Motley Moose – Archive

You all are aware of the fact that  Maxine Waters, Congresswoman has vowed to fight the charges being leveled against her in Congress.   I say – fight on my sister!

Perhaps it’s time to remind the progressive community about just who she is and why her voice is not only needed in the House – but in this nation.

A look at her history and childhood is important, for us to understand who she is, and why for so many years she has been a champion for “the have-nots” in our society.

On August the 15th in 1938, Maxine Waters was born in St. Louis Missouri.  

Waters was one of thirteen children in a poor family living in a St. Louis housing project. She credits her childhood for what she is today–competitive, outspoken, and determined. “Just getting heard in a family that size is difficult,” she explained in Ebony. Waters’s mother, Velma Moore Carr, struggled to support her family by working intermittently at a series of low-paying jobs augmented by welfare. Waters described her mother in Ebony as “a strong woman, a survivor,” whose determination served as an inspiration to her.

Few powerful elected officials in our society have any idea what it is like to grow up in the projects, receive food stamps, struggle to make ends meet and work (if you can get a job at all) in low wage positions with no health care.

Although Waters’s high school yearbook had predicted that one day she would be the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Waters found that possibility to be extremely remote. After graduating from high school, she married and had two children. In 1960 the family moved to Los Angeles, where Waters worked at a few menial jobs before taking an opportunity to organize a Head Start program in the suburb of Watts. “Head Start made a significant difference in my life,” Waters stated in Essence. “It helped me see how I could help people, and it helped steer me into politics.”

Those  “menial” jobs, were in a garment factory and later she found work as a telephone operator.  

In 1966, Waters was hired as an assistant teacher with the newly formed Head Start program in Watts. Waters decided to attend college while working at Head Start, and in 1970 earned a sociology degree from California State University in Los Angeles.

Anyone who has ever worked at a low-paying job, while trying to raise children knows what a struggle it had to have been for her to also decide to go to school.  Assistant teacher’s at Head Start earned pennies.  Though data is not available for the wages during those start up years I did find figures for teachers (not the assistants)

A 1988 study of Head Start salaries reveals that Head Start teachers work about the same number of hours per year as public school kindergarten teachers but earn substantially less. Head Start teachers with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education earn, on average, 63 percent of the beginning salaries for public school kindergarten teachers ($11,518 versus $18,350, respectively). The 1987 Head Start Recruitment and Enrollment Study reported the median annual wage of a Head Start teacher was $5,682, with few teaching’ staff receive any fringe benefits.

And so, Maxine’s activism started at Head Start.  Her biography at The History Maker’s states:

Waters became the voice for frustrated Head Start parents. Her efforts encouraged these parents to make federal budget requests, to contact legislators and agencies for increased funding, and to lobby for Head Start components tailored to their community. Waters’ concern for parents’ rights led her to become involved in local politics, and in 1973 she went to work as chief deputy to City Councilman David Cunningham.

In 1976, Waters quit her job and successfully ran for election to the California State Assembly. During her tenure in the State Assembly, Waters authored numerous pieces of legislation, including a law requiring state agencies to award a percentage of public contracts to minorities and women; tenants’ rights laws; a law restricting police efforts to use strip searches; and the largest divestment of state pension funds from businesses involved in South Africa.

After serving for fourteen years in the California State Assembly, in 1990 Waters successfully ran for a seat in the 29th Congressional District of California. In 1992, Waters ran in the much larger 35th District, representing South Central Los Angeles, Inglewood, Gardena and Hawthorne, and won 83 percent of the vote. Waters continues to represent the 35th District and has been active on a number of issues, including affirmative action, community development, women’s health and welfare reform.

While much of the right wing outrage against Water’s focuses on her skin color and racial identity, let us not forget that she is not only black – but a woman.

The intersections of “race” and gender have played a major role in her organizing and political positions.

Waters was instrumental in the formation of the National Political Congress of Black Women in August of 1984. Born of the frustration of black women leaders, the organization emphasized mainstream electoral politics as a way to focus on what they felt were unique and neglected problems facing women. The organization’s goal was to encourage every black woman in America to become involved in political activity. “It is important that Black women understand that we can seek leadership roles and not lose our identity,” proclaimed Waters in Essence. “We don’t have to do a song and dance because we’re afraid we might alienate others. I’m not interested in making everyone comfortable–some people need to be made uncomfortable. Black women need to feel a sense of our own power.”

While a member of the California State Assembly, Waters introduced and passed legislation on minority and women’s tenants’ rights and on limits on police strip searches. Her greatest challenge, however, was maintaining patience throughout the eight years it took her to pass legislation divesting California state pension funds from companies doing business with South Africa. She reintroduced the bill six times before it passed in September 1986, demonstrating the perseverance that she feels is necessary for success in politics.

Waters also succeeded in passing an affirmative action bill that required California to set aside 15% of all state contracts for companies owned by members of minority groups and 5% for companies owned by women. The bill was acclaimed as landmark legislation because it was the first major statewide bill to mandate such programs. Another of Waters’s pieces of legislation resulted in the creation of the nation’s first statewide Child Abuse Prevention Program. In 1984 Waters’s accomplishments were acknowledged when she was selected to chair the California State Assembly’s Democratic Caucus, the first woman to ever hold this post.

The experience she  gained in local and State politics led her to a decision to run for national office.

In 1990 Waters successfully ran for a seat in the 29th Congressional District of California. In 1992, Waters ran in the much larger 35th District, representing South Central Los Angeles, Inglewood, Gardena and Hawthorne, and won 83 percent of the vote. Waters continues to represent the 35th District and has been active on a number of issues, including affirmative action, community development, women’s health and welfare reform.

As progressives it is important that we look at her track record, positions and voting history during her tenure in the House.

Maxine Waters:  On the Issues

(have edited and excerpted what is a very lengthy list)

Abortion:

Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Jan 2007)

Voted YES on allowing human embryonic stem cell research. (May 2005)

Voted NO on restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions. (Apr 2005)

Voted NO on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime. (Feb 2004)

Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life. (Oct 2003)

Voted NO on funding for health providers who don’t provide abortion info. (Sep 2002)

Voted NO on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001)

Voted NO on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes. (Apr 2001)

Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)

Voted NO on barring transporting minors to get an abortion. (Jun 1999)

Recommended by EMILY’s List of pro-choice women. (Apr 2001)

Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)

Civil Rights:

# Voted YES on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. (Nov 2007)

# Voted NO on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman. (Jul 2006)

# Voted NO on making the PATRIOT Act permanent. (Dec 2005)

# Voted NO on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. (Sep 2004)

# Voted NO on protecting the Pledge of Allegiance. (Sep 2004)

# Voted NO on constitutional amendment prohibiting flag desecration. (Jun 2003)

# Voted NO on banning gay adoptions in DC. (Jul 1999)

# Voted NO on ending preferential treatment by race in college admissions. (May 1998)

# Ending racial profiling is part of fight for justice. (Jan 2001)

Crime:

# Voted YES on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes. (Apr 2009)

# Voted YES on funding for alternative sentencing instead of more prisons. (Jun 2000)

# Voted NO on more prosecution and sentencing for juvenile crime. (Jun 1999)

# Voted YES on maintaining right of habeas corpus in Death Penalty Appeals. (Mar 1996)

# Voted NO on making federal death penalty appeals harder. (Feb 1995)

# Voted YES on replacing death penalty with life imprisonment. (Apr 1994)

# Rated 100% by CURE, indicating pro-rehabilitation crime votes. (Dec 2000)

Drugs:

*  Voted YES on more funding for Mexico to fight drugs. (Jun 2008)

   * Voted NO on military border patrols to battle drugs & terrorism. (Sep 2001)

   * Voted NO on prohibiting needle exchange & medical marijuana in DC. (Oct 1999)

   * Legalize medical marijuana. (Jul 2001)

   * Rated +25 by NORML, indicating a pro-drug-reform stance. (Dec 2006)

   * Allow rehabilitated drug convicts get student loans. (Jan 2008)

   * Distribute sterile syringes to reduce AIDS and hepatitis. (Jan 2009)

Education:

# Voted YES on $40B for green public schools. (May 2009)

# Voted YES on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects. (Nov 2007)

# Voted YES on allowing Courts to decide on “God” in Pledge of Allegiance. (Jul 2006)

# Voted YES on $84 million in grants for Black and Hispanic colleges. (Mar 2006)

# Voted NO on allowing school prayer during the War on Terror. (Nov 2001)

# Voted NO on requiring states to test students. (May 2001)

# Voted NO on allowing vouchers in DC schools. (Aug 1998)

# Voted NO on vouchers for private & parochial schools. (Nov 1997)

# Voted NO on giving federal aid only to schools allowing voluntary prayer. (Mar 1994)

# Rated 100% by the NEA, indicating pro-public education votes. (Dec 2003)

Health Care:

   * Voted YES on expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program. (Jan 2009)

   * Voted YES on overriding veto on expansion of Medicare. (Jul 2008)

   * Voted YES on giving mental health full equity with physical health. (Mar 2008)

   * Voted YES on Veto override: Extend SCHIP to cover 6M more kids. (Jan 2008)

   * Voted YES on adding 2 to 4 million children to SCHIP eligibility. (Oct 2007)

   * Voted YES on requiring negotiated Rx prices for Medicare part D. (Jan 2007)

   * Voted NO on denying non-emergency treatment for lack of Medicare co-pay. (Nov 2003)

   * Voted YES on allowing reimportation of prescription drugs. (Jul 2003)

   * Voted NO on capping damages & setting time limits in medical lawsuits. (Mar 2003)

      * Voted NO on banning physician-assisted suicide. (Oct 1999)

   * Increase funding for AIDS treatment & prevention. (Jan 2001)

   * More funding for Rx benefits, community health, CHIPs. (Jan 2001)

   * Rated 100% by APHA, indicating a pro-public health record. (Dec 2003)

   * Make health care a right, not a privilege. (Nov 1999)

   * Supported funding women’s health needs. (Jul 1999)

   * Supported funding older women’s health. (Jul 1999)

   * Supported funding Prenatal and Postpartum Care. (Jul 1999)

   * Supported funding Family and Children’s Coverage. (Jul 1999)

War and Peace:

   *  Voted YES on investigating Bush impeachment for lying about Iraq. (Jun 2008)

   * Voted YES on redeploying US troops out of Iraq starting in 90 days. (May 2007)

   * Voted NO on declaring Iraq part of War on Terror with no exit date. (Jun 2006)

   * Voted NO on approving removal of Saddam & valiant service of US troops. (Mar 2004)

   * Voted NO on authorizing military force in Iraq. (Oct 2002)

   * Voted NO on disallowing the invasion of Kosovo. (May 1999)

   * Impeach Dick Cheney for lying about Iraq. (May 2007)

   * Co-founder of the Out-of-Iraq Congressional Caucus. (Jan 2007)

Welfare and Poverty:

   *  Voted YES on instituting National Service as a new social invention. (Mar 2009)

   * Voted YES on providing $70 million for Section 8 Housing vouchers. (Jun 2006)

   * Voted NO on promoting work and marriage among TANF recipients. (Feb 2003)

   * Voted NO on treating religious organizations equally for tax breaks. (Jul 2001)

   * Voted NO on responsible fatherhood via faith-based organizations. (Nov 1999)

   * Develop a strategy to eliminate extreme global poverty. (Dec 2007)

   * Reduce the concentration of wealth & wage inequality. (Nov 1999)

I apologize for the length of the excerpts.  I’m always afraid that perhaps folks won’t click on the links provided – though I encourage you all to examine her record at length.

Kenneth Miller, the Managing Editor of the Los Angles Sentinel wrote this editorial about her stances during the foreclosure crisis:

Waters is not only focused on responding to help those in need. She is also seeking to prevent more foreclosures by fighting to stop the schemers, hustlers and con artists who have preyed on hard-working, unsuspecting folks in our community. Waters will seek criminal penalties against those responsible for home mortgage abuses. She has called for leaders of banks and other financial institutions to defend their practices and change their ways. She has threatened to use subpoena power if necessary to get their testimony-and anyone who knows Maxine Waters knows not to doubt her willingness to follow through.

After all, it was Maxine Waters who fought the closure of MLK Hospital. It was Maxine Waters who developed the Minority AIDS Initiative to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS among our population and has continued to win more and more funding for this important program. It was Maxine Waters who fought against police brutality, harassment, the use of the chokehold and the battering ram by LAPD during the years of Chief Darrell Gates. And it was Maxine Waters who fought against the CIA when it turned a blind eye to the spread of crack cocaine on the streets of our neighborhoods to fund a war in Nicaragua. And it has been Maxine Waters leading to fight to assist public housing tenants and homeowners displaced by Hurricane Katrina by introducing the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act and successfully getting it passed by the House.

Whether through aggressive oversight or creative legislation, she will continue to pursue solutions to the housing crisis.

But her legislative priorities extend beyond housing and include other key issues for our community. She has introduced bills to improve health care by providing screenings for diseases that affect us like cancer, diabetes, HIV, and Alzheimer’s, to end the Iraq war, and the Jubilee Act to help reduce poverty in Africa and other nations burdened by debt.

What is also interesting about her positions is her that she is not afraid to openly critique the Democratic Party – and its failures to meet the needs of people of color and the poor. To push the party to become not only more of a big tent, but a more progressive one as well. At one point she even considered the need for a third party:

Waters advocated breaking away from the Democratic party and possibly creating a third party that would be responsive to the concerns of blacks and other people of color. In the Nation she commented: “When I look at what is currently happening to the masses of black people, to America’s poor in general and the entire nation, I am angry and frustrated. But we cannot yield to feelings of helplessness; we must transform anger and frustration into bold and direct action…. As for the Democratic Party, it must prove itself in these critical times or stand, like the Republicans, as just another instrument for betrayal and suppression of the people.”

“That’s the thing about Waters,” remarked Julianne Malveaux in Essence. “She pushes her causes openly. She raises her voice while everyone else whispers. She wears red when everyone else wears gray. She makes a difference.” That Waters has made a difference is evidenced by such programs as Project Build, which she established in her district to provide educational and job training services for residents in six Watts housing projects. Late in 1990 the Maxine Waters Vocational Educational Center was under construction in South Central Los Angeles, a symbol of hope in an area of boarded-up buildings and vacant lots. And in the aftermath of the racially motivated riots that rocked the city in the spring of 1992, Waters was among the first officials on the scene, providing food for the hungry Watts residents and demanding that the Department of Water and Power restore service to the area.

In Washington Waters continues her fight for black interests with the same forcefulness and skill she demonstrated in California. She sees herself as an inspiration to average women, letting them know that if she can succeed, so can they. “People who come from backgrounds like mine are not supposed to serve in the U.S. Congress,” she asserted in Essence. “When a little girl who came out of poverty in St. Louis has an opportunity to serve in Congress, it is like thumbing your nose at the status quo.” From all indications, Waters will be challenging the status quo in Congress for as long as she wants.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Maxine Waters:

“I’ve been in this struggle for many years now. I understand racism. I understand that there are a lot of people in this country who don’t care about the problems of the inner city. We have to fight every day that we get up for every little thing that we get. And so I keep struggling.”

“I have a right to my anger, and I don’t want anybody telling me I shouldn’t be, that it’s not nice to be, and that something’s wrong with me because I get angry.”

“Policy, for the most part, has been made by white people in America, not by people of color. And they have tended to take care of those things that they think are important. Whether it’s their agricultural subsidies, or other kinds of expenditures that are certainly not expenditures for poor people or for people of color. And so we have to band together and keep fighting back.”

In the last few  weeks we’ve all seen, and read the right wing, and TM media pile-on against our sister.  

Earl Ofari Hutchinson recently wrote a piece you should read, though interestingly his criticism is leveled at Democrats.

Maxine Waters: The Democrats’ Sacrificial Lamb

The reports painted the embattled California Congresswoman –who is one of the most influential and outspoken elected officials– as a corrupt, influence peddling, deal making politician who schemed to get millions in TARP bailout money for a bank in which her husband had stock. Waters, readers were told, faced possible ethics charges in the House.There’s a problem, no several problems, with this. Start with the headlines that trumpeted Water’s woes. They are a year and half old. The House Ethics Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Congressional Black Caucus, and in fact all House Democrats reported and hashed over the allegations against her at the time.

Apart from the allegation that she arranged a meeting on behalf of the National Bankers Association, a minority banking group, with Treasury officials, and her husband had an interest in one of the banks, the allegation is not new. During that time, legions of bankers and Wall Street financial house reps met with treasury officials. They all came with hat in hand for bailout funds. Waters did not attend the meeting in question and had no input in the decision by the Treasury to eventually shell out $12 million in bailout funds to minority banks. On the strength of an old charge, a single meeting, and no proof that Waters arm twisted Treasury officials to fork over money to the bank in question or any other minority bank, Waters muscled aside Charles Rangel as the poster politician for Congressional thievery and malfeasance.

It’s no accident that Waters has been dumped on the political hot seat three months before the 2010 mid-term elections.

House Democrats are scared stiff that the GOP will erase their majority. What better way to prove that they can police their own, and make good on Pelosi’s oft quoted vow to cleanse the swamp in Congress than to make sacrificial lambs out of a handful of wayward Democrats. And furthermore, chose those who are the most identifiable, outspoken, and vulnerable, and that’s African-American Democrats. The choice of Waters and Rangel has little to do with the actual charges and their alleged transgressions, or even whether they have merit or not. It’s politics, pure and simple.

In addition,  The San Francisco Bay View published several op-ed pieces relating to Waters last week:

Congresswoman Waters has no ethics violations

by Joseph Debro, President, Bay Area Black Builders

As I have written before, when a Black politician advocates for any Black person or organization, it is seen as a conflict of interest. When a white person advocates for another white person, it is an identity of interest.

Her husband, Sidney Williams, was once on the board of directors of that bank. He bought $500,000 worth of stock in the bank. This information was in the public record. Congresswoman Waters reported this information in her public disclosure statement one year prior to the bankers’ meeting with Secretary Geithner. The Treasury Department did not do their due diligence or they would have known about this relationship.

The New York Times tried to make a story out of this matter several months ago. They wanted to know how her family got $500,000. Maxine, like many of us in California, sold a house that she had owned for many years. She and her husband bought real estate in California when it was cheap. They had the good fortune of selling it at the right time.

The Republicans dominate the ethics committee, which is composed of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. The spineless Democrats allowed this matter to reach this level even though it was in no way a conflict. The Democrats on the committee, like the majority of the Democrats in Congress, allow the Republicans to rule, even though they are very few in numbers.

Artificial and unfair ethics approach regarding Congresswoman Maxine Waters

Open Letter to President Obama and Speaker Pelosi

by Len Canty, Chairman, Black Economic Council

During the heat of battle, soldiers who should receive a Congressional Medal of Honor are sometimes incorrectly charged with conduct leading to dishonorable discharges. No Blacks received Congressional Medals of Honor for their World War II heroism, but thousands were forced out of the service for their unwillingness to accept a segregated military that offered better treatment for Nazi war prisoners than Black soldiers.

This analogy is appropriate as to Congresswoman Maxine Waters. She has done nothing wrong and should, in fact, except for the partisan environment, be a hero to Congress, Main Street and the present administration.

Congresswoman Waters has raised what the president and the speaker have not dared to raise: that racism still exists even in the heart of federal government. See the Dodd-Frank Bank Reform bill and Waters’ legislation on minority and women diversity offices and the partisan Republican attack on these offices. She has sought to ensure that minorities are at the table for the distribution of almost $2 trillion in direct federal aid from the economic stimulus and bank bailout, as well as many trillions of dollars more for indirect subsidies such as zero borrowing costs for banks.

It is said in many parts of America that there is one standard for Republicans, a somewhat higher standard for Democrats and a much higher standard for Black Democrats. This appears to be the case for Maxine Waters. With this in mind, before condemning Congresswoman Waters, we request that the Federal Reserve provide a comprehensive report on the state of Black financial institutions over the last five years relative to the fate of the five largest financial institutions receiving federal bailouts, including Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

I hope look at Maxine Waters history, activism and legislative efforts gives those of you who are unfamiliar with her a better perspective, and for those of us who are quite familiar with our feisty Sister let it serve as a nudge to give her some support when she needs it.

Please send call or send letters of support and birthday greetings  to Sister Maxine.

Contact information, twitter, email, and, facebook and  phone numbers are available on her Congressional page.

Happy upcoming 72nd Birthday Sister Maxine – keep fightin’ and we’ve got your back.

cross-posted from Black Kos

for those of you who don’t visit GoS.