MomsRising Blog #parents

MomsRising Blog:

I can sleep again thanks to health reform

Deidre Bagocki at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

My son was born with a genetic disorder called Williams syndrome. His health care costs totaled $1 million before he turned two. The night the Affordable Care Act passed was the best night’s sleep I’d had since he was diagnosed. Shame on any presidential candidate who says he will repeal this act if elected. We [...]

Thanks to the ACA, my daughter is safe from losing coverage

Elaine Cornett at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

Our daughter has Type 1 Diabetes. It’s a chronic, life threatening disease, and, before the Affordable Care Act, it excluded her from insurance coverage because it’s a preexisting condition. Having your child lose coverage is a serious and constant concern for parents like me. At diabetes support group gatherings, I’ve talked to countless parents who [...]

Kntting hats for babies: Why I’m grateful for the Affordable Care Act

Teri Kepner at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

My son, Cody, was 22 years old when his Crohn’s Disease became active. He was employed full-time in the public elementary school system as an aide to two boys with autism. The job offered no health insurance. He also worked part time at Panera Bread—another job offering no health insurance as it was part-time. He [...]

A lifetime limit on insurance would limit my daughter’s lifetime

Julie Walters at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

I have paid for healthcare my entire life either through an employer or with an individual plan, and at the age 31 I gave birth to my first child. I was not overweight, didn’t drink or smoke and did everything my doctor said to do while pregnant. Our daughter was born with a rare and [...]

Now a beautiful grown woman, but still my baby girl – with a pre-existing heart condition

Lisa Doyle at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

I am the mother of two girls. My daughter Jennifer is 27 years old and a third year law school student. My daughter Julie is 25 years old. Julie’s life has been filled with numerous road blocks. Julie had her first heart procedure at age 12 and the last 13 years have been filled with [...]

The Affordable Care Act Allows My Children to Invest in Their Future

Tracy Muñoz at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

Despite the fact that my husband and I both had jobs and were covered by private health insurance, our family’s credit history was damaged after I was in a car accident in 1998 and needed hip replacement surgery. We had to take drastic financial measures in order to pay for thousands of dollars in costs [...]

How much more pressure do families have to face?

Tracy C. Heiman at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

Our 8-year old son has been battling a rare cancer called a sarcoma for over 4 years. Unfortunately, this disease will be treated as a chronic condition for the rest of his life. I was so grateful and relieved the night that health care reform was finally passed back in December of 2009. We personally [...]

Diagnosed with liver disease at 19, planning for my health coverage

Bonnie Brueggemann at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

When I was 19 years old, I was diagnosed with liver disease. It was caused by a birth defect. After having major surgery, I have been fine but need regular monitoring by liver specialists to maintain my health. I am 23 years old now and am lucky enough to be covered by my parents’ insurance [ ...]

Thanks to the ACA, our son is fully covered

Dawn Josephson at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

I have a son with a pre-existing eye condition that requires surgeries. My husband and I are both self-employed and secure our own health insurance. After my son’s first eye surgery in 2008, our insurance company dropped us, simply saying they can no longer extend coverage to us. The next company we got a policy [...]

An Unusual First Four Years of Life

Felicia Willems at MomsRising Blog - 9 minutes ago

My son, Ethan, has had a very unusual first four years of life. Most of his first year was spent in and out of the hospital, receiving out-patient chemotherapy, three sclerotherapies, and intensive physical therapy - all due to a rare, non-cancerous (but very harmful) vascular tumor on his lower right leg. There was even talk of amputating his leg [...]

Health reform has given our family hope

Brenda Adrine at MomsRising Blog - 48 minutes ago

Health reform has given our family hope during this difficult economic downturn. My husband and I have two adult children (a son and a daughter) who were both out of work for several years. Both of them are single parents with two children each. On two pensions and a Social Security check, we [...]

Getting health coverage for my unexpected pregnancy

Katelyn Oldham at MomsRising Blog - 48 minutes ago

When I was 25 years old, I was getting ready to begin law school. My husband and I moved from Portland to Eugene and I quit my job in Portland, which had provided health insurance. When I moved to Eugene and before law school started, I worked full-time for a temporary agency doing administrative work. [...]

The Affordable Care Act has helped me get necessary preventive care

Cindy Okolichany at MomsRising Blog - 48 minutes ago

The Affordable Care Act has helped me and millions of others, get the preventive care they need. I recently turned 50 and went for my annual physical. My doctor recommended that I make an appointment for a colonoscopy. I did that, and on the day of the appointment was shocked that I was going [...]

The Affordable Care Act has impacted me — and my employer

Donna Rodriguez at MomsRising Blog - 48 minutes ago

Since the Affordable Care Act passed, I have had a mammogram which was paid in full by my insurance. The last mammogram I had, my insurance company paid just $12.00, and I had to pay the rest. I think it was around $200 – I saved the bill because I couldn’t believe they could get [...]

Green Eggs and Pink Slime

Monifa Bandele at MomsRising Blog - 4 hours ago

Will you eat them here or there? We all love Sam-I-Am’s rhythmic attempt to encourage others to eat strange green food. And when the green eggs are finally eaten, it’s hilarious! But moms and dads aren’t laughing about feeling trapped in a storybook where it’s Uncle Sam who is endorsing a food that we do not want [...]

Is there lead in your necklace?

Rebecca Meuninck at MomsRising Blog - 5 hours ago

Most of us Moms wear jewelry, not necessarily fancy, diamond studded jewelry, just everyday jewelry that brightens up our look a bit. We aren’t surprised when our jewelry ends up in our kids’ mouths every once in a while. Most babies think necklaces make excellent teethers! But, what happens if that impromptu teether (ie necklace) [...]

Education Research Report: Beyond The #Classroom: Drexel University Study Looks at Teachers on Twitter

Education Research Report: Beyond The #Classroom: Drexel University Study Looks at Teachers on Twitter:

Beyond The #Classroom: Drexel University Study Looks at Teachers on Twitter

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Teachers are stretching Twitter’s reach to more than just 140 character quips according to a new study by The iSchool at Drexel University researchers. The study, entitled “Grassroots Professional Development: How Teachers Use Twitter” suggests that teachers are molding Twitter from its common perception as a social medium for sharing personal information and observations, to a conduit for disseminating educational resources and connecting with distant colleagues.

The research notes that while 80 percent of Twitter users are “meformers,” people who include personal information and status updates in their tweets, only 2.5 percent of teachers’ tweets contain personal information. By contrast, educators tend to use Twitter to connect with distant colleagues and share and discover new ideas and teaching resources, according to the study.

Dr. Andrea Forte, assistant professor in The iSchool at Drexel, undergraduate Melissa Humphreys and Ph.D. student Thomas Park 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What To Do If You Don't Want to See the Charter Bill Passed

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What To Do If You Don't Want to See the Charter Bill Passed:

What To Do If You Don't Want to See the Charter Bill Passed

by Melissa Westbrook

Public education IS education and I learned some new things today.  (If you already know this, power to you but I'm still learning.)

So technically, while the charter bill is in the budget, the bill itself has to be passed.

Also, if the Governor doesn't sign the bill, it won't pass and the money embedded in the budget for it lapses (and goes elsewhere).  Frankly, I can think of many other education needs for nearly $800k.

So job one is to write your legislators.

Super job one is to write the Governor. 

 I plan on writing or calling every single day.  FYI, they tend to get thousands of e-mails and phone calls; snail mail is a good option.

Her e-message page

Governor Chris Gregoire
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002

Call Governor Gregoire's Office:
360-902-4111

Fax Governor Gregoire:
360-753-4110

IEA RA. The leadership debates by sleazy means. « Fred Klonsky

IEA RA. The leadership debates by sleazy means. « Fred Klonsky:

IEA RA. The leadership debates by sleazy means.

by Fred Klonsky

I submitted my Organizer’s New Business Item this afternoon.

The RA directs the IEA Board of Directors to create an opt-in, password protected database on the IEA website. Members would be able to contact other members who live in the same legislative districts for the purpose of coordinating back-home lobbying. It should be set up by September 1, 2012.

Bob Haisman, former IEA President and retiree activist seconded the NBI.
I wondered how the leadership would go after this. What would be their argument? I wasn’t sure. I just know that decentralized, mobilized political action makes them uncomfortable. They would come up with something.
This is what they will put 

PURE! Another school fights back against CPS disinvestment

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Another school fights back against CPS disinvestment:

Another school fights back against CPS disinvestment

by admin

Progressive Action Coalition for Education (PACE) Rally To End Education Apartheid at Robert Emmet School
Contact: Dwayne Truss
(773) 879-5216
austin_youth@sbcglobal.net
The Local School Council of Robert Emmet Elementary School and PACE are hosting both a press conference and rally on Friday, March 16, 8:00 a.m., at 5500 West Madison Street  to educate  parents, educators, community stakeholders and elected officials about the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) disinvestment in Robert Emmet School.
Emmet is need of both capital and human investment.  The students are served lunch in the hallway and eat their lunches in the same section of the building used for physical education and assembly.  The playground is marked with dangerous potholes.  The field house is decaying and is a danger to both the students and parents.  CPS also cut the schools’ librarian before the current school year.
Robert Emmet School is a neighborhood school whose 2011 composite ISAT meet or exceed is 73.8%.   

Inaugural Teachbad Book Club Eventacular | Mr. Teachbad

Inaugural Teachbad Book Club Eventacular | Mr. Teachbad:

Inaugural Teachbad Book Club Eventacular

I am delighted to kick off the Teach­bad Book Club with our very first book, Why Great Teach­ers Quit and How We Might Stop the Exo­dus (2010) by Katy Far­ber. The author has gra­ciously agreed to par­tic­i­pate in our dis­cus­sion. Ms. Far­ber wel­comes and invites you:

Thanks for host­ing this book club, Peter. I hope your read­ers find the book help­ful, val­i­dat­ing, and moti­vat­ing. Mostly, I hope they find that it gives voice to the real con­cerns of teach­ers today. My goal is to work to make teach­ing more sus­tain­able, more humane, and more empow­er­ing. Maybe that would put Teach­bad out of business!

But truly, we’ve got to find ways to pre­serve our cre­ativ­ity, our pas­sion, and our voice in teach­ing. Too many teach­ers quit, or stay when they are drained by the sys­tem. No other edu­ca­tional “reform” will work one iota if we don’t address teacher sustainability.

What are your ideas, read­ers? How do you think schools, states, and our coun­try could make teach­ing more sus­tain­able and humane?

Here are some ques­tions that might get us started:
1) As an indi­vid­ual, can you iso­late any of the annoy­ances well-described in the book (par­ents, test­ing, time, stu­dent 

A former Teach for America, Inc. recruit speaks up | Seattle Education

A former Teach for America, Inc. recruit speaks up | Seattle Education:

A former Teach for America, Inc. recruit speaks up

by seattleducation2011

Maybe we can get our school board members to watch this video before they vote on continuing our contract with Teach for America, Inc.
In Mr. Bilby’s words:
My name is John Bilby and I was a TFA teacher in the New York region from September 2009 until March 2010. I left the organization because I felt that it does not adequately prepare its people to serve the poorest children in public schools. I also think that TFA is more interested in power, access, and influence in the federal game of education than it is concerned with resolving educational inequity. Its “corps members” are merely a means to 

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THREE REGIONAL PUBLIC HEARINGS STS Public Hearing Announcement for March 2012 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

STS Public Hearing Announcement for March 2012 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):

CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

1430 N Street, Suite 5111
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-319-0827
Fax: 916-319-0175

March 15, 2012

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THREE REGIONAL PUBLIC HEARINGS

California State Board of Education

Proposed Performance Level Cut Scores for the
Standards-based Tests in Spanish:
Reading/Language Arts in Grades Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven and
Mathematics in Algebra I and Geometry

To be used in reporting the results of the Standards-based Tests in Spanish (STS) for Reading/Language Arts (RLA) grades eight through eleven and Algebra I and Geometry administered in spring 2011 and thereafter.

---

Monday, March 26, 2012 
9:30 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Videoconference

Santa Clara County Office of Education
1290 Ridder Park Drive
San Jose, CA 95131
408-453-6500

Monday, March 26, 2012 
2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Videoconference

San Diego County Office of Education
Joe Rindone Regional Technology Center
6401 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111
858-571-7259

Wednesday, May 9 or Thursday, May 10, 2010 
10:00 a.m. – as necessary.
California State Board of Education Meeting

California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-319-0827

---

To: County and District Superintendents
       Charter School Administrators
       Other Interested Parties

The STS was developed in response to the authorization of California Senate Bill (SB) 1448, Chapter 233, Statutes of 2004. SB 1448 requires the development of a test in Spanish that is aligned to the California content standards for RLA and mathematics to replace the Aprenda 3, a norm-referenced test, as the designated primary language test.

The STS assesses the academic performance of students by measuring student achievement on the California content standards in their primary language. The STS is administered in grades two through eleven for RLA; in grades two through seven for mathematics; and for the Algebra I and Geometry end-of-course examinations.

In 2005, the SBE approved blueprints for the development of the STS for RLA and Mathematics in grades two through four. In 2006, blueprints were approved by the SBE for grades five through seven. In 2007, the SBE approved blueprints for RLA in grades eight through eleven, for Algebra I, and for Geometry. In May 2009, the SBE adopted performance standards (levels) for the STS for RLA and STS for Mathematics in grades two through four. In May 2010, the SBE adopted performance standards (levels) for the STS for RLA and STS for Mathematics in grades five through seven.

At its March 2012 meeting, the SBE: 1) approved the State Superintendent of Public Instruction’s (SSPI’s) proposed performance standards (levels) for STS for RLA in grades eight through eleven, and for STS Algebra I and Geometry; and 2) directed CDE and SBE staff to conduct regional public hearings on the proposed performance standards (levels) for the STS for RLA in grades eight through eleven, and for STS Algebra I and Geometry to be brought to the SBE in May 2012 for adoption.

Information on the proposed cut scores for establishing the performance levels is available on the SBE Web site athttp://www.cde.ca.gov/be/pn/pn/starpublichearings.asp. Three regional public hearings will be conducted for the purpose of gathering comments from a cross section of interested parties, including teachers, administrators, school board members and other local elected officials, business leaders, parents, guardians, and students. Comments and suggestions are sought on the proposed cut scores on the respective tests that will determine students’ performance levels.

The regional public hearings at the Santa Clara County Office of Education and the San Diego County Office of Education on March 26, 2011, will be videoconferences. SBE members whose schedules permit them to attend and SBE and Department of Education executive staff will be prepared to accept public comments and input on a continuous basis during the videoconferences. Individuals are not required to prearrange a specific time to present their comments. Oral comments will be accepted as individuals arrive. Some delays may occur if many individuals arrive at the same time; patience will be appreciated if delays do occur.

The third and final regional public hearing will be conducted in Sacramento on May 9 or 10, 2012, in conjunction with the SBE’s regular May meeting. It will begin no earlier than 10:00 a.m. but will last only as long as necessary to hear from those who wish to orally testify at that time. The SBE may, at that time, make changes to the proposed performance standards (levels) based on public input and board discussion.

Individuals need not attend a regional public hearing to present their comments. The SBE will be pleased to receive comments by mail, e-mail, or fax. See below for contact information.

Mail: 
California State Board of Education
Attention: Patricia de Cos
1430 N Street, Room 5111
Sacramento, CA 95814

E-mail: 
pdecos@cde.ca.gov

Fax: 
916-319-0175

Why Democrats Should Oppose Parent Trigger Laws | OurFuture.org

Why Democrats Should Oppose Parent Trigger Laws | OurFuture.org:

Why Democrats Should Oppose Parent Trigger Laws

by Jeff Bryant

Last week in Florida there was an important victory for progressive Democrats that not many Democrats know about. Even worse, most Democrats may not even be aware why this was a victory.
The important win was generated by a coalition of parent groups, schoolteachers, and advocates for public education who were able to pressure the Florida State Senate to block HB 1191, called "The Parent Empowerment Law." The law creates a process known as the Parent Trigger, in which a majority of parents at a "low-performing school" (usually defined by test scores) can sign a petition to trigger one of a narrow set of options, which often include firing all or some of the staff, turning the school over to a charter operator, or closing the school outright.
According to the education trade newspaper Education Week, the first Parent Trigger law passed in California in 2010, and two similar laws were then passed in Texas and Mississippi. Now, Parent Trigger laws are being considered in at least a dozen more states.
When the Parent Trigger narrowly passed the California state legislature in 2010, it was widely portrayed as a 

ASCD Inservice: Build Your Network at #ASCD12

ASCD Inservice: Build Your Network at #ASCD12:

Build Your Network at #ASCD12

Networking opportunities abound at #ASCD12. These four apps guarantee you won't miss a beat (or tweet).

• Hashable helps you organize new contacts by Twitter or email handle, seamlessly follow up on a face-to-face meeting with a personal note or virtual business card, and set calendar reminders for when you need to get back in touch.


• GroupMe is ideal if you're attending the conference with a group and need to easily coordinate plans. This app lets you cluster text message contacts together by groups you define – say "ASCD12 friends" or "family" --  and automatically sends messages via SMS when connectivity is patchy.


• Ban.jo ensures you don't miss connecting with someone from you online social circle in real life. Once you've synced your social accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn; Ban.jo will alert you if one of your friends is nearby.
• Lanyrd keeps your conference experience organized with session times, locations, who's tweeting, and who's speaking at the events and sessions you're interested in. You'll always know what's trending at professional events, with this app.

While you're thinking social, don't forget to register for the #ASCD12 Tweetup Saturday, March 24th, from 7 - 9 p.m. at the Field House bar (attached to the Convention Center).

Posted by ASCD Bloggers at 02:53:38 PM in Annual Conference, Technology

Parents Across America (PAA) Parent Leader Rita Solnet honored at FL School Bd Mtg last night for Trigger Bill defeat #soschat

Past School Board Meeting Videos:

 

PAA honored at FL School Bd Mtg last night for Trigger Bill defeat. (Opening: Go to minute 7) 

 

Rita Solnet is a parent of a son who graduated from south Florida public schools in 2008.  She has been an education activist in Palm Beach County and in Tallahassee for over a decade, and often acts as the intermediary to the business community.  After having worked in IBM Corporation over 23 years, she founded her own corporate training and organizational consulting firm ten years ago.  She has held numerous leadership positions within Palm Beach County School District, the 11th largest district in the nation, was PTA President for four years, School Advisory Council Board Member for 8 years, District Business Partner liaison, and currently serves as Chair of the Boca Raton High School Advisory Council.  She belongs to the West Boca Chamber of Commerce and is member of the ALS Foundation.  Her letter to Sec. Duncan protesting his “Race to the Top” grant program was recently reprinted in the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet and has begun blogging atHuffington Post.  Along with Sue Magers, she has formed Parents Across America, Florida. Email Rita

To Learn More or Join 

go to 

Parents Across America Website

 

School Tech Connect: Direct Instruction Is Killing Us

School Tech Connect: Direct Instruction Is Killing Us:

Direct Instruction Is Killing Us

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

This is a popular thing to say in my field:

You actually get your edtech card revoked if you haven't expressed that idea in a forum recently. The direct 

The Greedy Goals Behind The GOP’s Plot To Uneducate America:

The Greedy Goals Behind The GOP’s Plot To Uneducate America

By: RmuseMarch 14, 2012see more posts by Rmuse

The idea that any American can achieve success with ambition and hard work has been a hallmark of American exceptionalism for decades, but since the Bush-era Great Recession, the so-called American dream has vanished. With Republicans giving corporate tax breaks to companies that outsource millions of American’s jobs and obstructing economic growth, the prospect of a living-wage job, home ownership, adequate healthcare, and a secure retirement have become a pipe-dream for all but the most optimistic Americans. In the not-so-distant past, a college education was a hedge against a life of subsistence existence and even low-income Americans had the opportunity to earn a degree and hope for financial stability in the near and distant future. Those days, like the American Dream, are disappearing and the result is leading to a two-caste system that favors the wealthy as federal scholarships are shrinking in relation to the cost of a college education leaving low-income Americans with limited opportunities for social mobility and a better life than their parents.

The Republican primary has revealed a troubling assault on higher education by Republicans who prefer investing in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations instead of education, and it “reinforces class stratification” in 

Bringing PRIDE to Parent Engagement:

Bringing PRIDE to Parent Engagement

By Connie K. Grier, M.Ed.

Parental Engagement is not isolated to either the school or home sphere. It is an ongoing, daily event that must occur in both sectors. When increasing the level of parental engagement, remembering the following has the potential to positively enhance both home based and school based engagement levels:

Parental Engagement is Cyclical

One day will not necessarily look like another day in terms of the intensity of the engagement; however engagement must take place on some level every day.  Consider the nurturing required when growing a beautiful rose garden as an example. The gardener spends maybe one or two days a year in the yard dropping the seeds and tiling the soil that produces those beautiful buds; however those seeds must be watered, receive adequate sunlight, and be fed through nourishing soil daily.

Effective Parental Engagement is not Always Pleasant

It will require that the tough decisions be made by parents that are in the best interest of the child.  This does not translate to "the decisions that are most liked by the child".  As parents, friendship with our children is a dish best served in the latter adult years, if ever at all.  While parents are partially responsible for the happiness that children experience, serious decisions should not be made based on their popularity.  Some days you will want to hug your children to death because you are so proud; others you will want to exile them to 

President Lyndon Johnson - Speech on Voting Rights

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy.

I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause.

At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.

There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed.

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight.

For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great Government—the Government of the greatest Nation on earth.

Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.

In our time we have come to live with moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues; issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved Nation.

The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation.

For with a country as with a person, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?"

There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans—not as Democrats or Republicans--we are met here as Americans to solve that problem.

This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal"—"government by consent of the governed"—"give me liberty or give me death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.

Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, and provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.

To apply any other test—to deny a man his hopes because of his color or race, his religion or the place of his birth—is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom.

Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be rooted in democracy. The most basic right of all was the right to choose your own leaders. The history of this country, in large measure, is the history of the expansion of that right to all of our people.

Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right.

Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes.

Every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right. The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists, and if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name or because he abbreviated a word on the application.

And if he manages to fill out an application he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test. He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of State law. And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that he can read and write.

For the fact is that the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin.

Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books—and I have helped to put three of them there—can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it.

In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution. We must now act in obedience to that oath.

Wednesday I will send to Congress a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote.

The broad principles of that bill will be in the hands of the Democratic and Republican leaders tomorrow. After they have reviewed it, it will come here formally as a bill. I am grateful for this opportunity to come here tonight at the invitation of the leadership to reason with my friends, to give them my views, and to visit with my former colleagues.

I have had prepared a more comprehensive analysis of the legislation which I had intended to transmit to the clerk tomorrow but which I will submit to the clerks tonight. But I want to really discuss with you now briefly the main proposals of this legislation.

This bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections—federal, state, and local—which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote.

This bill will establish a simple, uniform standard which cannot be used, however ingenious the effort, to flout our Constitution.

It will provide for citizens to be registered by officials of the United States Government if the State officials refuse to register them.

It will eliminate tedious, unnecessary lawsuits which delay the right to vote.

Finally, this legislation will ensure that properly registered individuals are not prohibited from voting.

I will welcome the suggestions from all of the Members of Congress—I have no doubt that I will get some—on ways and means to strengthen this law and to make it effective. But experience has plainly shown that this is the only path to carry out the command of the Constitution.

To those who seek to avoid action by their National Government in their own communities; who want to and who seek to maintain purely local control over elections, the answer is simple:

Open your polling places to all your people.

Allow men and women to register and vote whatever the color of their skin.

Extend the rights of citizenship to every citizen of this land.

There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain.

There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.

There is no issue of States rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.

I have not the slightest doubt what will be your answer.

The last time a President sent a civil rights bill to the Congress it contained a provision to protect voting rights in federal elections. That civil rights bill was passed after eight long months of debate. And when that bill came to my desk from the Congress for my signature, the heart of the voting provision had been eliminated.

This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, no hesitation and no compromise with our purpose.

We cannot, we must not, refuse to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that he may desire to participate in. And we ought not and we cannot and we must not wait another 8 months before we get a bill. We have already waited a hundred years and more, and the time for waiting is gone.

So I ask you to join me in working long hours—nights and weekends, if necessary—to pass this bill. And I don't make that request lightly. For from the window where I sit with the problems of our country I recognize that outside this chamber is the outraged conscience of a nation, the grave concern of many nations, and the harsh judgment of history on our acts.

But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life.

Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.

As a man whose roots go deeply into Southern soil, I know how agonizing racial feelings are. I know how difficult it is to reshape the attitudes and the structure of our society.

But a century has passed, more than a hundred years, since the Negro was freed. And he is not fully free tonight.

It was more than a hundred years ago that Abraham Lincoln, a great President of another party, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but emancipation is a proclamation and not a fact.

A century has passed, more than a hundred years, since equality was promised. And yet the Negro is not equal.

A century has passed since the day of promise. And the promise is unkept.

The time of justice has now come. I tell you that I believe sincerely that no force can hold it back. It is right in the eyes of man and God that it should come. And when it does, I think that day will brighten the lives of every American.

For Negroes are not the only victims. How many white children have gone uneducated, how many white families have lived in stark poverty, how many white lives have been scarred by fear, because we have wasted our energy and our substance to maintain the barriers of hatred and terror?

So I say to all of you here, and to all in the Nation tonight, that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future.

This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all: black and white, North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They are the enemies and not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too, poverty, disease and ignorance, we shall overcome.

Now let none of us in any sections look with prideful righteousness on the troubles in another section, or on the problems of our neighbors. There is really no part of America where the promise of equality has been fully kept. In Buffalo as well as in Birmingham, in Philadelphia as well as in Selma, Americans are struggling for the fruits of freedom.

This is one Nation. What happens in Selma or in Cincinnati is a matter of legitimate concern to every American. But let each of us look within our own hearts and our own communities, and let each of us put our shoulder to the wheel to root out injustice wherever it exists.

As we meet here in this peaceful, historic chamber tonight, men from the South, some of whom were at Iwo Jima, men from the North who have carried Old Glory to far corners of the world and brought it back without a stain on it, men from the East and from the West, are all fighting together without regard to religion, or color, or region, in Viet-Nam. Men from every region fought for us across the world 20 years ago.

And in these common dangers and these common sacrifices the South made its contribution of honor and gallantry no less than any other region of the great Republic—and in some instances, a great many of them, more.

And I have not the slightest doubt that good men from everywhere in this country, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Golden Gate to the harbors along the Atlantic, will rally together now in this cause to vindicate the freedom of all Americans. For all of us owe this duty; and I believe that all of us will respond to it.

Your President makes that request of every American.

The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro. His actions and protests, his courage to risk safety and even to risk his life, have awakened the conscience of this Nation. His demonstrations have been designed to call attention to injustice, designed to provoke change, designed to stir reform.

He has called upon us to make good the promise of America. And who among us can say that we would have made the same progress were it not for his persistent bravery, and his faith in American democracy.

For at the real heart of battle for equality is a deep-seated belief in the democratic process. Equality depends not on the force of arms or tear gas but upon the force of moral right; not on recourse to violence but on respect for law and order.

There have been many pressures upon your President and there will be others as the days come and go. But I pledge you tonight that we intend to fight this battle where it should be fought: in the courts, and in the Congress, and in the hearts of men.

We must preserve the right of free speech and the right of free assembly. But the right of free speech does not carry with it, as has been said, the right to holier fire in a crowded theater. We must preserve the right to free assembly, but free assembly does not carry with it the right to block public thoroughfares to traffic.

We do have a right to protest, and a right to march under conditions that do not infringe the constitutional rights of our neighbors. And I intend to protect all those rights as long as I am permitted to serve in this office.

We will guard against violence, knowing it strikes from our hands the very weapons which we seek—progress, obedience to law, and belief in American values.

In Selma as elsewhere we seek and pray for peace. We seek order. We seek unity. But we will not accept the peace of stifled rights, or the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest. For peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty.

In Selma tonight, as in every—and we had a good day there—as in every city, we are working for just and peaceful settlement. We must all remember that after this speech I am making tonight, after the police and the FBI and the Marshals have all gone, and after you have promptly passed this bill, the people of Selma and the other cities of the Nation must still live and work together. And when the attention of the Nation has gone elsewhere they must try to heal the wounds and to build a new community.

This cannot be easily done on a battleground of violence, as the history of the South itself shows. It is in recognition of this that men of both races have shown such an outstandingly impressive responsibility in recent days—last Tuesday, again today.

The bill that I am presenting to you will be known as a civil rights bill. But, in a larger sense, most of the program I am recommending is a civil rights program. Its object is to open the city of hope to all people of all races.

Because all Americans just must have the right to vote. And we are going to give them that right.

All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship regardless of race. And they are going to have those privileges of citizenship regardless of race.

But I would like to caution you and remind you that to exercise these privileges takes much more than just legal right. It requires a trained mind and a healthy body. It requires a decent home, and the chance to find a job, and the opportunity to escape from the clutches of poverty.

Of course, people cannot contribute to the Nation if they are never taught to read or write, if their bodies are stunted from hunger, if their sickness goes untended, if their life is spent in hopeless poverty just drawing a welfare check.

So we want to open the gates to opportunity. But we are also going to give all our people, black and white, the help that they need to walk through those gates.

My first job after college was as a teacher in Cotulla, Texas, in a small Mexican-American school. Few of them could speak English, and I couldn't speak much Spanish. My students were poor and they often came to class without breakfast, hungry. They knew even in their youth the pain of prejudice. They never seemed to know why people disliked them. But they knew it was so, because I saw it in their eyes. I often walked home late in the afternoon, after the classes were finished, wishing there was more that I could do. But all I knew was to teach them the little that I knew, hoping that it might help them against the hardships that lay ahead.

Somehow you never forget what poverty and hatred can do when you see its scars on the hopeful face of a young child.

I never thought then, in 1928, that I would be standing here in 1965. It never even occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over this country.

But now I do have that chance—and I'll let you in on a secret—I mean to use it. And I hope that you will use it with me.

This is the richest and most powerful country which ever occupied the globe. The might of past empires is little compared to ours. But I do not want to be the President who built empires, or sought grandeur, or extended dominion.

I want to be the President who educated young children to the wonders of their world. I want to be the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be taxpayers instead of tax-eaters.

I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way and who protected the right of every citizen to vote in every election.

I want to be the President who helped to end hatred among his fellow men and who promoted love among the people of all races and all regions and all parties.

I want to be the President who helped to end war among the brothers of this earth.

And so at the request of your beloved Speaker and the Senator from Montana; the majority leader, the Senator from Illinois; the minority leader, Mr. McCulloch, and other Members of both parties, I came here tonight—not as President Roosevelt came down one time in person to veto a bonus bill, not as President Truman came down one time to urge the passage of a railroad bill—but I came down here to ask you to share this task with me and to share it with the people that we both work for. I want this to be the Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, which did all these things for all these people.

Beyond this great chamber, out yonder in 50 States, are the people that we serve. Who can tell what deep and unspoken hopes are in their hearts tonight as they sit there and listen. We all can guess, from our own lives, how difficult they often find their own pursuit of happiness, how many problems each little family has. They look most of all to themselves for their futures. But I think that they also look to each of us.

Above the pyramid on the great seal of the United States it says—in Latin—"God has favored our undertaking."

God will not favor everything that we do. It is rather our duty to divine His will. But I cannot help believing that He truly understands and that He really favors the undertaking that we begin here tonight.