Towards the March for Our Lives: Salt Lake City, Day One

Today, poor and homeless families from around the country began arriving in Salt Lake City for the March for Our Lives. The march, a massive effort led by poor and homeless families from the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) and JEDI for Women, will raise issues of economic human rights - food, housing, education, healthcare and living-wage jobs - on the opening day of the Winter Olympics (February 8th).

Despite Colin Powell lecturing other nations at the World Economic Forum that fighting poverty is the cornerstone of fighting terrorism, economic insecurity continues to increase for most Americans. While the Bush administration has coddled large corporations, layoffs have increased. Thousands of families are facing the end of the safety net as welfare reform time limits take effect.

Cheri Honkala, Director of the KWRU, says, "The March for Our Lives at the Winter Olympics is an urgent effort to break the invisibility of the poor in the United States. Every day millions of Americans are denied their Economic Human Rights to decent health care, education, food, housing, and living wage jobs. This has to be an American priority."

Overheard

Willie Baptist, Education Director, KWRU
 
"Poverty doesn't discriminate. There are 260 million people in the U.S.A. - most of them are white. Most of the people who are in poverty are white. Ford Motor Company is laying off 35,000 people- 35,000 human beings. These corporations don't care about black or white. The only color they give a damn about is green. This problem is not about color. Its about humanity. Its about a section of humanity that has and a section that has not. And no one should have not. That's why we are linking up, and building this movement. We estimate there are around 60 million poor people in this country. What happens when we come together? This country is going to have to wake up."

All eyes will be on Salt Lake City during the Winter Olympics. Honkala says, "We will highlight the economic human rights violations being committed here in the richest country in the world, and demand economic human rights. We have seen our lives, livelihoods, and rights devastated by Welfare Reform, NAFTA, privatization, and other cuts in the social safety net." We expect to be joined by organizations of the poor from across the nation and world, including farmworkers, members of the deaf community, welfare recipients, low-wage workers, and others.

Today we began a week of preparation for Friday's march. This will include intensive educationals and nonviolence training, continuing organizing in the community and outreach nationally and internationally. Tuesday, there will be a rally to promote Friday's March. Wednesday, we will have a rally on the right to healthcare and desperate plight of America's millions of uninsured families. Thursday we will highlight the contributions of artists and cultural workers to our fight.

At today's events, we were reminded of the reasons we're fighting by poor leaders who shared their stories with us. At the 'Global Justice in the Shadow of the Olympics Conference', Bonnie Macri, leader of JEDI for Women, set the stage for our March through Salt Lake City: "In Utah there is a lot of poverty. But poverty in Utah is invisible, and poor people are hidden. A lot of people live in boarded up houses, but people don't acknowledge that. In Salt Lake City, the shelters are full. There are a lot of homeless veterans..."

She continued,"A lot of families are suffering terribly. Like Catholics, Mormonism promotes large families. Families of 10, 12, or 14 children aren’t uncommon. But people learn to do a lot with very little. Wages here are very low. If you're working here you probably getting $5.15 an hour. Since the Olympics have been announced, rents have escalated by 3 times over. 40% of the population cannot afford a 2 bedroom apartment on their wages. A lot of children are going to bed here hungry, but they are in hiding."

Voices
Sandy's Story
 
I was living up on a mountain when my husband left me with 6 kids at home. I was forced to live on Social Security and my daughter's income. The state would not provide food stamps. I couldn't pay my rent, so I had to move out. Read more...

Vickie Jones, a member of JEDI shared some of her own struggles: "I'm working poor and have no health insurance. I have several major diseases. There are over 300,000 people in Utah with no health insurance - in a state of only one million. They put a cap on children getting health assistance in the chip program at 30,000 children. But there are over 98,000 children who have no heath insurance in Utah."

Margo Wesley, another leader from JEDI spoke about impact of welfare reform: "Utah implemented a three-year lifetime limit to welfare. We've already passed that limit. There is no welfare here anymore, only "workfare". The main impact of the time limits is that children are being taken away. 95% of the children that are taken and kept are children of poor people. Utah was one of the models that think tanks like the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation used when they wrote the welfare reform laws. Children can be taken from their families without a warrant. And this is supposed to be the model for the nation."

The day was concluded with an Interfaith Service, led by members of Utah's religious community willing to take a stand for economic human rights. Prayers and reflections were given by Milton Braselton of the South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society; Clarise Duke, Senior Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City; John-Charles Duffy of Mormons for Equality and Social Justice (MESJ), James Tobler of MESJ Dee Bradshaw of the Sacred Light of Christ Metropolitan Community Church, Sister Margaret McKenna of New Jerusalem Now!, in Philadelphia, and members of KWRU and JEDI.