Susie Flynn for President!
May 7, 2007
While at a conference this weekend, I had a conversation with a guy who works for the Children’s Defense Fund. We were at dinner with some other folks and the conversation turned to the current presidential race. Someone asked him whom Marian Wright Edelman (President of CDF) would be supporting. My new friend was glad to tell us that Marian’s support is for Susie Flynn, a 10 year old girl at the center of a campaign by CDF to provide health coverage for all of the nation’s children.
Some hard-core politicos might not take Susie seriously because she is apparently a one-issue candidate. And never mind that she is too young, constitutionally, to serve, or that she’s not a “real person.” Whatever! I love this approach to bringing new interest to this issue.
In Alabama the issue is significant. While we’ve done a good job with the All Kids insurance program, we still have over 63,000 kids under the age of 18 without health insurance. That’s six percent of our children compared with 11 percent nationwide. (Click here for the stats.) It’s good to see our state doing better than most, but why not take care of this for all our children?
Go Susie!
Oh, and go here for more data and information from CDF about children and poverty in America.
More Leadership from the Young
Check out this link to an Anniston Star article by Jeanne Cross, a sophomore at Samford. She’s writing about her experience as part of the April 25 rally by students from across the state in support of constitution reform. I was there too and it was encouraging to see this kind of energy and effort from these young leaders.
Jeanne makes a very good point in the article about the motivation of the 1901 constitution writers being to advance white supremacy and how bothersome that is. But the more contemporary issue for her is the way our constitution contributes to poverty in the state. She writes, “I am passionate about constitutional reform because our current Constitution oppresses the poor, and my convictions in Christ will not let me keep silent.”
This is a very cool young woman with something to say - and she says it well.
Go Jeanne!
Illustrating the Problems
Here’s an interesting article from another student, Terri Barnes from the University of North Alabama. Doing her studies in photojournalism, Terri decided to do an independent study on poverty in Alabama.
She went to the Black Belt with her camera in hand, documenting in pictures the conditions she found. She had been surprised to discover that most the great majority of poor counties are rural, not urban. Terri wanted to see for herself.
She’ll be doing some further work in urban settings too. The idea is to produce a short film on what she discovers. Maybe we can have that film available soon – right here on our website.
Go Terri!
Leadership Also from the Not as Young
State Representative Patricia Todd continues to raise concerns of Alabama’s low wealth citizens. In a recent opinion column she expresses why she was motivated to offer the recent legislation on minimum wage.
Ms. Todd represents some of the most vulnerable citizens of Alabama. It’s a good thing that she is advancing the conversation about how we best look out for them.
Go Patricia!
And What about the Guys?
I’m noticing that all the above are about female-type people. Are any fellas doing anything of note?
Well, at least one I can think of. It’s a personal joy to work alongside Wayne Flynt, chair of the APP board and an Alabamian long dedicated to addressing poverty in Alabama. Wayne recently received an award that recognized his work through the years. He’s not done, of course, and that’s a very good thing.
Way to go Wayne!
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