In Case You Missed It: from DailyKos

Unite Against the War on Women

[...]
New Group Poised to Challenge “War on Women”
• Virginia legislators recently tried to enact an invasive, mandatory “trans-vaginal ultrasound” measure for women seeking abortions.
• In Mississippi, lawmakers took a cue from Virginia and are now pushing the same type of regressive, restrictive legislation.
• Texas Governor, Rick Perry, has decided to deny funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers under the Texas Women’s Health Program.
• Some presidential candidates want to end Medicaid funding and turn it into state-by-state bloc grants.
• Personhood legislation and amendments are being actively pushed through state legislatures in attempts to criminalize contraception and family planning.
• State laws regarding voter registration designed to suppress voter turnout especially among poor women, seniors and minorities are already in place and spreading.

A new and growing movement called Unite Against The War On Women is poised to push back on measures like this, with protest marches and rallies across the country on Saturday, April 28.

Join us - Saturday, April 28th as we say NO WAY/NO HOW to these attempts to dictate our personal decisions, our bodies, our health choices, and our families.

The newly-minted organization has garnered almost 20,000 members nationally in less than two weeks in the wake of of Virginia’s “trans-vaginal ultrasound” bill and other pending legislation.

JOIN US - SHARE - PASS THE WORD - WE WILL NOT BE SILENT

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Questions? send an email to unitewomenconnecticut@gmail.com    or    ctFreeRadicals@gmail.com  
sign up at WeAreWomenMarch.net

Giving: an Ann Pandya Guest Post

From Nandini ("Ann") Pandya

Giving

A few years ago, on a visit to Mumbai, my kids and I went to a new Barnes-and-Noble like bookstore. Inside the store, one could almost forget that one was in India. The store was air-conditioned – a cool and quiet oasis in the hot, noisy and overcrowded city. All the customers were educated and well-dressed: the elite of Indian society. They would have blended perfectly in a bookstore here in America.

When we stepped out of the store, we were swarmed by 7-8 children, all under ten. Some of the girls were carrying a younger sibling on their hips. They were unkempt, wearing rags, their hair a knotted mess and they were begging.

I dropped a few coins in a few of the outstretched palms. More kids appeared, a little more hopeful, tending towards a wily insistence. After giving out a few more notes and coins, we hurried away. And the kids went off to catch the next customers exiting the store.

Most customers spend of the order of a thousand rupees ($20) on books and in the Starbucks-style coffee shop. And they spare less than a tenth of that for the kids begging outside. Many don't give even that, suffering from empathy fatigue that sets in when it is a daily occurrence, a nuisance to be stepped around.

I was filled with the familiar nag of shame that has been my constant companion since before I ever came to America. Was I really helping by tossing a few rupees in the little outstretched palms? Was I doing it only to assuage my own feelings of guilt and disregard? At what point would I feel that I had given enough? Would that be enough?

Why should I have to feel guilty? Another part of me protested. Why don’t “they” just have fewer kids, I thought angrily. When is the government going to get its act together? Why don’t all these privileged people in the store get together and do something? I fumed silently.

Of course, the truth is that I fled that society, in large part because I felt disillusioned and overwhelmed. I was convinced that things would never change.

And I have been, for the most part, no more than a passive, albeit grateful and appreciative, participant in this, my adopted society’s affirmation of individual dignity. Government programs such as minimum wage, EEOC, OSHA, 40-hour work week, unemployment benefits are, to me, just that.

I often feel lost, ineffective; I have no idea how to go about being an active part of the solution in either of the places I call home.

After a lifetime of trying to square this circle, what I know is this. I want to live in a society that ensures individual dignity by providing everyone with the opportunity to earn a living. And, for those who cannot, one that provides a safety net as a matter of policy rather than as an “entitlement program”, or largesse or noblesse oblige. That is what affirmation of the inherent dignity of each person means to me.

We can give by coming together to create a society where people have the means -- and the imperative -- to provide for themselves. We can give through taxes that knit a safety net for those who cannot.

To me, only that giving makes sense which moves us closer to making the need for continued giving obsolete. All else is duct tape.

"ICYMI Thursday": Child Support in Connecticut

from ATTORNEY GENERAL GEORGE JEPSEN

ATTORNEY GENERAL: CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTION EFFORTS BENEFIT CONNECTICUT FAMILIES IN NEED

HARTFORD – While the economy is pushing more children into poverty, state child support collection efforts brought in more than $300 million last fiscal year to help thousands of children in families in need, Attorney General George Jepsen said today.

“Most of the money brought in goes to custodial parents. Our efforts on behalf of dependent children help to pay the rent, keep the lights on and put food on the table. The needs are real and we work very hard to help. The state is doing a great job with the limited resources available,” Attorney General Jepsen said.
[...]
2011 KIDS COUNT report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation showed that [...] in 2009 [...] more than 86,000 children in Connecticut were living in families with income below the federal poverty level of $21,756 for a family of four.

The Attorney General’s Child Support/ Collections Unit completed nearly 9,000 cases in the fiscal year and more than 15,000 cases are pending.

Jepsen recognized the work of all the attorneys and staff within the Child Support/ Collections Unit, led by Assistant Attorney General Sean Kehoe, the department head.

For full press release, Click here for pdf