[Fortune Women] Friday, Sept. 20

Fri Sep 20 11:11:42 EDT 2002

I think the news article was very informative.  I know what is going on... for example:  you only get $215.00 a month for rent, and you will soon be required to work 70 hours a week for your check.  I learned some vocabulary words like what is a lobbyist, a diminutive, dog-and-pony show, dais, and lectern.  
I have not had similar experiences in the story, due to the fact that I live with my grandmother and do not pay rent.  And I have never been asked to work by welfare at all.  But, I am very unhappy about what they are putting  mothers of children through.  They only get $210.00 a month for food no matter how many children they have. 
I think that to change the system people like my classmate Giovanna can do all the hard work of changes welfare laws.  She will be one of the forefathers in the history of welfare reform.  
Sincerely Elizabeth Cassarino
 Eric Appleton wrote:Good morning everyone. For our class today, I would like you to read the following article and then tell us all what you think about it. Our own Giovana Rankin, from this class, was one of the Sisters that performed in this story. 

****************

Welfare Bill Lobby: An Act With an End 
'Sisters' Sing Real-Life Stories on the Hill 

By Natalie Hopkinson
Washington Post Staff Writer

After the senators had bellowed their fiery speeches. After the woman from NOW talked legislation. And before the famous movie actors hugged and kissed them as cameras clicked and whirred, they were just nine.

Wearing matching crisp white T-shirts, the New York women, all single, all mothers, all once on welfare, stood before about 200 people in a Senate hearing room and presented the world premiere of their Vagina Monologuesque musical, "Stand With Sisters for Economic Dignity."

"Do you believe Bush is proposing marriage?" asks Maribel Pena, a diminutive dominicana from the Bronx. 

"Marriage? I'm still married to my husband. That ain't gonna help."

"I was married 12 years," adds the curly-haired Rosario Rodriguez. "He beat me and when that wasn't enough, he raped me in front of my 9-year-old daughter."

Taina Gonzales steps forward to deliver what will be one of many more zingers before the conclusion of the 20-minute skit organized by the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support. 

"Me and my kid's father?" she asks. "Help me find my kid's father."

The subject matter was serious but the journalists, politicians, policy wonks and activists who filled the room couldn't help but laugh at the ladies' sassy delivery, and the sound echoed throughout the hallways of the Russell Senate Office Building.

For the ladies, who had all been ferried from New York in a limousine and spent a luxurious night at the Georgetown Suites, it was a moment that transcended the dog-and-pony show that typically accompanies news conferences inside the Capitol.

This was, as participant Leslie Monroy described it, "no fairy tale."

"These are really our own personal dilemmas," she said.

The women sang about their real-life horrors they said were produced by the historic 1996 welfare reform law. They shouted about the lack of child care, affordable housing and the cycle of intimidation and domestic violence that all conspired to prevent them from holding steady jobs to support their families.

And most of all, they railed against WEP, short for the Work Experience Program, the work-for-benefits program and target of the song "Caught Up in the WEP of Deception." 

They spoke of dangerous working conditions under WEP, cleaning highways and parks. Being made to quit school and having no one to watch their children. At one point, Tyletha Samuels, a round woman holding herself up with a shiny black cane, let out a horror-movie-style scream that seemed to make the whole building shudder.

Dozens of such events happen each week in which a procession of "real-life" people are dragged in from their homes outside the Beltway to be set before a Senate panel, a policy discussion group, a media horde.

At the "Sisters" premiere, there were politicians. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) touted Murray's "Safe and Healthy Families Act," a bill that would make changes to the welfare reform law, which is up for reauthorization this year.

And lobbyists. Kathy Rodgers, president of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, plugged a new study conducted by the organization.

And star power. Actors Tim Robbins and Danny Glover heaped praise on the women and gave speeches after the performance.

The nine tearful ladies hugged each other. Then it was time to get back to business. One of them stood at the lectern and asked for questions. 

"It's September 18 -- do you have time to do this bill before the end of the session?" one reporter asked. The lobbyists and the nine ladies took turns answering the questions. 

"Where will the reauthorization money come from?" asked another.

"Is Hillary a co-sponsor of this bill?"

("No," one diplomatic lobbyist answered, "but she can be.")

One of the organizers, Charlene Sinclair of the campaign, had warned the women about the nature of these kinds of events. The room would be filled with many competing interests, she'd told them. They would watch the ladies pour out their hearts. They would examine them and pick them apart and reassemble their lives into something they could use.

"It was just an incredibly powerful piece," Sinclair said afterward. "I would love to hope we reached the people in this room, but it was powerful not just for them, but for the women."

Pena, who had, arms raised in the air like Nixon on the dais, declared herself "speaker of the house," didn't vacillate when asked whether she thought the performance would have an impact.

"I hope it makes a change," she said later. "If it doesn't, I hope it will wake someone up."

***********

Now, hit reply and write back to all of us. Answer these questions:

- What do you think of this news article?

- Have you had similar experiences to the women in this story?

- What do you think can be done to change the system?

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