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pstrongHealth and Human Services’, Tommy Thompson’s “Listening” session on welfare reform became the day of REAL voices, real action and a little dialogue with Health and Human Services../strong/p
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pby Lisa Gray-Garcia (a.k.a. Tiny) /p
pi“My Mom came to visit Wade Horn - all I got was this sign....”/i Aimee Fisher, a low income mom struggling to go to college while on welfare, protesting Tommy Thompson’s “Listening” session outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel./p
pThere were glasses of ice water at each corner.. tall shimmering glasses untouched, pure, without a bead of sweat, or a drop of unsightly moisture. The glasses stood erect and cool at each corner of the immense rectangle table—draped with an ivory starched table cloth bordered in a flowing ruffle. The carpet was the color of blood, with black and blue diamonds weaving through rivers of crimson acrylic./p
pThe table was dwarfed by eight large flags. The focal point was a floor to ceiling banner proclaiming the purpose of the meeting I was allowed to witness, but not invited to: HEARING FROM THE STATES—HHS NATIONAL LISTENING TOUR ON TANF REAUTHORIZATION. /p
pYou see, I, as a former very low-income, welfare recipient and current project director of an organization that fights for the rights of welfare recipients and attempts to create jobs for folks on welfare in journalism and media—a profession usually reserved for people with the privilege of time, formal education and financial stability—was not invited to this event. But, as a journalist, I was shuttled into the room by a velvet voiced man in a tan suit with honey colored eyes. A badge with my name on it was rapidly manufactured on a special badge-making machine. A few words were murmured to a blue-suited gatekeeper with a clear coil attached to his ears, and the palace doors were flung open. I was shuttled into THE ROOM joining a “court” of about 50 people who were sitting quietly, their faces carefully trained into an odd glaze of admiration, boredom and fear. /p
pAt the head of the table was Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families for The Department of Health and Human Services; appointed by Tommy Thompson to facilitate these “listening” sessions. These sessions, according to the HHS press release was created by HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson as a series of national "listening and discussion sessions”, to gather insights from those on the front lines of welfare reform. /p
pThese sessions are supposed to help prepare for next year's reauthorization of federal welfare reform legislation. /p
pThe nation's governors, state legislators, county officials, welfare program directors and welfare recipients will be invited to discuss ways to strengthen the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which was created by the welfare reform legislation enacted in 1996. The sessions will allow Secretary Thompson and other top HHS officials to learn more about states' experiences implementing welfare reforms and running assistance programs. /p
pThe room was peopled by the heads of state and local welfare departments from the western states, including our own Trent Rohr and Dolores Heaven from the San Francisco Department of Human Services. There was one welfare recipient present./p
p“ The central focus of work-first is still our priority”, said a man with a placard stating his name as Andrew Bush from the front of the table to the right of Wade Horn. As I entered, he was saying, “We should still get people a job if they can get one—but we should be able to include part time work and education in the plan.” /p
p“ I make ten dollars per hour. I would like to be able to pursue an education that would allow me to make a better wage,” said Michelle Kramer, the sole TANF recipient in the room spoke /p
p“ In Washington 70 percent of our caseload is cycling on and off welfare, we struggle with the dollars that go to direct services,” explained a representative from DHS in Washington./p
p“ The problem with the old Welfare system is it gives people a lot of money to do nothing, and the American people are not interested in supporting that anymore. But I don’t think they would begrudge them (welfare recipients) funding for education...” I looked up from my tattered notebook to hear who had made that statement, and found it was him, Wade Horn, spewing out the “Welfare Mom Myth”, believing and subscribing to the stereotype that folks on welfare get “all that money” (345 dollars per month in California, as low as 139 dollars in several southern states) and that they do now or ever did do “nothing”. /p
pAs a poor woman raised on welfare, when my mother was not able to work, there was never a moment that we did nothing, because survival is a job and 345 dollars didn’t come close to survival And we, like most of the folks who I work with now, are ialways/i doing a million things just to stay housed, fed and alive. Now, as welfare reform pushes folks into “work-first” jobs that pay less than a living wage we are doing even more. As the words continued to pour out of his mouth, I was unable to hear them. My ears became blocked and dull ache clouded my eyes./p
pNeedless to say, I could not stay anymore. I could not stay in that room witnessing those lies and stereotypes as folks, my folks, stood outside this building protesting the farce of this so-called listening session. I begged a hasty good-bye to the honey-voiced man and asked him if another reporter from POOR could come in my stead. He sort of agreed and I ran out of the palace doors before he could say yes. /p
pbThe Voices Of Truth..Outside... /b/p
pi“Why won’t you listen to us Mr. Wade Horn—we got somethin’ you should learn....”/i/p
pThe pillars were white and tall, with a wall of shimmering glass and concrete reaching up into the bright blue sky, framing the gold letters: The Grand Hyatt Hotel./p
pThere were over 200 mothers, fathers, children and welfare rights advocates from LIFETIME, POWER, CEWR, Center For Third World Organizing, POOR Magazine, Every Mother is a working Mother, Homeless Prenatal Program and many more, walking in protest in front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Martina Gillis from Coalition for Ethical Welfare Reform (CEWR) and Jason Negron from POWER were at the microphone in the center of the crowd. /p
p“Why are we out here?” Because Wade Horn and Tommy Thompson only want to listen to certain people, and those people are not the welfare recipients themselves. We know what we need. We know what we want. We know that we need real support to go to school, to get a living wage job and we are not getting that now; we are getting time limits and sanctions for education—he wants to give sanctions to unmarried mothers.. And we know this “listening” session is just a dog and pony show.../p
pAt that moment some street theatre commenced in the middle of the protest. Gigantic dogs and ponies slung fake promises and false stereotypes—my favorite was the forced Foster Care dog (DHS pays more to foster care parents to care for children than their own mothers). The last act of the street theatre included tearing up the signs of false promises./p
pIn the middle of the action a police officer came out and told Martina Gillis that some of the people from the protest would be allowed to speak to Wade Horn. When Martina said that yes, she and others from the protest would like to speak to Wade Horn, they reneged and said it wouldn’t be Wade Horn, but someone else from DHS./p
pAfter several more speakers including mothers in college from LIFETIME, economic justice organizers from Every Mother is a Working Mother, People Organized to Win Employment Rights, and poetry from Leroy Moore of The Po’ Poets Project at POOR Magazine, the action was over and we were all readying ourselves to leave....almost... /p
pbThe Real Listening Session (sort-of )/b/p
piIn 1965, Senator Moynihan published a report entitled; “The Negro Family A case for National Action”. The central thesis of his report was that, “ At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro Family —that at least half of the Blacks in America are enmeshed in a “tangle of pathology” centered around the “matriarchal family structure”/i.. excerpt From The Nature of Mama , an interview with Dr. Wade Nobles by Dee Gray in POOR Magazine Volume #4/p
pI sat on the brick steps of the Grand Hyatt exchanging notes with Gretchen Hildebran, one of the reporters for POOR Magazine who took my place in the “Listening Session”, inside the hotel with Wade Horn and she attended his press conference which followed the session. She reported to me what the token welfare recipient said in the press conference that “welfare reform was great—she has no problems with it. ” And Wade Horn kept mentioning how well they (DHS) were doing “with children” which made Gretchen wonder what DHS was planning to do with policy. i.e., youth crime laws, etc..., that he would be able to justify with his purported welfare reform success. He also mentioned that the “protesters” outside just needed to learn how to communicate better. Finally, when she tried to ask her question which had to do with The Fatherhood Initiative, he barely answered and then closed the conference./p
piOver the last four decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of children growing up in homes without fathers. In 1960, fewer than 10 million children did not live with their fathers. Today, the number is nearly 25 million. More than one-third of these children will not see their fathers at all during the course of a year. Studies show thatbr /
children who grow up without responsible fathers are significantly more likely to experience poverty, perform poorly in school, engage in criminal activity, and abuse drugs and alcohol/i.... Excerpt from the overview of the FATHERHOOD Initiative /p
pOne of the main concerns of all of us at the protest, as poor mothers and fathers on welfare, poor youth and children of poor single mothers and fathers was Tommy Thompson’s Fatherhood Initiative. The welfare reform law provides for performance bonuses to reward states for achieving certain measurable goals, including promoting marriage and reducing out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Thompson’s Administration for Children and Families encourages states to use funding from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF) to develop responsible fatherhood programs and has issued guidance with examples of such efforts.
/ppToday, almost half of all states use TANF funds for fatherhood programs. On its face these ideas are good sound, but the reality is, as Dee Gray’s interview with Dr. Nobles in POOR Magazine outlines, the policy itself is based on the same kind of transubstantive error that Moynihan made in the 60’s, and in fact, from the same kind of claims, and penalizes or sanctions poor single headed households, just for being poor single parents./p
piThe idea of transubstantiation is that in looking at the surface behaviors of a people, you can draw conclusions about the meaning and value of behaviors, but the meaning and the value comes from the deep structure of a people’s culture and values. and so in the Black Family at the time Moynihan was examining it, there was this whole notion of families with women without husbands raising children, which he deemed a broken home from his cultural deep structure which was not that of the families he was examining.../iWade Nobles in the Nature of Mama/p
pAfter I said good-bye to Gretchen and several folks from the protest had left, Joseph Bolden from POOR and I were collecting our stuff on the steps when out of the corner of my eye I saw a four person brigade of suits and suddenly Joe’s hand was being shook and... “ Hello, I’m wade Horn.” A tall man in a gray suit with a red tie, a little tuft of curly black hair that sat on the very top of his head and blood shot eyes, was shaking my limp hand./p
p“Hi. I’m Lisa Gray-Garcia from POOR Magazine,” I choked in response./p
p“I know who you are.” I wondered why—was I on his wire tapping list? He continued, “Would you like to ask us some questions, I hear that you would all like to talk with us...” /p
p“ Uh yea.. I guess,” I tried to think through the weirdness of the moment, and wondered where everyone else was.. “I mean, yes... just let me get my pen.. and notebook .” I desperately tugged at my impossibly disorganized backpack to find something to write on and something to write with. Finally pulling out an eye pencil, I commenced with the interview ..hoping that if Joe and I could stall them long enough with questions, some of the people who had remained would start to gather./p
p“Is it true that you want to cut off welfare benefits of families who aren’t married? “ I asked./p
p“We are interested in promoting two-parent families.. it is important to the health of the children that they have two parents.”/p
p“ But are you saying that there should be sanctions against single parent TANF recipients?” I continued./p
p“No, of course not, “ he shook his small hair tuft from side to side, “ We don’ t want abusive relationships to stay together, we are only instituting premarital education classes, conflict resolution training, incentives to families to stay married and [we are] trying to help them improve their skills to do so.”/p
pAnd then everyone was there. We were surrounded—the small crowd that was left realized what was going on and Jason Negron from POWER cut in, “ We have a lot of folks here who would like you to hear their concerns. Libby, a mother on welfare from POWER began, “ As a mother I would like to be able to have my secondary and post secondary education accepted as welfare to work activity rather than sanctioned by welfare like it is now,” she proffered to him./p
p“We are looking at educational opportunities right now.” I for one didn’t understand his answer..but.../p
p“ I raised my children on welfare and I now work with mothers on welfare,” a representative from Every Mother is A Working Mother cut in. “ What I want to know and many of the mothers that I represent is why can’t you value mothering as a form of work—the work that mothers do is very hard and deserves wages just like any other job —we want you to answer that”/p
p“ Well, I believe that the role of mothers is very important and we care a lot about children. They are our main concern.”/p
p“But that’s not what I am asking, what I am asking is will you consider valuing mothering as waged work, i.e. wages for mothering? “/p
pI watched Wade’s eyes. He gulp/blinked, unable to create another truly smooth reply../p
p“I want you to answer that Mr. Horn.”/p
p“Well...” Wade sputtered, his eyes blinking rapidly. /p
p“Eschucha. Yo soy madre.” Nora Calderon from Homeless Prenatal Program and POWER interrupted with a similar question but geared toward the specific plight of poor immigrant mothers on welfare. Cindy Weisner, from POWER, acted as her translator. “She wants to know why you penalize immigrant mothers when they need to stay home and raise their children. She wants to raise her children. She doesn’t want to have to leave her very young children without their mother/p
pWhen Nora was finished, he said nothing, the woman from Every Mother is a Working Mother repeated her question./p
p“ Well, my interest in all of this is what happens to the kids. Ten years ago I went to Alaska to convince the Native-American mothers to not use formula or sugar water which was rotting their children’s teeth and to continue to breast feed. So I am fully aware of the importance of breast feeding and the importance of staying with the mother as long as possible..”/p
p“ I am a mother that is trying to go to college...When are you going to support that?” A mother from Low-Income Families Empowerment Through Education (LIFETIME) asked. She continued, “ I need to get my degree, I am struggling but I will get it because I have to. And when I do, my children will be so proud when they see their mother walking down that aisle with her degree. But why do you make it so hard for folks to go to school on welfare? Not every one is as strong as me and they just give up when they are constantly faced with obstacles. I will get it even if you do sanction me.”/p
p“ You see... You will get it no matter what.. that’s what we’re saying is that people can do things if they really want to, with or without welfare,” responded Wade. At that point, one of the suits flanking Wade’s right side lunged into the conversation, his name tag read CLARENCE CARTER./p
p“ Well, guess what, “ I cried unable to stand it any longer, “ I have a sixth grade education and I am one of those people who got stopped by welfare, as several of the folks that we work with at POOR do—so I want to know, why doesn’t welfare to work mean JOB CREATION, in other words, really WELFARE to WORK for folks who have substance abuse, mental health and other issues that make it hard for them to find work?”/p
p“Well, that’s up to the states, we can’t force them to do that” /p
p.“ That’s not true. You can make it policy on the federal level,” I insisted./p
p“I think its very important to help people get into jobs.” He looked at his aides./p
p“So when will you meet with all of us for a REAL listening session?” someone from the back shouted to him./p
p“Yeah. When can we meet to really talk?” another person shouted out of the crowd./p
pHe looked down and then up, his aides motioned him to go./p
p“Well, I’ve got to go.” He started moving backwards, toward the hotel./p
p“ But when can we meet? Let’s set a date to actually listen to folks —to talk and to figure some of this out!” We all shouted to him./p
p“ Sure, I’ll do that, “ he replied to easily./p
p“But when can you commit to a date?” we continued to ask./p
p“I will commit to the process—I am not sure when or where.” He looked down at the last sentence, his words becoming faint memories of political doublespeak, fading into the pillars of shining hotel glass.br /
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