A letter to a black Republican woman - need counsel HELP

[MsMagnificent]

I'm worried about posting this on her comments board because if I made ONE MISTAKE my entire letter will be discounted --
can I get some counseling & editing from my DU friends?
Please? :D

Edit: The post was about how terrible it was that the DNC was only white men, no women &/or people of color and how Bush was so much better in this regard. --shouldahave said that in the beginning LOL



Bush promotes 2 black Americans, and cuts housing assistance, health care, NCLB act, other aid and benefits for millions of other African Americans (among others) -- and this is a positive thing?

You may be well off, I dare say you have at least a Bachelor's degree; but I spent all last night (after a knock at my door at 11:30 pm) and most of today with my neighbor, the sweetest woman in the world whom I adore, as she cried --nay, HOWLED-- her despair in that she was functionally illiterate, could not read sufficiently even to get a job at WAL-MART
...yet the ultimate reason for the 11th hour knock and the emotional trauma today (which is far from over) was because she was then and still is, threatening suicide because she has no options.
No life.
No hope.

(Kindly don't get me on punctuation or run-on sentences, I'm too upset to even care about proper grammar right now)

She can't get a job, she goes to programs EVERY day from which she receives a meager stipend, but they're being shut down; and now she will have no income whatsoever to maintain her shabby little studio apartment furnished with a love seat snatched from the curb.

I should have had a better clue last week when she --for the first time ever, and I've known her for 15 years-- asked to "borrow" money (which I know she'll pay it back, if she ever can!) because she hadn't eaten and had no food in the house.
Soup kitchens, you ask? It takes MONEY to even take the BUS to them!

And LaShawn -- I can guarantee you she is FAR from alone in these circumstances. Because of cut benefits, she has been homeless at least 2 times the past couple years due to cuts, reduced to living in a shelter.

Yes, the DNC had a roster of white men only for the chair; but while Bush promotes TWO, many people seem to forget that the vast majority of people of color in this country are being put in circumstances that are only becoming much worse and more dire. The Democratic party has ALWAYS had the welfare of the populace as its first priority, NOT tax-cuts for the ultra-rich;
but this doesn't seem to matter anymore!

And it is not far when this neocon Republican Party will begin its own schisms, as their KKKristians and militia members (among sundry others) will not tolerate going to war for Israel. Nor for African Americans -- although it seems safe there won't be any (overt) problem about race since the Republicans seem determined to reduce succor to needy people, including needy people of color in this nation.

Which, BTW, Bush's statements about black Americans being shortchanged in Social Security benefits by their short lifespans is a much more PERTINENT argument for BETTER HEALTH CARE over (cutting) Social Security benefits, is it not?

HOW does extending the age when you can receive Social Security benefit black men when they die younger, I wonder??

As a white female, pro-women's rights, I'm not too crazy about the DNC's choices myself; yet I see no modern-day Shirley Chisolm (God rest her beautiful soul!) as of yet stepping forward to apply for the chair, nor any other-than-black female who wants to take the job. Ms. Clinton and Ms. Boxer, Ms. Slaughter and others*** are where they seem to want to be, so it is not for me to demand they step up.
***Note in the 108th Congress; there are 9 female Democratic Senators and 5 Republican -- almost a two to one 1 ratio; of the 63 women in the House, 42 are Democrats, 21 Republicans -- fully a THREE to one ratio!
ALL OF THE 13 BLACK FEMALE MEMBERS of the HOUSE are DEMOCRATS, as indeed is the party of ALL African-American members of the House!

...which begs the question: WHERE are the proportional number of black &/or female Republicans?

This may not be intended, but Bush's 1-2 black cabinet members, no matter the heighth of their status, seem to cry *Token*, do they not?

Is it even remotely fair to denigrate the DNC because of the homogeneity of their applicants?
And because of they being white and male, does this then mean they'll stop working for the poor? Does this mean they'll stop working for people of color and for the RIGHTS of people of color AND GLBT? Do not those, fully as much American citizens as the rest of us, deserve the same rights and benefits of those who toe the contemporary ideal of the nuclear upwardly-mobile family who just happen to seem to need some kind of protection of marriage?

LaShawn, truly, I just cannot understand the reasoning on your board... and I'd LIKE to, I really would.

[XanaDUer]

1. This is less for editing than for your neighbor

*Please* call for her or have her call the local public library to get free tutoring to learn to read!

[MsMagnificent]

2. I'm tutoring her now

and have helped her a bit try to learn computers.

But she's 50. She's scared. She has no confidence in herself, no matter the praise I give.

She's also ashamed. It took years of being good friends and neighbors for her to even admit that to me.

It's not easy for her anyhow, and I do feel (and she says so) that she has learning disabilities, although she's not sure what they are, and are unknown to me.

I volunteered for Literacy Volunteers a few years back, but never got instructed about learning disabilities and how to identify and after diagnosis, deal with/around them.

I'm going to broach the subject to her that maybe she should have official literacy volunteer instruction, I just don't know if they make house calls anymore (I've been out for about 8 years due to horrific back problems). If they don't come to her, her having the resources to go THERE are slim to none.


I can also tell you, through my former tutoring, that it isn't a simple answer of Volunteer and student meet, tutoring is done, Hey Presto! They can READ!

It's never, ever as easy as that.
It can be long and frustrating.

[XanaDUer]

3. I'm a former librarian who worked with literacy outreach

Thank you for what you've done so far.

These kinds of stories just steam me-this should NOT be happening the the US.