Make Social Change A Reality

In follow up to our “ American Women and the Great Recession ” series, we here at Make Social Change a Reality wanted to give you some simple, yet important, things that you can do on your own to become an advocate for women’s economic justice and affect change ! So, where should you start? Well, there will be many opportunities in the coming year to make your voice heard and join the movement to create economic justice for women, and we have listed the top five…read on for more information and follow the links below to take action ! (1.) Get educated and know your facts. What are the issues, and what are the policy changes that need to occur in states and on the federal level to give women a better shot at economic equality? There are some fantastic organizations out there in the non-profit world that conduct research, gather information on women and families, and produce great resources on women’s economic issues and getting women and families out of poverty . Check out a few ...

“If the wars of [the 21st] century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water.” —Ismail Serageldin, former VP, World Bank, Newsweek, 1995. The 5th annual World Water Forum was held in Istanbul this past week to facilitate discussion of international water policy among corporations, NGOs, and international financial institutions in the context of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. Waiting to meet them were throngs of demonstrators holding banners reading “Water for Life, Not for Profit,” looking into the face masks of riot police three deep. Underlying the strain is the contentious issue of water privatization. In the 1990s governments began inviting private corporations to run their water infrastructure for a profit, the idea being that private enterprise would be much more adept and efficient than any government bureaucracy at getting the water to where it had to go. Unfortunately, many of these huge transnational corporations, a major player be...

President Barack Obama spoke before the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on March 10th , offering more details about his plans to improve education. In 2008, American students once again ranked below many of their international peers on standardized tests. The President built his campaign on the idea of change, and it is obvious that the archaic system of American education is in dire need of just that. The question is: what does good change look like? It starts with early childhood education. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act promises an addition $5 billion to Early Head Start and Head Start programs . While the money promised will help states fund new programs and improve those in existence, is it enough ? To make post-secondary education more affordable, President Obama has said he will increase the cap on Pell Grants by $500 . He has also briefly outlined a program that would do away with private lending for student loans, replacing it with a program run by the Educa...

The current economic climate is forcing people to take a long hard look at their lives. Unemployment, foreclosures and losses of savings and pensions mean that many people have to change their behavior and lifestyles to acclimatize to this new world order. A recent story on CNN profiled Ernie Casillas , a former investment banker who has had to face the harsh reality of unemployment. Since losing his high paying job, his upscale lifestyle vanished overnight, forcing him to post a ‘job wanted’ ad on Craigslist . CNN reports: ‘ Casillas said he teared up when he first began typing the message -- that his life had come unraveled so hard and so fast. But ultimately, he said, he decided, "I'm just going to put it out there. I'm not going to be embarrassed. I'm just going to tell the whole world: I'm unemployed, and I need a job today. And the response was great."’ This situation is becoming more and more commonplace where people who were once high rollers now ha...

"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award." Our good friend Dwana over at Healthier, Happier, You was kind enough to give us this award. It's folks like Dwana and all of you that keep us going. All of YOU keep us striving to make social change a reality . We're honored. Thanks Dwana! What do we do now? Simple... Pay It Forward! So, without further ado, the award goes to: 1) Katherine Osgood at Women fighting for Women 2) Emily Kronenberger at New Wave Grrrl 3) Julia at How I Changed the World Today 4) Pov...

I am reading a book about the many objects that wash up along the shores of the United States and the world. The author discusses her enjoyment with finding these treasures, whether they are sneakers that have fallen off a ship traveling from Korea to the west coast of the United States, wood from sunken ships from hundreds of years ago, gold coins from pirate ships from over 100 years ago, or bottles with messages inside them. In addition to these “treasures,” the author explains some of the more troubling findings through her travels, plastic. Plastic , one of the greatest inventions of all time is also one of the most biologically harmful to the environment . Plastic is everywhere in our world, and unfortunately that also means in the oceans and natural areas where they shouldn’t be. In her book, the author shares her findings of plastic everywhere in the oceans, not just along the shores but in the middle of the oceans, caught in currents and passing from one current to the next...

Hospitals are charging self-pay patients two, three, and four times what they accept as full payment from insurance companies, simply because they can. Medical debt saddled 72 million adults in 2007 and caused HALF of all personal bankruptcies in 2005. With the recent surge in jobless claims the number of uninsured and under insured self-pay patients is steadily rising and hospital ERs are seeing more patients seeking primary care. Those whose income disqualifies them from community assistance programs even by a hair may face unfathomable costs for their stay at the hospital. While insurance companies fork over a reasonable amount over the actual cost of care to the hospital and Medicare even less, people who can least afford to pay are charged the most. A procedure that may cost the hospital $6,000 would retail to the insurance companies for $8,000 and to a self-pay patient for $12,000! Talk about kickin ’ ‘em when they’re down!! And it’s all legal. A typical hospital bill for ...

Today’s post marks the last in the series on women and the economy, and while we are now several weeks out in the post- Economic Stimulus Package world of 2009, there has been no decline in the amount of scrutiny on the Package and its implications for women. Reproductive health experts for example, were disheartened that the Package, now known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), succumbed to pressures in Congress and failed to expand national family planning program-funding, which would have served as a major cost-savings measure in the short and long-term. In addition, despite countless studies that have questioned the efficacy of abstinence-only education programs and exposed their inaccuracies and harmful messages on gender and sexuality to young people, Congress still increased abstinence-only education funding in the ARRA. Nevertheless, the public and non-profit sector agencies that serve women and girls in communities across the US are assessing the situatio...

More than ten years after his death, rapper Tupac Shakur's influential track "Changes" is still in rotation. Known for being one of the greatest rappers of all time , it is no surprise that his lyrics carry messages easily relatable to current issues within our society. Tupac rapped in the mid-nineties that; "its war on the streets and the middle east / instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs ." Those two melodic bars touch upon issues that effect all of our daily lives. However, for a multitude of reasons these problems are often overlooked and devalued. Fortunately, we as a united people, have elected to recognize that these issues need to be addressed. Some have concluded that these problems will not go away without the right leadership. We have elected Barack Obama as our first non-white president. He presents to our nation a change in ideological properties, and breaks down many embedded stereotypes. Sadly, such a momentous part of history is tain...