “ We commend Senator-elect Jones for his leadership and commitment to diversity. This is an important moment in the movement to make the Senate truly representative of all Americans. The Joint Center looks forward to continuing to work with Senator-elect Jones as he makes diversity a priority in building the rest of his staff.”
    Senator-elect Doug Jones will be filling other positions in his Washington D. C. office and district offices in the state and welcomes applicants to submit their resumes to: senatordougjonestransition.com.

  • Newswire : Dr. Barber ‘surprised’ by Moral Monday fame in Rome

     

    By Cash Michaels. Wilmington Journal
    barber pope visit.jpg
     Bishop William J. Barber II poses with the Vatican guards in Rome during his visit.

     

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Rome, Italy is over 4,600 miles away from Raleigh, NC. But when it came to “Moral Mondays,” the massive yet peaceful demonstrations held in North Carolina’s capital city, and led by the former president of the NCNAACP, no distance was too far as far as admirers attending a recent international conference on labor at the Vatican were concerned.
    “I was …surprised by how many leaders from around the world had been inspired by Moral Monday, the moral revival last year, and the Poor People’s Campaign plans,” Bishop Dr. William Barber, leader of the social justice group, “Repairers of the Breach,” said by text from the Vatican shortly after the visit.
    Dr. Barber was one of 300 participants from around the world attending the conference which addressed the conditions of working people, and the working poor on Thanksgiving. Representing the upcoming Poor People’s Campaign in the United States, Dr. Barber’s social justice reputation from the 12 years he led the NCNAACP preceded him, with an invitation already given him to attend and preach at another world gathering about labor rights and the poor in Liverpool, England next June. He has also been invited to Brazil next year.
    As a birthday present, Dr. Barber took his mother, who had turned 84 the week before, along with his wife and one of his son, all part of an eight-person delegation.
    In an exclusive telephone interview from Washington, DC, Dr. Barber recalled two “long, intense eight-hour days” of deeply committed religious and labor leaders working together. From countries like France, Sudan, England and others, Dr. Barber said he was greeted warmly by all.
    Even the Vatican guards saluted him because of his title of “Bishop.”
    During his presentation at the conference, Dr. Barber said, “Rightfully, the Pope has noted at the start of the twenty-first century that religious leaders must play a leading role in the struggle for justice in dialogue with all social and political actors. We must articulate a way of thinking that brings together the complexity of the current situation and proposes an action strategy for the construction of a just society. Not only is democracy at stake, but the wellbeing of world itself.”
    Later in his remarks, Bishop Barber continued, “I believe Pope Francis’ call for a moral vision of the common good connected to a call for solidarity within the labor union economy and ethos is most important. I join you today as President of Repairers of the Breach and Co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival in the United States. We have identified five areas–five moral diseases that must be addressed if we are to be a people able to address the common good, promote the general welfare, and ensure the common defense, with liberty and justice for all. We must address systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, and the immoral narrative of extreme religionism.”
    Before he left, Dr. Barber was satisfied with how his presentation was accepted by other religious and labor leaders. “Many of the points that we raised were in the final document produced by the conference as a guide to the way forward,” he texted.
    And what about that much anticipated Thanksgiving Day meeting between Dr. Barber and Pope Francis that was scheduled during the two-day gathering? It got cancelled at the last minute,” Barber says.
    “Up until 4 p.m. yesterday the Pope was scheduled to come and be with us,” Bishop Barber texted last Friday. “[But] we were informed around 4:15 p.m. that due to challenges around his trip to Malaysia, and other world events (like the mosque [terrorist] shootings in Egypt), he had to change [his plans].”
    “[The Pope] sent a personal note to us and a papal letter,” Dr. Barber added. Indeed, Pope Francis walked a fine, and some say diplomatically peril less line during his visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh. Myanmar has cracked down on Rohingya Muslims in what some are calling an “ethnic cleansing.” Reports say villages are being burned and women and children are being raped, as over 600,000 refugees have fled to Bangladesh.
    But before he left Italy, Pope Francis issued a letter at the conclusion of the international conference. In that papal letter, the Pope warned of “the money god” that leads to the exploitation of the working poor globally.
    “Work must serve the human person,” Pope Francis said, not the other way around.” He added that “…every worker is the hand of Christ who continues to create and do good.”
    Even though Dr. Barber wasn’t able to personally meet the Pope as he had hoped, he was able to present one of the Pope’s cardinals with gifts for His Eminence from the United States – a small stone from the home of North Carolina civil rights leader Ella Baker, and sand from the Rio Grande [River] where Barber walked with families traveling to see relatives from Mexico they had not seen in years.
    Beyond the conference, if there was one consolation, Dr. Barber wrote, it was that one of the cardinals [from Ghana] he exchanged personal information with promised to visit with the bishop in North Carolina upon his next visit to the United States.
    Editor’s Note – you can red Dr. Barber’s Vatican presentation at https://thecashjournal.blogspot.com/p/bishop-william-j-barbers.html

  • Newswire: Do you want to accelerate social innovation? Invest in Black women.

    Jerelyn Rodriguez , WOMEN@FORBES
    Black women.jpg
     Black woman working on computer

    Is America just waking up to the fact that #BlackGirlMagic is real?
    A few weeks ago the world was raving about the 98% of Black female voters that prevented Roy Moore, accused of sexually assaulting teens, from taking the Senate seat in Alabama. The next day titles like “black women saved America” took over the internet. But let’s not forget that black women have been trying to save the world for generations and in some cases only lack the resources to realize true impact.
    A report issued last year from DigitalUndivided found that even though women accounted for 30% of all small business owners, they received 4.4% of small business loans. In a recent EdSurge article, Aaron Walker from Camelback Ventures highlights that of venture capital funding, “on average, black women raise $36,000, while White men raise $1.3 million.” The disparities in venture and nonprofit funding are slowing down authentic social innovation efforts tackling society’s biggest problems.
    One example is social innovation taking place in the South Bronx, the poorest congressional district, where nearly 30% of young South Bronx residents are unemployed. To solve this, in 2016, with the support of JobsFirstNYC’s Young Adult Sectoral Employment Project (YASEP), The Knowledge House designed the Bronx Digital Pipeline (BxDP). BxDP is a strategic partnership among ten technology education organizations and higher education institutions offering technology skills training to young people from Bronx. The objective is to connect disadvantaged young people to occupational training customized to employer needs that lead to industry-recognized credentials, entry-level tech jobs, and higher wages.
    Emphasizing technology training and entrepreneurship in the Bronx allows disadvantaged young adults to gain exposure to the technology field, helping close the opportunity gap, and fueling an education to employment pipeline of diverse talent. The Bronx can add value to the technology field by providing a centrally and economically accessible pool of well-trained and well-vetted talent so employers can fulfill their various hiring needs. But absent of resources, will we be able to achieve our vision of alleviating poverty? Will we be able to fulfill the promise to the young people in the South Bronx that armed with proper training they too can take part in and thrive in a growing tech industry?
    It has been challenging to fundraise as a young, female, entrepreneur of color. I get called to share my expertise on how to bring technology to the Bronx. Too often I see investments go to outside experts and entities to lead new projects in low-income communities instead of existing grassroots-driven initiatives. Walker states, “companies and organizations led by people of color make a difference in building better solutions for students who look like them. It’s a lot easier to empathize with your user when you are your user.”
    This is why I was intentional about staff hiring at The Knowledge House(TKH). At TKH 100% of our staff are from or currently reside in the area that we serve, 100% identify as African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino or Asian, approximately 60% identify as female, and 50% are alumni of the program. We believe this makes us innovative because students are being taught by people that look like them and have gone through similar experiences. We are inspired by our students and early results — this year 70% of Knowledge House students have been matched to entry-level technology employment. Noteworthy placements include Barclays, Bloomberg, and NYC Department of Education.
    The ideas and proposals from entrepreneurs of color that could potentially impact the most needy communities are not being valued. If we are being denied the right to serve those that look like us, who is being given the right? Walker said it best, ‘What do we miss out on because we failed to provide the financial support necessary for their ideas to take root and spread?’ If we want social innovation to move forward, funders need to believe in our visions as we have developed and iterated them based on our own experiences.
    Let’s hustle together. Let’s invest in leaders who are bringing social innovation to their community. Let’s celebrate, invest in, and champion #BlackGirlMagic.