Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network
Responds to President’s SOTU
Address
President Obama addressed the country last
night, presenting his view of the state of the union and, giving the nation a
sense of the direction that he intends to lead the country. The core
organizations of the Equal Voice Network, with our 30,000 constituents in
Hidalgo and Cameron counties, welcome the President’s leadership. The critical
state of our own communities, however, requires a number of caveats.
On the Chance to Earn a Living Wage
The President’s call to lift families out
of poverty and into the middle class are a welcome acknowledgement that in our
society, 40 hours of hard work do nothing to alleviate a families’ basic needs.
His suggestion of a raising the minimum wage to $9.00 is, of course, great news
to families who struggle along at the present wage standard. But $9.00 an hour
is not going to take a Valley family out of poverty. Proyecto Azteca, an Equal
Voice partner, insists on paying its workers at least $11.00 an hour. Ann Cass,
the executive director says, “I refuse to pay poverty wages for my workers who
are building homes for other poor people. I challenge other Valley businesses
to do the same. If our small nonprofit can pay a living wage, then so can their
companies.”
On Comprehensive Immigration Reform
If there is one single issue that would
have the greatest effect on our communities, it would be a comprehensive reform
of immigration policies. The
Equal Voice Network appreciates the President’s insistence on a roadmap to
citizenship, but we are unhappy with the continual confusion of immigration
reform and border security. The ACLU, another partner working on behalf of
immigrants’ rights, agrees. Astrid Dominguez, the ACLU’s Border Fellow, noted
that “We are disappointed to hear the President call for increased border
security. The border is secure, apprehensions are down, and immigration
enforcement spending is already out of control. If the President insists
on diverting more resources to border security, we hope that it is spent on
improving port of entry infrastructure, and on increased oversight and
accountability of Customs and Border Protection."
On Early-Childhood Education
While education remains a core value for
our families, it is increasingly a challenge for a colonia child to graduate
from high school, college ready. The call for universal early childhood
education was one of the president’s ideas that the Network welcomes
whole-heartedly. Our partners at ARISE and Proyecto Juan Diego have tracked the
benefits of that intervention for years.
Ron Rogers of the South Texas Adult
Resource and Training Center in San Benito, sees a clear connection between
early childhood education and future employment. In response to the President,
Rogers said, “Early childhood education is vital in the Valley. There is a
clear relationship between an individual’s early education and the opportunity
for a good job.”
Last night, the President offered some
concrete initiatives, for which the Equal Voice Network is grateful. For too
long we have heard the sound of ideas being batted about, a noise that has done
little to pave our roads, take care of our sick, offer well-paying jobs or
address the multiple issues that face our families. For our part, we will
continue to count on the ideas and the initiatives of our families and their
communities.
We will work for change.
We will work collectively in support of
families.
We will protect the rights and opportunities of
all families.
We will be involved in our communities.
We will teach our children values and character.
We will support our youth.
We will inform others of the issues we face and
what we need to do about them.
We will hold our elected officials accountable
to the common good.
About the Equal Voice Network
The
majority of the families in our Network are from one of the 1,200 colonias in
the Valley. They therefore live and work in some of the most challenging
conditions in the USA—we have the highest unemployment and lowest paying jobs
in America. Our neighborhoods lack even the most basic infrastructure—flooding
is an unresolved and constant threat to our homes, our streets are narrow,
unlighted and lack sidewalks, there are no parks to speak of, and our
transportation options are so narrow as to be practically nonexistent. Many of
our families are of mixed immigration status, and have been ripped apart by the
massive deportations of the past few years, even as they have been racially
profiled. While we struggle with an epidemic in obesity, apart from the children
who qualify for Medicaid, medical insurance is unknown in our neighborhoods,.
Education is a challenge even as it remains one of the most important values to
our families. Our families want to be a part of bringing about substantial change
to the Valley, but for decades have been left out of the important decisions
that have been taken on our behalf.
Core
organizations of the Equal Voice Network include:
Proyecto Juan
Diego, Cameron Park (Sister Phylis Peters, Executive Director, (phylispeters@gmail.com); ACLU Border
Abuse Documentation Project, (Astrid Dominguez, Fellow, rgvborderrights@gmail.com);
Mano a Mano, Brownsville (Cristela Gomez, Director, cgomez.bchc@tachc.org); The South Texas
Adult Learning and Training Center, San Benito, (Ron Rogers, Executive Director,
rrogers@startcenter.org); Proyecto
Libertad, Harlingen (Rogelio Nuñez, Director, nrogelio@hushmail.com); ARISE: A
Resource in Sharing Equality, Alamo (Lourdes Flores, Executive Director, lourdes_flores70@yahoo.com); La
Union del Pueblo Entero, San Juan (Juanita Valdez-Cox, Executive Director,
jvaldez@lupemail.com); Proyecto Azteca, San Juan (Ann Williams Cass, Executive
Director, annwcass@aol.com); South Texas
Civil Rights Project, Alamo (Sr. Moira Kenny, Co-Director, moirakenny@gmail.com).
