Raise Your Voices

Does anyone want to talk about Kirkwood?   I lived in Kirkwood for 31 years, and just moved to another community six months ago.  Like everyone else, I am shattered by the tragic events that took place at Kirkwood City Hall last week.  My heart goes out to all the grieving family members and friends in the community.

But I have some questions, too.  The first one is:  how can a situation continue for so long before some responsible adult steps in and devises a way to solve the problem?  A good definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”  Cookie Thornton racked up thousands of dollars worth of traffic fines because he parked his truck in restricted places.  The police ticketed him.  He continued to park illegally; the police continued to ticket.  At some point, wouldn’t it have seemed logical for someone in Kirkwood to go to Cookie and say, “We’ll help you find a place where you can park your truck legally”? 

Maybe this happened; I don’t know.  And I don’t write this to criticize anyone in Kirkwood city government.  But it just seems sad to me that a city resident can have such a standoff with his city government for such a long time without someone, somehow, attempting to find a solution to the problem other than another parking ticket.

And then, of course, there is the gun issue.  We make it so easy for people to get a gun.  It happened in Columbine.  It happened at Virginia Tech.  Why are we so surprised when it happens in Kirkwood?

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt announced he will not be running for re-election this fall.  What will this mean for Missouri voters?  Will the sudden change distract people from the issues at hand?  Or will issues now take a front seat to political figures in the race for governor?

The Diversity Focus Group would like to invite anyone who is interested to join us on Tuesday, February 26th at 6pm in the University City Library, Meeting Room 1.  Our group is interested in diversity awareness and the promotion of diversity within Women’s Voices as a group. If you have ideas you would like to share, or you are just interested in being part of the discussion, join us–everyone is welcome!

Living in Missouri is high-stress and frustration these days on many fronts.  Among those of us working on environmental issues the angst grows as our governor, Matt Blunt, thumbs his nose at anything resembling good environmental policy.  Blunt’s idea of working against global warming is to tout corn ethanol in order to secure the farm vote and make money for his family members involved in biofuels. Our reality-challenged governor seems to have missed the obvious:

1. It takes roughly a gallon of fossil fuel to make a gallon of ethanol.
2. Gas mileage from ethanol is inferior.
3. The production of corn requires more pesticides and fertilizers than any other crop.
4. Nitrogen from fertilizers in stream water produces significant health risks. 
5. When the nitrogen reaches coastal areas it causes “dead zones” where lack of oxygen chokes marine life.
6. The equivalent of the yearly water supply for a town of 5,000 is used to make 100 million gallons of ethanol..
7. An average ethanol refinery produces roughly 300 tons of hazardous air pollutants annually..
8. 45,000 to 60,000 annual truck shipments receiving and shipping grain and loading out ethanol is likely.
9. Diversion of cropland to corn has raised food prices around  the world.

So, our governor pushed and signed legislation that requires 10% ethanol in every gallon of gasoline.  That became effective January 1.  He signed an executive order requiring that at least 70% of new vehicles purchased by the state Office of Administration be able to use E-85  fuel (85% ethanol).  Now he’s  proposing $2,000,000 in tax breaks for gas stations to add or modify equipment to sell E-85.  And for consumers of E-85, he would offer Missouri Income Tax credits of 25 cents per gallon in year one, 20 cents per gallon in years two and three and 15 cents per gallon in all years after that.  Those measures are in addition the incentives paid farmers who invest in ethanol cooperatives.  (And we won’t even talk about the subsidies and incentives coming from the federal government.)  At least he’s including hybrids in his tax deduction:  the lesser of $1,500 or 10% of the purchase price of a hybrid and/or flex fuel vehicle.  Let it be understood that this tirade is not aimed at any future ethanol that might be produced using prairie grasses, etc., growing  on depleted land, using less fertilizer and no pesticides and employing cleaner technologies in the refining process. 

When the Midwestern Governors Association (MGA) called a summit to craft a climate change agreement, Governor Blunt couldn’t be bothered.  He was the only one of the twelve governors in the Association who did not participate in any way in the months-long development process.  When it was finished he ignored it.  After sound criticism and careful “review” he signed some minor portions of it — mostly those having to do with biofuels — in mid-December.  But he DID NOT SIGN the main parts of the Climate Stewardship Platform and Greenhouse Gas Accord that included specific goals such as producing 30 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030; establishing a multisector cap-and-trade mechanism; and requiring coal-fired plants to capture and store emissions by 2020.  His refusal to cooperate comes after reports citing Missouri as the 12th-dirtiest state in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and number 46 in energy conservation.

We already get 85% of our electricity from filthy coal-fired plants and permits are still being issued.   Two plants are under construction and another, in Norbonne, is scheduled to begin this year.  Enough already.  Wake up Missouri and get that man out of there. 

Ruth Ann Cioci  Chair, Environment Focus Group  January, 2008

At our January meeting, Rev. Martha Brunell of Friedens United Church of Christ asked us to consider four questions:

Are you mad? 
What are you mad about? 
How long are you willing to be mad? 
Are you willing to be changed? 

Good questions.  There are way too many things to be mad about these days.  You can’t do something about all of them.  But you can’t let that keep you from trying to something about some of them, or at least one of them.  So … what are you mad about?  And what are you doing about it?

Twenty nine women, one of every six members of Women’s Voices, currently sit on the Health Care Focus Group. We’ve been meeting once a month in my kitchen for over two years, trying to identify ways we can be productively involved in health care reform in Missouri.

What a challenge! How can a group of 29 women, few of us health care professionals, hope to solve a problem that’s been stumping the experts for decades? How can we expect to wage an effective battle against the entrenched special interest lobbying of huge private insurance and drug companies and an entrenched majority in Jefferson City that continues to see health care as a privilege rather than a right?

One legitimate approach would be to advocate exclusively for a single-payer system in Missouri. After all, every one of us on the focus group believes single payer is ultimately the way to go. We’d be thrilled if, with an unexpected stroke of the pen, Governor Blunt would make Missouri the first state to enact this sensible and just system. By deciding to throw all our energy into single-payer advocacy now, we’d be joining forces with Missourians for Single Payer Healthcare, a strong, committed organization that has been leading this charge for years. We’d be strengthening an advocacy position that, as SLU’s Professor Sidney Watson told us two years ago, is absolutely essential to any statewide reform, even incremental reform.

So why have we decided to take a different approach? We’ve made this decision because we believe that the road to a single-payer system will be a series of incremental victories. We’re pragmatists, I guess. Until single payer is closer to reality, we’ve chosen to work right now to put more Missourians back on the Medicaid roles, to enroll more kids in SCHIP, to restore essential services for the elderly and those with disabilities.

Specifically, we’re working with Jobs with Justice to develop issue-related initiatives to promote reform and with Grass Roots Organizing (GRO) as they work to insure more Missourians. In addition, we continue to stand ready to respond to advocacy requests from Citizens for Missouri’s Children and the Missouri Budget Project, especially during the legislative session.

Finally, we’ve decided to put much of our effort in the coming year into helping our fellow Missourians better understand our state’s health care crisis, so that more of them will be ready to join the call for real reform. We’ve become partners with a statewide coalition, Missouri Health Care for All, and have offered to be trained as community outreach volunteers for them as they spread the word about why our current system is broken – and what is needed in its place.

All five of these organizations would be elated if a single-payer system were enacted tomorrow. But until we get there, all five of them – and we – have chosen to work on incremental reform. Does our alliance with them mean we’re timid and short-sighted? Certainly not. Does it mean we don’t appreciate the essential role that Missourians for Single Payer Healthcare plays in our state? Of course not.

What it does mean is that we have made a deliberate decision to work incrementally, recognizing the value of all legitimate approaches to reform. We hope, as members of Women’s Voices, that you’ll support our choosing this approach.

Ann Ruger
Chair, Health Care Focus Group
January 2008

Welcome to the Women’s Voices weblog.  This our our organization’s first attempt at blogging, and my first posting.  While considering what to write, I thought of a lot of things to comment on:  the hateful war in Iraq, the abysmal state of America’s health-care system, the unfair attempts to impose voter ID laws in several states, the ongoing threats to Roe v Wade…..there is no lack of things to get irate about.

But this afternoon I went to a funeral for one of our members, Norella Huggins.  Norella was an early supporter of Women’s Voices and a member of our first Advisory Board.  Norella was irate about a lot of things, too, but she was a wonderful example of how a person can channel her discontent into productive activities.  As an “older adult,” Norella got a scholarship and went to law school.  She then practiced environmental law for 18 years.  She was concerned about what was happening in her community, so she served on countless civic boards and commissions.  She cared about those who were less fortunate, so she volunteered her time and treasure to several foundations and religious organizations.  And slowly, over time, Norella developed a great skill in public policy work.  She began to make a real difference in people’s lives.  And many of those whose lives were touched by her work have never even heard of her.

 Most of us can’t be Norellas.  We don’t have the time, energy, interest or patience to do what she did.  But each of us can do something, and I think that is what counts. 

The purpose of Women’s Voices is to give each of us a way to do something that counts.  And we get to do these things together, in community with other caring women.

Norella’s death is sad.  Norella’s life can be an inspiration. 

What do you think?

Barbara Finch, president