Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice

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Education Reproductive Choice Stem Cell Research Health Care Environment Death Penalty Poverty CAFOs Voter ID Gay Rights Racial Justice

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The following issues are currently being considered in Focus Groups:

Other issues in which we have been involved, or which may be candidates for potential Focus Group consideration:

Death Penalty

In March, 2007, members of Women's Voices voted to endorse a resolution calling for a moratorium on death penalty executions in the state of Missouri. The Death Penalty Moratorium Resolution passed our membership without a single dissenting vote. It was submitted to Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty and then forwarded to the governor and state legislators.

Death Penalty
Poverty
CAFOs
Education
Reproductive Choice
Stem Cell Research
Racial Justice
Gay Rights
Voting Rights

Poverty

Of all the social justice issues Women's Voices has studied during the past few years....health care, housing, education, criminal justice, immigration, economic security, etc.....the overarching issue that encompasses all of these is poverty. The problem is so huge, and so multifaceted, that it's difficult to know where to begin. As individuals, most of us work to ease the plight of poverty when and where we can, by contributing time, talent, money, or other resources to direct-service agencies. As an organization, Women's Voices has contributed funds to several direct-service agencies. But these actions, worthwhile as they are, do little or nothing to solve the real problem. Real solutions can only be realized through political will and legislative action, and it takes advocacy to influence these efforts.

Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice has joined a number of other St. Louis organizations comprising Community Against Poverty (CAP), an umbrella group which sponsors events to help bring public attention to the issue of poverty in our community, including so far a Candidate Forum on Poverty Issues in September 2008 and a Volunteer Fair in March 2009.

"Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit." ... Eli Khamarov

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice joined with several other organizations to support a screening of the film "Farming Was My Life: The Hidden Costs of CAFOs" in June, 2009. The film was produced by Missouri Rural Crisis Center and Violet Productions.

The film and the panel discussion which followed pointed out some very troublesome and often unknown facts about Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Here are some facts about CAFOs, which are changing the air we breathe, the water we drink, the foods we put on our tables, and the landscape of rural America.

What is a CAFO?

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are agricultural operations where animals are kept and raised in confined situations. CAFOs congregate animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area. Feed is brought to the animals rather than the animals grazing or otherwise seeking feed in pastures, fields, or on rangeland.⁽¹⁾

Some of the many concerns about the proliferation of CAFOs include:

Corporations use CAFOs to raise thousands of animals in warehouses.
Most hogs and poultry are raised in complete confinement with no access to fresh air and sunlight.
Many farmers and communities have no control over whether a CAFO will move into their area.
Some farmers have been forced to sell their farms when CAFOs move into their communities, usually at a loss due to the decline of property values because of the presence of the CAFO.
As a result of increased corporate control of agriculture, the number of hog farmers in Missouri declined by 89% between 1985 and 2006.
According to an EPA study, a CAFO with 4,000 hogs can generate as much waste as a city of 16,000 people. A Class 1A CAFO (17,500 hogs and above) can generate as much waste as the city of St. Louis. This results in contamination of water and air as well as increasing greenhouse gases.
Health studies in North Carolina and Iowa have found that people living near CAFOs suffer significantly higher levels of upper respiratory ailments than people living near other farming areas.
A health study in Iowa found that children living near CAFOs have higher rates of asthma than do other farm children. 19.7% of children who attended schools near CAFOs had asthma, while only 7.3% of children attending school at least 10 miles from a CAFO had asthma.
Antibiotic resistant genes leaking from swine waste lagoons have been found in groundwater wells near Illinois hog facilities.
The Center for Disease Control reports that contaminates, including pathogens, metals, antibiotics, bacteria, and parasites, are found in CAFO lagoons and surrounding wells, drainage ditches, and underground water.
Water pollution from livestock operations remains a serious national problem. In 1998, EPA and USDA reported that livestock pollution affected about 35,000 river miles in 22 states that categorized impacts from specific types of agriculture. In 2003, when EPA published its CAFO permitting rules, it said that 29 states had specifically cited livestock operations as contributing to water quality impairments. ⁽²⁾
The top four beef packers control 84% of steer and heifer slaughter. Smithfield Corporation alone controls over 16% of the genetics of all hogs processed in the USA. ⁽³⁾
Taxpayer dollars, in the form of government subsidies, are being used to prop up CAFO operations. In recent months the pork and poultry industries have asked USDA for millions of dollars for bonus pork and poultry buys in order to stabilize prices resulting from overproduction. On March 31, 2009, USDA committed to a $25 million bonus pork buy, and in May the industry asked for an additional $50 million pork buy. At the same time the USDA is continuing to guarantee loans to new and expanding specialized hog and poultry facilities, which are contributing to the very overproduction that taxpayer dollars are being used to try to remedy the problem of overproduction.
To oppose taxpayer dollars being used to guarantee loans to factory farms, you may contact Tim Gibbons at timgibbons@morural.org for more information.
Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985. It is a progressive, statewide membership organization that works to empower farmers and other rural people. The mission of MRCC is to preserve family farms, promote stewardship of the land and environmental integrity, and strive for economic and social justice by building unity and mutual understanding among diverse groups, both rural and urban. MRCC currently has 5,500 member families.

⁽¹⁾ http://www.epa.gov/Region7/water/cafo/index.htm
⁽²⁾ http://www.cleanwaternetwork.org/files/HR%204341_CWN%20ltr%20(2).doc
⁽³⁾ Missouri Rural Crisis Center: timgibbons@morural.org

Submitted by Alice Serrano, 2008-09 chair of the Women's Voices Environment Focus Group

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Education

Members of Women's Voices are concerned about the quality of education available to all children, but especially children in the St. Louis Public Schools(SLPS). In 2006-2007 we adopted one of the elementary schools after meeting with the Principal and securing her approval. We began with a fourth grade classroom where parental support was minimal and supplies were lacking. Members of Womens� Voices brought school supplies to general meetings. Some members went to the classroom and told stories, led student discussion groups, and planned special parties.

An initiative called Book by Book was carried out for one year. We matched Book Clubs in the St. Louis area with classrooms in our adopted school. The teachers let us know what kind of enrichment books they would like to have in their classrooms, and Women's Voices, with the help of area book clubs, purchased the books and delivered them to the school.

Potential issues for a future Education Focus Group to tackle might include school vouchers, equalizing funding for all Missouri schools, and the inadequacies of the No Child Left Behind federal legislation.

"As long as there is poverty in the world, I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars...I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be." ... Rev. Martin Luther King

Reproductive Choice

Members of Women's Voices believe that the current debate surrounding reproductive choice speaks to one of the basic foundations upon which our country was established: the freedom of religion. We believe that religious matters are best left to religious communities, and not to politicians, and we are concerned about the increasing influence of the "radical right" being manifested today and the increasing tendency to blur the lines between religious belief and government.

Many of our members turned out 2006 and 2007 rallies on reproductive choice in downtown Kirkwood. At the 2006 "Put Prevention First" rally, they listened to a speech by Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization of Women, and vowed to continue working for increased funding for family planning clinics, comprehensive sex education, and access to emergency contraception.

Abortion

Every year since 2005 our members have joined with Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri and Faith Aloud (formerly the Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice) to talk to state legislators in Jefferson City during debate on bills that would make access to abortion more difficult for women in Missouri.

Emergency Contraception

We have worked with Planned Parenthood and NARAL to call attention to the difficulties women encounter when pharmacists, because of religious reasons, refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraceptives. We support the efforts of the Missouri Women's Coalition and other groups that are working to ensure that emergency contraception is available to all women who need it.

For complete information about the organization's stance on women's reproductive rights, read our position paper on this issue.

Stem Cell Research

In April 2006 Women's Voices, along with the St. Louis Chapter of Hadassah, the Ethical Action Commitee of the St. Louis Ethical Society and Friends of the First Unitarian Church, sponsored a public seminar on stem cell research. More than 100 people turned out to learn about stem cell research, its possibilities and limitations, and the ballot initiative that was decided by Missouri voters in November, 2006.

Women's Voices supported the work of the Missouri Coalition for Livesaving Cures and endorsed the ballot initiative. (See our Position paper.)

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion." ... Abraham Lincoln

Racial Justice

Members of Women's Voices are committed to supporting organizations and legislation that further the cause of racial justice and protect the civil rights of all citizens.

We acknowledge the many ways that our society discriminates, sometimes intentionally, sometimes thoughtlessly, in housing, employment, education, health care, and perhaps most disgracefully, within the justice system. We believe that individually and collectively we must raise our voices to oppose discrimination in all its manifestations, small and large, individual and institutional.

Members of Women's Voices marched in the Annie Malone parade in 2006, and have joined the National Conference for Community and Justice of Metropolitan St. Louis each year since 2005 for its "Walk as One" event to express our commitment to fighting bias, bigotry and racism.

If you are interested in forming a Focus Group to address issues of racial justice, and we will put you in contact with other like-minded members of the organization.

Gay Rights

Members of Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice fully support the rights of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered individuals to participate fully in society and enjoy the rights and benefits available to other Americans. Members of the organization showed their support by participating in the PrideFest parade in St. Louis every year since 2005.

Voting Rights

Can We Change the Way We Vote? Maybe!

Shortly after the 2008 November general election, all dues-paying members of Women's Voices were polled to determine whether they thought the organization should work on a project to change the way Missouri votes in general elections. The result of this poll was an overwhelming (but not unanimous) "yes."

During the winter of 2009 a group of concerned citizens in St. Louis met to investigate the possibility of launching a ballot initiative to bring Missouri's voting system into the 21st century. There are several advantages to a ballot initiative: it enables voters to bypass the state legislature, which is dominated by rural and conservative interests in Missouri, and it is a great organizing vehicle for progressive causes. There is one huge disadvantage: it is very expensive, both in terms of money and people-power.

Changing the way Missouri votes would include the ability to have early voting at satellite locations in large metropolitan areas, and "no excuse" absentee voting. Some organizations also favor same-day registration of voters.

The ad-hoc group looking at this issue continues to gather information. During the 2009 legislative session several early voting bills were introduced, but none advanced through the legislative process.

Missouri Voter ID Law

Missouri's proposed Voter ID law was ruled an unconstitutional infringement on the right to vote by a Circuit Court in Cole County in September 2007. This ruling was upheld by the Missouri Supreme Court in a 6-1 decision in October 2007.

Members of Women's Voices had a stake in this legal proceeding, as members unanimously voted to file a Friend of the Court brief on behalf of those who would be victimized by the proposed legislation.

As it was written and passed by the state Legislature, the law would have required every voter to have either:

a Missouri drivers license,
a state-issued non-drivers identification card,
a U. S. passport, or
a military ID.

Without one of these forms of identification, voters would only be permitted to cast a provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are not counted unless authorities can verify the signature.

Members of Women's Voices believe that this law was a "poll tax in disguise," because in order to get a state-issued non-drivers identification card, voters would have had to produce a birth certificate with an embossed seal. In Missouri, it costs $15 to get a birth certificate; in other states, it costs more. Individuals who were not born in a hospital seldom have birth certificates and frequently have difficulty obtaining documentation.

In addition, members believe that the law placed an undue burden on those who do not drive: the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. It posed additional burdens on women who have married or divorced, because it required them to produce copies of marriage licenses or divorce decrees to document name changes.

Finally, we believe that the law was discriminatory because it imposed no photo identification requirement on those who vote by absentee ballot.

We are grateful to Attorney Cynthia Holmes, who filed the Friend of the Court (amicus curiae) brief for us. We were joined in this effort by four other organizations: Missouri Women's Coalition, Missouri Chapter of the National Organization for Women, the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, and the 37 million members of AARP.

Read the Supreme Court decision on Kathleen Weinschenk, etal, Respondents, vs State of Missouri.

"We're seeing people we didn't know existed!" ... Former FEMA Director Michael Brown