Six candidates are running for two at-large seats: Rose Bell, Kyleen Carroll, Cokethia Hill, Kenneth Hughlon, Robert Peterson and Crispin Rea.

“The important thing is to vote,”said Mary Ellen Decoursey, a member of the Visitation Catholic Church local organizing committee. Visitation is an affiliate of CCO.

“These candidates will represent the entire KCMSD district for the next four years,” DeCoursey added.

Visitation’s organizing efforts are focused on education. Nearly 200 people attended a School Board Candidate forum that they planned with other area congregations. Last fall, they organized a public action with Superintendent John Covington. More than 350 people attended the event, which focused on safety, budget transparency and communication between the district and parents. They will meet with Dr. Covington later this month to follow up on his pledge to work with the community to resolve these issues.

Foreclosure

…That’s why we’re working to lift the value of a family’s single largest investment — their home. The steps we took last year to shore up the housing market have allowed millions of Americans to take out new loans and save an average of $1,500 on mortgage payments. This year, we will step up re-financing so that homeowners can move into more affordable mortgages.

Health care Reform

…And it is precisely to relieve the burden on middle-class families that we still need health insurance reform.

Now let’s clear a few things up — I did not choose to tackle this issue to get some legislative victory under my belt. And by now it should be fairly obvious that I didn’t take on health care because it was good politics.

I took on health care because of the stories I’ve heard from Americans with pre-existing conditions whose lives depend on getting coverage; patients who’ve been denied coverage; and families — even those with insurance — who are just one illness away from financial ruin.

After nearly a century of trying, we are closer than ever to bringing more security to the lives of so many Americans. The approach we’ve taken would protect every American from the worst practices of the insurance industry. It would give small businesses and uninsured Americans a chance to choose an affordable health care plan in a competitive market. It would require every insurance plan to cover preventive care. And by the way, I want to acknowledge our first lady, Michelle Obama, who this year is creating a national movement to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity and make kids healthier.

Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan. It would reduce costs and premiums for millions of families and businesses. And according to the Congressional Budget Office — the independent organization that both parties have cited as the official scorekeeper for Congress — our approach would bring down the deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades.

Still, this is a complex issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became. I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people. And I know that with all the lobbying and horse-trading, this process left most Americans wondering “what’s in it for me?”

But I also know this problem is not going away. By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions will lose it this year. Our deficit will grow. Premiums will go up. Patients will be denied the care they need. Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether. I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber.

As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we’ve proposed. There’s a reason why many doctors, nurses and health care experts who know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo. But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance company abuses, let me know. Here’s what I ask of Congress, though: Do not walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people.

Now, even as health care reform would reduce our deficit, it’s not enough to dig us out of a massive fiscal hole in which we find ourselves. It’s a challenge that makes all others that much harder to solve, and one that’s been subject to a lot of political posturing.

…..

So no, I will not give up on trying to change the tone of our politics. I know it’s an election year. And after last week, it is clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. But we still need to govern. To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions. So let’s show the American people that we can do it together. This week, I’ll be addressing a meeting of the House Republicans. And I would like to begin monthly meetings with both the Democratic and Republican leadership. I know you can’t wait.

Immigration

And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system — to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nations.

In the end, it is our ideals, our values, that built America — values that allowed us to forge a nation made up of immigrants from every corner of the globe; values that drive our citizens still. Every day, Americans meet their responsibilities to their families and their employers. Time and again, they lend a hand to their neighbors and give back to their country. They take pride in their labor, and are generous in spirit. These aren’t Republican values or Democratic values they’re living by; business values or labor values. They are American values

Congressman Moore Addresses Health Care Questions

“I’ve told people (that) congress should have done something about this 40 years ago,” said Rep. Moore. “We can’t change what didn’t happen for 40 years, but I’m hopeful we’ll get something passed this year.”

Moore, who is stepping down at the end of his term, said that at this point, there is really no way to tell if health care reform still has any shot of passing this year.

Dave Froelich — WDAF-TV

After a week of political twists and turns in Washington, people of faith across the country are stepping up with a massive effort to remind Congress that the urgent need for reform has not abated for suffering families. In the face of uncertainty, they are telling their elected representatives that the millions of Americans who cannot afford health care need leaders to fight for them, not fold.

Numerous religious groups are mounting a national call-in day on Monday, January 25, to tell Congress that we need strong, courageous leadership to ensure that the lives and livelihoods of Americans no longer fall victim to insurance companies’ greed. Partners in this effort to mobilize hundreds of thousands of contacts to Congress include: Faithful America; PICO National Network; Faithful Reform in Health Care; African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME); Sojourners; United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society; Gamaliel Foundation; Interfaith Worker Justice; NETWORK – A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Washington Office; Union of Reform Judaism; Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office; United Church of Christ; Jewish Reconstructionist Federation; Islamic Medical Association of North America; and Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition.

In addition to the these call-ins, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is bringing hundreds of high school student advocates for health reform to Capitol Hill for visits with Members of Congress.

“One election half-way across the country has done nothing to change the desperate need of children and families in our community for affordable health care,” says Rev. Rayfield Burns, a PICO leader from Communities Creating Opportunity in Kansas City, MO.

Faith leaders across the country who have worked hard for reform all year are keeping up the fight for desperately needed legislation and demanding that their political leaders do the same. We cannot quit now – there are too many lives at stake.

Contact: Tim Lilienthal, PICO, 413-537-0631 (http://www.coverallfamilies.org)

Last night at 1:45 AM, I left the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library,
located in the Dorchester part of Boston where I live, having joined tens
of thousands who paid their respects as his body lay in state there.

Earlier in the day at 5:00 PM, my wife and I stood beside two leaders
from another community group I’d once worked for who we had run into, too
see the motorcade with his casket and funeral pass by at the entrance to
the Kennedy Library about 3/4 mile from the actual library. These leaders,
one of whom pushed the other who was wheelchair bound, brought a hand made
sign to hold up that thanked Ted Kennedy for all he did.

For people around my age, which is now 58, we remember where we were when
we heard of President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, when we woke
up to learn of Robert Kennedy’s assassination in June of 1968, and now Ted
Kennedy’s passing which I learned about when I opened my newspaper on Tuesday
morning.

There’s a bit of a full circle for me remembering as a boy of 10 waiting
for President Kennedy’s motorcade to pass through my home town during the
1960 election campaign and waiting again yesterday for his brother’s last
motorcade.

Each generation can carry their poignant memories of national events that
touched them just as my mother told me how people of her generation remember
where they were when they learned of President Franklin Roosevelt’s death
in April of 1945.

If I can be so bold to say, I think we at PICO try to operate humbly in
Ted Kennedy’s way. We have principles, but we are willing to compromise.
We see a glass half filled and not one half empty as giving some new opportunities
for people and some lessening of injustice. We try not to demonize our opponents
but try to reach them, but we do fight tenaciously for what we believe in.
And we know we have our own failings just as he knew he did.

PICO’s first national campaign on health care was to increase the funding
and scope of the SCHIP children’s health care program. Senator Kennedy had
first developed this legislation and the campaign to pass it in 1997. Because
our local organization was part of PICO, we did a share of organizing on
this PICO campaign and we organized a press event on SCHIP that Senator Kennedy
spoke at along side of Diluvina Vazquez Allard, one of our leaders, in 2007.

Showing the staff organization and personal touch Ted Kennedy was famous
for, I even got a thank you note from him thanking me for working on the
event that include a personal handwritten note of thanks from the Senator.
You can imagine I treasure this note just like a letter I have signed by
Robert Kennedy in 1967.

And on our other national issue of immigration reform, Senator Kennedy’s
bill in 1965 changed the system and the face of our country. When immigration
restrictions were passed in the 1920′s in conservative reaction to the streams
of poorer immigrants who had come from Eastern and Southern Europe in 1890-1920,
like all my grandparents, the new law much restricted the numbers of annual
immigrants and gave much higher quotas to Northern European countries. Senator
Kennedy’s 1965 legislation ended this discriminatory preference and gave
people from Third World countries more of a chance to immigrate here. And
again, three years ago, it was he who developed the bipartisan Kennedy-McCain

Immigration Reform Bill, that we worked for and is the basis of the next

campaign we are part of. (editors’ note: for more info on the Cover All Families Campaign, http://bit.ly/Vf0GQ

—-Lew Finfer

Communities Creating Opportunity is an affiliate of the PICO National Network.

The call was one part of an unprecedented grassroots faith-based movement by PICO and other religious organizations to make quality health care affordable to all American families. The call was co-hosted by PICO along with more than 30 national religious denominations and organizations representing millions of people of faith from the Evangelical, Catholic, Main-line Protestant, Jewish and Muslim traditions.

“Religious congregations are safe places where people can have reasoned and informed conversation about an issue that so many people feel so passionate about.” said Rev. Jennifer Thomas, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church and CCO leader On the call with President Obama, she described how her church had helped organize other Evangelical Lutheran churches in her regional synod of Missouri and Kansas to speak out in favor of health care reform.

Thomas is pictured above leading a prayer rally for health reform. The rally was located in front of Sen. Claire McCaskill’s Kansas City office.

CCO is the lead organization in Kansas City training grassroots community members to participate effectively in civic life and affect social change in their neighborhoods and communities. CCO routinely gathers the largest and most diverse numbers of people in Kansas City to address critical community issues.

CCO works with over 24 congregations and communities representing 18,000 people throughout Kansas City. With these groups, we train community leaders to reach out to their neighbors, identify common concerns, research possible solutions, and collaborate with the key decision-makers to implement solutions.

Our organizing unifies and empowers large bases of local residents to participate in the democratic process and achieve tangible results. CCO’s most notable accomplishments for its communities include:

Prompting the investment of over $20 million in housing and community development;
Securing commitments of $9.5 million in basic city services and infrastructure for economically poor communities;
Improving the health of Missouri families and communities through statewide policy changes around codes enforcement, urban grocery stores, pay-day loans, and access to health insurance;
Enhancing youth development through 1,250 parent-teacher trainings, a free soccer league of over 300 youth, improved park facilities and 10 new soccer fields, and youth scholarships;
Reducing crime and drug abuse by partnering with the City and County to close over 200 drug houses and raise over $20 million annually to implement drug prevention and enforcement strategies.

CCO’s Working Model

CCO embraces a unique methodology to realize its mission to bring people of all faiths together to build relationships, develop strong leaders, and improve the quality of life in our communities.

The method empowers local residents to help themselves and rests on four primary tools: one-on-one meetings, research, action, and reflection.

How CCO works