Dems Rally For ‘Build Back Better’
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WHEELING -- America will "build back better" if government focuses on economic justice and civil rights issues -- which are mutually connected, according to West Virginia Sen. Owens Brown.
Brown, D-Ohio, spoke Saturday during a rally supporting the "Build Back Better" social spending plan presently before the U.S. Congress. The rally took place at Wheeling's Heritage Port near former union labor Walter Reuther's statue, and was organized by the Ohio County Democratic Women's Club.
Brown, also president of the West Virginia NAACP, told those present the Build Back Better Bill was especially helpful to women.
"For the last six years, the women of Ohio County and this country have been trying to take the nation from the twisted ideology they call 'Trumpism' — an ideology that promotes hate, divisiveness, and lying," Brown said.
"If it weren't for the women's vote, we would (have in office) President Trump today."
The Democratic women's movement, organized labor and civil rights advocates are "natural allies" in the fight for economic equality, he said.
"We three are joined at the hip in a symbiotic relationship," Brown explained. "None of us can move forward unless we move forward together."
Fifty-eight years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. urging economic equality, women still are seeking to earn what their male counterparts do, according to Brown.
"Economic justice and civil rights justice go hand and hand," he explained. "We cannot have one without the other."
Mary Ann Claytor, former Democratic candidate for West Virginia, spoke from personal experience of the need for paid family medical leave.
She left her job at the State Auditor's Office to care for an ailing family member.
The Family Medical Leave portion of the Build Back Better Act has been removed from the legislation to contain costs and help garner the support of moderate Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
"I feel that our Congress has an obligation for the general welfare of citizens," she said. "We're really good about providing for that fence (separating the U.S. and Mexico), but when it comes to ordinary people we try to stigmatize the situations they are in that have led to poverty over the years.
"We have to get back to a concentration of being fiscally responsible, but also providing for our people. That speaks to the rest of the world about how we treat our own people. They do deserve to feel that they aren't asking for some special privilege when they want to be able to feed their families, have health care, and not have to make a decision: am I going to feed my family or take my sick child to the hospital?"
Jenny Craig, president of the Ohio County Education Association, said there are "many great things" for education in the spending bill. Among these is funding for universal preschool for all American children.
The West Virginia Legislature passed a bill in 2002 requiring the state to expand access to preschool education programs in order to make pre-kindergarten available to all 4-year-olds in the state by the 2012-2013 school year.
"We're fortunate that we have this in West Virginia, but unfortunately not many states have universal preschool," she said. "We know the early childhood education experiences are one of the best things to start out our children.
"Our poorest families lack access to affordable, quality education at an early age, and (their children) spend years trying to catch up with their peers."
Community organizer Amy Jo Hutchison spoke about how Manchin and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, typically won't meet with individuals to discuss the Build Back Better bill, but on occasion will speak with organizations about the legislation.
"Even when we did get a meeting, we were ignored to the point of not even being acknowledged," Hutchison said. "As we continue this dance, I feel like we're just chasing our tail. …
"The entire power dynamic is twisted. They should be chasing us to hear what we have to say. It shouldn't be the other way around."
Doug Giffin, president of Independent Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 141, said more federal money needs to come back to the region to improve infrastructure. He denied the Build Back Better bill was a partisan bill or a "socialist" bill, but a means for taxpayers to get back a share of the dollars they pay to improve where they live.
"A 'socialist' bill when it comes time to ask for more money back for your community?" he asked. "That's absurd… It's time that we update our roads, bridges, water systems and information highways."