Homeless people need to be protected under law too

Let’s talk about discrimination for a minute. Firing someone for being homeless is a discriminatory policy. The end.

 

The Clarion Ledger.com had the story by Emily LeCoz. A woman hired earlier this month was fired on Monday by KFC for being homeless. Eunice Jasica had been staying in the Salvation Army lodge since December after losing her job, home, and car.

 

The Salvation Army requires its residents to look for employment daily, and after finding it to pay for lodging and save for a place of their own. Jasica had been job hunting for months, but only just found employment on March 11. Jasica had been hired to perform “prep work” and would receive a pay check every two weeks. However, when Jasica showed up for work on Monday, franchise owner Chesley Ruff withdrew the offer after learning she lived at the Salvation Army.

 

Jasica says, “He told me to come back when I had an address and transportation. But how am I supposed to get all that without a job?”

 

Ruff signed a letter on Monday stating she couldn’t be employed “due to concerns of lack of residence and transportation.”

 

Of course, on Thursday, Ruff changed his tune saying that he was protecting her from the real reason he couldn’t hire her: she has not prior food prep experience and seemed to elderly to lift the 40-pound boxes. Yeah, that is way harsher than you’re homeless and unworthy of a job. Ruff said, “I was trying to spare her feelings, I guess. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong, but I know it was stupid.”

 

Jasica has experience in retail and security, but no food experience. According to KFC Corp spokesman Rick Maynard, KFC operates more than 5,200 restaurants nationwide and follows all applicable employment laws, but notes that independent franchisees make hiring decisions. Additionally, this happened in Mississippi, which is a right to work state so you know minimal labor protections and the employer and employee can terminate a relationship at any time as long as it doesn’t violate anti-discrimination statutes. And this doesn’t because the homeless aren’t protected. However, Jasica might have an argument due to Ruff’s comments about her age.

 

Ruff is arguing he didn’t terminate Jasica because she hadn’t been hired. Of course the documentation signed by the store’s general manager says different. The general manager had no comment. Ruff has hired the homeless in the past, so you know he can’t be discriminating against them now when there is a high unemployment rate. Ruff also described it this way, “Over the 20 or so years I’ve been in Tupelo doing business. I’ve helped people before.” [I need a shower to get that self-congratulatory statement off me.  He’s helped people so much. *tears*]

 

So in conclusion, people are awful and things are rigged. You have no way of escaping poverty once you’re there. Mike Elk posted that Rhode Island is the only state with a homeless bill of rights which prevents the police, medical professionals, etc from treating the homeless poorly because of their housing status.

Down with the cause, but not sure low-wage laborers can do anything about it

So, I’m really uncomfortable with this. I’m all about getting birth control without a prescription, which as far as I’m concerned is the medical and insurance professions way to extort money from women, and over the counter Morning-After-Pill because now pharmacists can deny you access if they are opposed to it or birth control actually.

The video below is the New York chapter of the National Women’s Liberation leading a flashmob action demanding Morning-After-Pills be put on the shelf in a pharmacy in New York City. I’m down with that cause, but the video shows a woman purchasing the Morning-After-Pill (overpriced), but she can get it. They have it available. Yelling and chanting at the low-wage staff members isn’t going to change the law about where pharmacies can carry the Morning-After-Pill.

The group’s leader, Erin Mahoney was asking for the Morning-After-Pill be on the shelf and demanded that the Obama Administration and Health and Human Services eliminate the sexist restrictions and put it over the counter. I can get behind this, but I’m not sure this is the right means. I think their time would be better spent performing this action in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Denying Repro Rights is Discrimination

A new UN Report classifies lack of access to abortion as “torture.” According to Lily Bolourian, the report, written by Juan E. Mendez, “focuses on certain forms of abuses in health-care settings that may cross a threshold of mistreatment that is tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment.” Mendez noted access to abortion specifically.

Mendez writes that compulsory detention for drug users is tantamount to torture as well: “Persons who use, or are suspected of using, drugs, and who do not voluntarily opt for drug treatment and rehabilitation are confined [and are then] compelled to undergo diverse interventions.”

Mendez points out that the withdraw process can be “painful withdrawal from drug dependence without medical assistance administration of unknown or experimental medications. State-sanctioned beatings, caning or whipping, forced labor, sexual abuse, and intentional humiliation.”

Last year, the UN’s Special Report on Reproductive Rights, Anand Grover, demanded the removal of all barriers in regards to reproductive access globally, as well as granted access to contraception. Grover declared the denial of abortion access is discriminatory. So now, we happy dance.

Mendez noted that denying reproductive justice is discrimination on the basis of gender (preach) and can result in “tremendous and lasting physical and emotional suffering” to women. According to the report violations include: “Abusive treatment and humiliation in institutional settings; involuntary sterilization; denial of legally available health services such as abortion and post-abortion care; forced abortions and sterilizations; female genital mutilation; violations of medical secrecy and confidentiality in health-care settings, such as denunciations of women by medical personnel when evidence  of illegal abortion is found; and the practice of attempting to obtain confessions as a condition of potentially life-saving medical treatment after abortion.”

So the report is referencing Nicaragua here, where women and doctors are punished severely for abortion services. The penal code doesn’t get real specific on the differences between spontaneous abortion and miscarriages.

The report also notes the importance of removing government bureaucracy in women’s health care, particularly in the cases of rape survivors seeking abortion. Nothing about legitimate rape though. The report notes that the only reason to make health care difficult for rape survivors is to humiliate and shame them. This strains the government’s resources and more importantly inconveniences women seeking a simple medical procedure.

The report goes further to demand legal abortion worldwide, and ensuring safe and available access to abortion. Of course, without access to abortion then there is no such thing as choice.

Chicago prepares to close a ton of schools at the expense of low-income students of color

A few months ago, I was with a friend of mine who hauls from Chicago. B is awesome with a wicked sense of humor. I like to tell people she was raised in the wild by teamsters, and it isn’t that far off from reality. Regardless, we’re talking about Chicago’s reign as the murder capital of the US, and she looks at me and asks if I know what the police are doing. I try to know what the police are doing in the areas I am, call it self-preservation, but I have no idea what they are doing in Chi-town.

B: Well, Rahm has ordered 300 desk cops into the streets to patrol.

K: That doesn’t sound good.

B: Rahm’s job creation program. One way to get unemployment down is to have 300 cops killed and replace them.

 So yeah, this is paraphrased and a pretty dark joke. But the point remains, Rahm, while I’m still oddly attracted to him, isn’t our friend. He isn’t the friend of labor, the police, education, or children.

Which brings me to the point of this post, which is school closings in Chicago; Al Jazeera had an article. This is about saving money at the expense of low-income students of color. This is the story of our lives. The sequester, rolling police forces in low-income districts into one (Cleveland), lack of funds for homeless individuals and families (DC), etc.

But let’s talk about Chicago before I launch into a full on #IHateEverything rant. Chicago will be closing more than 50 public schools, most of them in poor and minority neighborhoods. Rahm claims the school closings are rough, but they are necessary to deal with the $1 billion dollar deficit. He asserts the closings are necessary to provide students with better education. The Chicago Sun-Times says that one-third of the students will be sent to better performing school. The Chicago Teachers’ Union pointing out the locations of these schools claims the school closings are racist and classist. Yes, tell me more.

Chicago isn’t alone in this plan to close schools. Philly, Detroit, Newark, and DC have all announced similar plans. Naturally, Pew has done a study on this, and they found the school closings will save school districts less than predicted. Some of the finding include: Milwaukee expected to save $10 million a year, and found they are saving $6.5 million a year; DC expected to save $23 million, but actually saved $17 million; and Kansas City achieved substantial savings by laid off 700 people.

Rahm of course has claimed the students will perform better in different schools, but research (and you know how I love research) suggests different. The University of Chicago focused on schools closing between 2001 and 2006 and found that six percent of displaced students ended up in high-performing schools. 42 percent of students continued to attend schools with “very low” achievement levels. A year later, reading and math abilities weren’t better or worse. Of course the students who did attended better-performing schools had to travel 6km to get there which risks the safety of students who have to travel through rival gang territories. Yep, that’s a thing.

I listen to a podcast where one of the hosts discussed her friend a teacher was losing her job, and the teacher isn’t concerned about finding another one, but instead worried about her students having to walk through various gang territories to get to their new school. Digest that. That feeling in your stomach causing you feel like you’re about to be sick, that’s rage.

Below are a few photos from the student led protests in opposition to the school closings from Occupied Chicago Tribune.