 | July 11, 2020 LWV Monthly Meeting
African American Women in the Suffrage Movement: Then, Now, and Forever!
Please join us along with Clay County African American Legacy, Inc. for Celebrating African American Women in the Suffrage Movement. Our featured speaker will be Dr. Delia Gillis, Professor of African American History at University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg.
Panelists will include: Joann Collins, former Mayor Pro Tem and the first woman and African American to serve on the Kansas City Council and Ruth Emery of Liberty, Missouri, former president of Garrison School Cultural Center and the first Clay County African American woman to run for political office, Recorder of Deeds.
The Garrison School, established in 1877, was built to educate African American students. Today it houses the Clay County African Legacy, Inc., and serves as a recreational center for cultural and educational events.
Zoom participants in the event are welcome and encouraged to make a donation to the Clay County African American Legacy-Garrison School Cultural Center, a nonprofit organization.
Donations help cover honorariums for this program and the Juneteenth Program scheduled for July 24, and annual operational costs for Garrison. Please send donations to CCAAL Inc., 502 N. Water St., Liberty, Mo.
| Constitutional Amendment 2
League Actions - Phone Banking
The LWV endorses Amendment 2 to expand Medicaid in Missouri. Medicaid expansion will give access to Healthcare to 230,000 uninsured Missourians. We have just six weeks left to educate and encourage voters to vote Yes on Amendment 2 which will be on the August 4 ballot.
COVID-19 limits our usual options to fight for a ballot issue, but we can participate in organized Phone Banking from the comfort of our own homes.
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Help Wanted–let’s make Medicaid expansion law
Here’s why we need Medicaid expansion in Missouri
- Will provide healthcare to those who earn less than $18,000 a year and bring back more than $1 billion of our tax dollars home from Washington very year.
- It will help keep rural hospitals open: 10 Missouri hospitals have closed since 2014 and there are 26 more hanging by a thread. We need rural medical services.
- Because the Missouri state legislature failed to pass Medicaid expansion, we send our tax dollars to Washington, which sends those dollars back to states that have Medicaid expansion in place. Arkansas, for instance.
- The savings say that by 2026 the state will save more than $1 billion a year.
- Medicaid expansion will create more than 26,000 jobs in the first five years.
- Medicaid expansion will provide coverage for some 230,000 who have jobs that don’t provide health insurance.
- We stood on corners and got signatures to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot – now’s the time to help turn out the vote Aug. 4. Please help with phone banking. It’s easy, fun and rewarding.
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Our League is teaming up with Jobs With Justice, https://mojwj.org/ a fellow non-profit organization which will provide us access to their Phone Bank System, training to use the system, a suggested script and support. All volunteers need are a cell phone and computer with an Internet connection and, of course, a passion to help uninsured Missourians get healthcare. That’s you!
You are encouraged to sign up to volunteer during any (or many) of these Phone Bank times between now and August 4:
- Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 5pm-8pm
- Thursdays and Saturdays from 11am-2pm
What to expect:
As a first-time volunteer you will be invited to a Zoom meeting for the day/time slot you selected. The Zoom meeting will include some information about Medicaid Expansion but mostly it will be training on how the phone system works. Please don't be daunted by this because it's not hard.
If you have not participated in a ZOOM meeting, Mary Lindsay can set up a practice ZOOM meeting for you. To sign up, or if you have questions, contact Mary Lindsay at 816-885-9996 or mary.lindsaymsw@gmail.com.
August 4 and five weeks sounds like a lot of time and a long way away, but time flies when we’re calling voters. Please help with this important issue.
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| | The Vote: A virtual discussion
Join LWVJoCo members for a virtual discussion after watching The Vote. The film explores how and why millions of 20th-century Americans mobilized for and against women’s suffrage and the deep controversies over gender roles and race that divided Americans then and continue to dominate political discourse today. The Vote airs on PBS on July 6 and 7. | | | League Studies Continue
First there was the TIF Study, where we learned that well-heeled developers are coming to the city to avoid paying millions in taxes. That study gave us a new position regarding tax abatement's.
That study pointed out there’s a dire need for additional housing for the homeless and no- and low-income families. That study gave us an updated position, from our earlier, 1981, study calling for the city to meet housing needs.
That study showed that the working poor can’t afford decent housing or much else because they’re not earning a living wage. Hence the Living Wage Study.
Our thanks to Alice Kitchen, who’s leading the study, along with Judy Ancel, Stacey Bartlett, Cindy Cart, Rosemary Durkin, Dr. Sirsha Naidu, Anna Pechenina, Peg Prendergast, Rachel Thompson, Pauline Wasserman, Allie White. Stand Up KC is sending representatives to the group.
Once the group reviews the body of knowledge, they will present their findings and provide a report. If there’s consensus, the Kansas City League will have an updated position and we’ll be able to lobby for change. League positions are on the website, in the drop down under Our Work. | Candidate/Issues Forums
In a normal election year, that is one without a pandemic, we would be finding locations for candidate forums. This year, everything is different. If Anitra Steele is able to get willing candidates to participate, we’ll have Zoom or Facebook live forums.
| Committees make the League tick
Please visit the League website, log in and sign up for committees on the Committees/Interests page. If you haven't logged in to the new website yet, your user name and temporary password that were emailed to you on June 15.
Voter Services Committee
- Voter Registration. This active group helps in a variety of ways, starting with voter registration for other organizations and businesses, in schools and colleges and Naturalization Ceremonies. Contact is Becky Yockey
- Get Out the Vote (GOTV). All kinds of actions and activities to remind voters to go vote. Contact is Symie Menitove
- Voter Protection. Watching out for voter suppression and ensuring all voters can vote. Contact is Becky Yockey
- Poll Workers and Monitors. Become a poll worker or monitor, may require Kansas City Election Board training. Poll workers are paid, and it is an optional fundraising activity for the League. Contact is Pat Goodwin
- Liaison with Election Boards. We want to establish a good working relationship between the various election boards in our area and the League. Contact is Sandy Eeds
Also active is the Tech Committee, which just produced the new League web site, the Social Media Committee, which is in the process of getting the League’s digital outreach squared away on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and anything else that may have popped up in the last week or so.
And there are more, all doing interesting things with interesting people. Visit www.lwvkc.org
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