Chicago is the World

We need to pay attention to folks fretting about the future. And some of those are the older folks  who planned a demonstration downtown Monday.

My colleague Curtis Black wrote about the reasoning behind the demonstration and it’s an issue the ethnic press needs to keep in mind.

He writes:

“I am saddened and very, very angry at the prospect of elected officials even considering cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or HUD programs,” writes Ruth Long, 85, of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, in a statement.

She notes that as a young black woman in the South in the 1940s, the only job open to her was as a domestic – which was not covered by Social Security.  Her employer at a bakery in Chicago didn’t report her earnings to Social Security, and when she was forced to stop working due to health issues, Medicaid and SSI “rescued” her.

“How can legislators look at themselves and their families in the face while considering this evil deed?”  she asks.  “I am one among many senior citizens standing on the brink of despair, because we feel abandoned by the very people we worked hard in our communities to put in their respective political offices.”

But it’s confusing figuring out what’s going with the budget in D.C. and Springfield and here.

So, here’s step one to help you get smart about it.

Consider  this webinar on Wednesday. Covering the Budget Crisis in Your City or State, the latest Webinar from Poynter’s News University.

Here’s the info from Poynter:

“Sign up now for Covering the Budget Crisis in Your City or State. The cost of this Webinar, offered at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9, is regularly $29.95, but thanks to the support of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, we are able to offer it for only $9.95.

For more information on this topic, you can also visit the Resources for Covering Municipal Spending in the Post-Stimulus Era.”

Here’s the link: http://www.newsu.org/covering-budget-crisis

Once you’ve figured out how to get around the budgets and tables and other mind-bending hurdles, come to our meeting next Monday, Nov. 14 on Chicago Budget

 We’ll take part Chicago’s budget from the neighborhoods on up. We’ll tell you who is getting a good deal and who is losing out, and we’ll arm you with stats from experts so you can report on the news that you won’t get anywhere else – the news that you need to make sure you’ve got a loyal audience.

We’re putting this workshop on with the Grassroots Collaborative at our offices at 218 S. Wabash, 7th floor and we start at 9 am. So join us and if you have any questions, contact me – Steve@chicagoistheworld.org

But before you lose your head in some dismal numbers, consider a neat series of events over the next few days – a Brazilian film festival. Their promo says:

“MOSTRA II Brazilian Film Series is taking place November 9 to 16 at Universities across Chicago–11/9-12 at Columbia College Chicago, 11/13 at the School of the Art Insititute of Chicago, November 14-16 at Northeastern and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

All films deal with social issues, from 5x Favela that will be screened opening night, where leading Brazilian directors gave cameras to residents of Rio’s slums to capture an intimate and hopeful portrait of life there, to Orchestra dos Meninos, and the controversy a young visionary faces as he works to bring Brazilian youths out of poverty by creating an orchestra in Northern Brazil.”

Here’s dates and times and more info…

http://www.illinois-saopaulo-partners.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Schedule-to-print-10-221.pdf)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frn00bz3uns