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CITY PA GES
GROUP SAYS UP
GEORGIA WAGES
The Up and Out of Poverty Now
Coalition is starting a campaign on
Thursday, Sept. 23, in Macon, to address
concerns about Georgia’s minimum wage.
The coalition will meet at the Unionville
Recreation Center at 5:30 p.m. to begin a
campaign in support of legislation to
increase the state minimum wage from
$3.25 an hour to $6.24/hour.
Under Georgia law, companies grossing
below $500,000 a year that do not engage in
interstate commerce are not bound by the
federal minimum wage of $5.15/hour.
According to Sandra Robertson, executive
director of tne Georgia Citizens Coalition
for Hunger, a significant number of people
are earning less than the federal minimum
wage, from farm workers to restaurant
workers.
“You can't take care of yourself and your
family on even $5.15 an hour,” Robertson
says, citing the group’s desire to raise the
Georgia minimum wage $1.09 over the fed
eral minimum. “We think this state should
take the lead and join other states which
have superseded the federal minimum
wage."
A major factor behind the coalition’s
push for a higher minimum wage is the
approaching limit for recipients of public
assistance. The Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) four-year time limit
will put more than 30,000 Georgia families
out on the streets by January 1, 2001,
according to the coalition.
“Families on welfare get benefits, such
as Medicaid, in addition to the payments,"
says Up and Out Community Organizer
Candice Calloway. “TANF will take away
their welfare and force them into the work-
F 1 ' e. A family cannot survive on $5.15 an
hour with nc benefits.”
Thursday’s event will be “a dramatiza
tion of what needs to happen, a visual,
exciting statement and creative energy
showing how we feel about this struggle,”
says Robertson. Postcards addressing both
problems will be handed out at the cere-
mc.iy, to be signed and mailed to state offi
cials. Representatives from the group’s
training program, Leadership Development
Initiative—including citizens from Athens,
Augusta and Atlanta—will also be at the
event, collecting information and post
cards to pass out to their respective com
munities.
Athens’ LDI reps include Maxine Wright,
Roxsanne Yearby, Gwen Littleton, Cheryl
Brown, Carlen Johnson, Venzella Stowers.
Georgette Robinson, Sherry Lassiter and
Christy Littleton. According to Ovita
Thornton, field organizer for the Georgia
Rural Urban Summit, one of the coalition
members, these people have been learning
community organizing and leadership
skills, which they will put to use by going
door-to-door in their communities and dis
cussing the wage issue. The group is also
studying SPLOST funding and is working on
a survey of how projects funded by the
special sale*-, tax have benefited citizens
and how it can be used to help poorer
people
“The media has attempted to convince
us that everyone is doing well,” says
Sandra Robertson. “Everyone isn’t doing
well. Some are doing very poorly. CEOs
have quadrupled their wages while
workers have lost wages.
“We believe we can change this.
Corporations, in profit-making, are doing
very well, but they are not sharing that
profit. Workers need to be given an equi
table share of the profits for the work they
have done.”
Anyone interested in assisting the Up
and Out of Poverty Now Coalition or in
joining the Leadership Development
Initiative can call Ovita Thornton at 546-
1733. (JB)
CONG. LEWIS IS
‘AMERICAN HERO’
The Clarke County Democratic
Committee will present Georgia
Congressman John Lewis with its first
Great American Hero award. Lewis will be
honored Thursday, Oct. 1, during a cere
mony that begins at 7 p.m. in the Classic
Center fire hall. Mayor Doc Eldridge will
declare Oct. 1 “John Lewis Day” in Athens.
“We feel as a political organization that
too frequently politicians, rather than
being honored for their services, are vili
fied by the media and others who seem to
only want to criticize,” said Bob Cunha,
chairman of the Clarke County Democratic
Committee, in regard to the Great
American Hero award. “We felt that here
was an extraordinary person who goes
beyond what is expected of most politi
cians.”
Lewis, a Democrat, represents Georgia’s
5th Congressional District (Atlanta). He has
been a civil rights activist since 1960. In
1961, at the age of 21, Lewis participated in
the anti-segregation Freedom Rides; during
1963-66 he was the chairman of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and
was already considered one of the “Big Six"
leaders of the civil rights movement, along
side Martin Luther King, Jr. and Whitney
Young. At the age of 23, Lewis was one of
the keynote speakers at the 1963 March on
Washington, where MLK, Jr. delivered his
famous “I Have a Dream" speech. Lewis
was also present at the infamous 1965
“Bloody Sunday” confrontation at Edmund
Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Lewis has
been the director of both the Voter
Education Project and ACTION, the federal
volunteer agency. He was elected to
Congress in 1986 and is currently serving
his seventh term.
“It’s a great American story,” says Cunha
of Lewis’ accomplishments. “He’s never
stopped. He’s a man of great integrity, great
honesty. He feels that his mission in life is
to speak for the disenfranchised, the dis
possessed, and he’s never afraid to speak
his mind."
The event will feature speeches from
raetaiimti
Volunteers needed. Meet at Blue Sky Coffee Friday
October 1st at 5:15p.m. or call 227.6090 for more info.
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Filmmaker OAK
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ABC Printing • Georgia Pitu And Videotape Oflice
fi E f.* LL.C • he*.-.aid Alien Motors & Toyota - Pony.
FLAGPOLE SEPTEMBER 22, 1999
JAPANESE STEAK AND SEAFOOD
(same recipes as tnoko Japanese Steakliouse)
Early Bird Dinner for T r-
Two Special | ■"
Dilily uut i‘.u 1 TcHydc
Any choices ot'tcnyaki steak. vU B s Pkvcspvt
shrimp nr chicken served with ■ am Dinner 1
souj\ salid. p illed vegetables *
and tried rice.
