VOICE Buffalo's Public Meeting

Sunday afternoon I went to VOICE Buffalo's annual public meeting. VOICE Buffalo is a faith-based community organization that is working on projects many projects in the community. I wanted to do a write-up about the meeting, but my thoughts don't seem to be coming together on it, but I wanted to write something...

I am interested in safe neighborhoods, education, public transportation, transitioning former inmates (particularly youth) back into the community, and extending the millionaires tax cut; however, I work with National Fuel Gas every day so that's what I found most interesting.

One of the things they talked about was the “National Fuel Campaign For Fairness” with the National Fuel Accountability Coalition. I've recently had a small a run-in with NFG and I have lots of clients who have big problems with NFG, so this was something I was quite interested in. At the meeting, I learned that the CEO of NFG (David Smith, in case you care) makes about $3,500 an hour. Yeah, an hour. That's double what I make in a month. Last winter, NFG ran over 2,000 adds on TV in the Buffalo area about their winterization efforts even though last year they didn't spend a single dollar of their profits on winterization. NFG's winterization efforts are funded through donations they ask for in their customer's bills. I don't have a bill yet, but I did receive something asking for money for different programs they have (also, they spelled my name “Maty,” so that's one more black mark against them in my book).

Think of all the winterization NFG could do with just one hour a week of their CEO's pay check. Of course, that wouldn't really be to their benefit since it would lower heating costs for the customers who had their homes winterized. On Tuesday, I went to a utilities workshop for work that was sponsored by NFG. The representative from NFG who spoke talked about how little profit they actually make because of how much they help people who have trouble paying their bills (I don't see this happening much at all--what I see is NFG cooperating with non-profits like Catholic Charities and government-funded programs to pay the bills for the clients and sometimes forgiving a small amount of the bill as long as most of it is paid for by the programs). I know that a lot of their profits come from places other than customers, but they can't be doing too poorly if their CEO makes about 7.1 million a year.

Back to the VOICE Buffalo meeting—VOICE is working to organizing meetings with community representatives and National Fuel. Recently, they have also successfully pressured NFG into increasing their winterization efforts by 50% (and this includes using some of their own money).

Some other things I learned at the VOICE Buffalo meeting:

--Buffalo's High School graduation rate is 50% and for black males the graduation rate is only 25%. This is embarrassing for Buffalo and if the Millionaires tax is cut, funding for schools will be cut by 20%, which certainly will mean nothing good for those percentages.

--Eliminating the Millionaires tax would decrease funding to Medicaid by 25%

My favorite quote of the meeting was “love is the only force capable of turning enemies into friends.”

I learned a lot at the meeting and it certainly made me want to get more involved in my community to help creative positive change; however, they didn't offer any volunteer opportunities except one that took place during the day on a week while I'm at work. They did give the opportunity to donate money, but I don't have a whole lot of that.

Victim Blaming in Reporting on Sexual Crimes Against Women

There always seems to be some kind of sex scandal going on with politicians whether, it's affairs or prostitutes or lewd photo sharing. A you probably know, a few weeks ago Dominique Strauss-Kahn the French chief of IMF was accused of molesting a housekeeper at the hotel where he was staying. This may be the start of a new trend: on May 29th , an Egyptian bank executive, Abdel Salam Omar was also accused of molesting a housekeeper in his hotel room.

The media loves these types of stories and I generally like to ignore them, but of some reason while I was at the gym last week I watched the CNN report on the latest hotel indecent. Of course it concerns me that this type of thing happens, but what really caught my attention was how the media covered it.

While the little bit I heard about the first of these two events focused on Strauss-Kahn, his questionable past, and how this would cost him politically. The CNN report I saw on the more recent even focused on the housekeeper (though they kept referring to her as the “maid”).

Apparently, Omar called room service to bring him tissues, and when the housekeeper brought them he tried to molest her. The reporter said something along the lines of “it isn't clear why she went into the room in the first place, but when she did he shut the door, blocking her escape” (read: she should have known better and did something wrong; therefore, she holds some of the blame for what happened to her).

Victim blaming is an old favorite when it comes to assault, molestation, and rape—as well as many other crimes, but especially those perpetrated against women (why was she out alone at night? She shouldn't wear such a short skirt. She was asking for it by showing so much skin and flirting so much. And on and on and on, I think we all know how a lot more similar lines).

The next part of the report said that the housekeeper immediately reported the attack to her supervisor who told her to report it again in the morning, which she did. The supervisor is now under suspension (why not fired?). As the CNN report said, this delay could compromise potential physical evidence. It was probably an attempt to brush off the indecent or protect the hotel from bad press, or maybe the supervisor didn't believe the woman as happens so often in cases of sexual assault and rape or maybe he didn't see it as that big or a deal.

The reporter then went on to ask why, if these incidents are so common, don't they get reported more? The answer they came up with was that many hotel housekeepers are immigrants and are afraid to say anything. I believe that is probably a big part of the answer since it's true that many (if not most) housekeeping jobs in large cities are held by immigrants (many, many of the female clients at Refugee Resettlement work as housekeepers at various hotels in the greater Buffalo area). I would be afraid to report an assault too if I didn't feel confident in my English and was afraid to lose my job that wasn't easy to get in the first place. Many immigrants are also often unaware of their rights.

However, I think it's more than the simple story of a scared immigrant. Who will believe you? Maybe not your supervisor who you report it to. If he or she does believe you, then what will you have to do? I going to the police is scary, overwhelming, and a violation of its own kind. Then, what if you have to go to court with people scrutinizing you and questioning if you were really molested, raped, or assaulted (that's not to say that men and women accused of this type or crime are always guilty, but it's an extremely difficult thing for a victim to go through). And then there is the victim blaming again. Also, victim blaming is often internalized so victims come to believe that what happened to them actually is their fault. Even all of these things are still a simplified, short version of the long list of things that could keep a victim from reporting a crime.

That was basically the whole CNN report and the whole thing stunk of sexism and victim blaming—it's the kind of news story I've heard lots of times before, but it never stops angering me. The way news stories are reported on is important and has a huge effect on how the consumers of media feel about the events and the larger issues they're related to. For a person who hasn't thought about what victim blaming is or the implications of language (“maid” vs. “housekeeper”), this type of reporting sends a strong sexist message that women are to blame when they're assaulted or raped and that keeps the focus off their perpetrators, who are usually men. This type of message contributes to the attitudes that allow these assaults to happen and contributes to the low rates of reporting when it comes to sexual assault and rape.

So, why did the housekeeper go into Abdel Omar's room? Answer: It doesn't matter. No one should ever be molested or assaulted or raped. Period.

Please Take Action

I’ve been trying a lot of new things lately. Until Wednesday, I never used the forward button on my email and until yesterday, I never called a senator’s office. Yesterday I forwarded an email asking that people sign a petition to save AmeriCorps and today I forwarded an email asking people to contact their senators to keep funding for refugee programs.

I’ve sent many form letters and signed numerous online petitions in the past year or so, but today I also wrote my own personal letter and emailed it to Maine senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

Many things will be cut in the new budget for our country and I agree that we need to spend less money, but I’m not sure all the cuts are from the right places. The two cuts in funding that I asked the senators not to support in my calls and emails are the potential cuts to Migration and Refugee Assistance and the Office of Refugee Resettlement as well as the proposed cut in funding to the Corporation for National and Community Service (which includes AmeriCorps).

Congress proposed that we completely cut the AmeriCorps program and reduce funding for refugee assistance programs by a huge amount. Both programs are extremely important. As much as I hate the idea of cutting funding for either of these programs—I can understand the need to cut some, but all of the funding for AmeriCorps? And half of the funding for refugee programs?

What I am including below is part of an email the director of my program sent to all Catholic Charities of Western New York employees.

“On Saturday, February 19, the House of Representatives recommended massive cuts to various humanitarian assistance programs, including:
45% cut to Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA);
10.4% cut to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR); and,
67% cut to International Disaster Assistance (IDA).

"Since we are already five months into the federal fiscal year those cuts would basically shut down the refugee assistance program within the US and severely reduce refugee processing overseas. There would not be money available to resettle more refugees until October 2011. Since our funding is per capita performance-based, no new arrivals equals no more funding.”

I understand the desire to cut programs that serve non-Americans, but refugees are some of the most vulnerable people in the world who have experienced great violence, oppression, and human rights violations in their home countries, as well as in many of the refugee camps. In addition, refugees bring important diversity to our communities, rent apartments from Americans, work, pay taxes, start businesses, and by cars and homes in the United States. There are also many refugee resettlement and assistance programs similar to the one where I work that would either shut down or have to lay off many employees.

When our director told us of the possibility of these cuts, I felt sick to my stomach, but I’m sure my feeling was nothing compared to many of my coworkers who are themselves former refugees and many of whom are applying to bring their family members to the United States.

Especially in this economy, volunteers fill needed positions in many jobs that directly serve the most vulnerable Americans. Agencies that serve the disadvantaged are already under-funded and under-staffed and often rely on the help of full-time volunteers. Not only would fewer services be provided without AmeriCorps, but more people would need those services because at least some of the volunteers would be unemployed if they were not in full-time volunteer programs. AmeriCorps provides important job experience to More than 85,000 young Americans a year. I know that AmeriCorps is an expensive program, but it is far less expensive than having a regular, paid employee and paying for all the consequences of less services to those most in need.

Again and again programs that help the poor and vulnerable are the programs that are cut by the government because the people don’t have a voice and are forgotten. I disagree with the Catholic Church on many issues, but I strongly believe in the Catholic Social Teachings that tells us we need to have preferential options for the poor. Cutting programs for refugees and AmeriCorps (as well as other service programs) do not follow with this social teaching.

Please sign a petition, send a letter to your senator, or call your senator to help protect funding for refugee programs and AmeriCorps. I believe it is our moral obligation to help those most in need, which includes Americans and non-Americans.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that we have to take action and fight for justice for things that directly affect us and for people who are poor and marginalized. We are all in this world together and, as much as we might want to ignore people who are easily forgotten, there will never be peace and justice if we don’t include everyone.