Executive Director’s Note
Creating a Society that Truly Honors Mothers
 Every year, come May, we honor mothers with flowers and gifts. Like any mother, I enjoy these offerings and the chance to reflect on the many joys of parenting. But the occasion always reminds me of how far we must go to become a society that truly honors mothers.
Last May, the U.S. Census put out some truly alarming figures about motherhood in America. Among mothers with a birth in the last year, the Census reported, 23 percent were below the poverty level; 12 percent of all married mothers with a birth in the last year were below the poverty level; and half of all unmarried mothers with a birth in the last year were below the poverty level.
I’ve seen how these numbers play out here in Los Angeles where hotel housekeepers—most of them immigrant women and many of them mothers—labor full time and endure hazardous working conditions for low pay. Many cannot afford health insurance, which can cost them hundreds of dollars a month.
It is always the individual stories that are the most shocking. The mother whose uninsured daughter almost loses her hand due to an infection that went untreated. The mother who cannot take time off work to attend a meeting with teachers about a child who is struggling. Or the pregnant mother who loses her baby after her employer ignores notes from a doctor requesting less strenuous duties.
But even these stories don’t fully capture the everyday and indignities that make raising children—a stressful and challenging job under the best of circumstances—so difficult for the working poor.
What has continued to amaze and humble me is to see these same women become leaders both in their workplace and their community. In Los Angeles and across the country, women are speaking out about poor working conditions and inadequate schools. Many women sacrificed a day’s pay to take part in the recent historic marches for immigrant rights in Los Angeles.
These mothers know better than anyone how much our fates are bound together. For them and their families to succeed, and for this country to restore the promise of a better life in return for hard, honest labor, we must create a society that values work and recognizes our common humanity.
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Barbara Ehrenreich, Julie Su to Headline LAANE’s Women For a New Los Angeles Luncheon
Friday, May 19, 2006
USC Davidson Conference Center, 3415 S. Figueroa St. at Jefferson Blvd., L.A. |
Join Southern California’s most involved and active women for what is proving to be the event for women in the progressive movement. Celebrating its third year, the Women for a New Los Angeles Luncheon is a place to network, see old friends and make new acquaintances while forming meaningful partnerships with other progressive women leaders in the Los Angeles area.
Civil rights attorney and Macarthur Genius Fellow Julie Su will be the keynote speaker, while Barbara Ehrenreich, the best-selling author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch, will receive a special award. The event will also feature entertainment and will be emceed by Brenda Sutton-Wills, staff counsel for the California Teachers Association. More
For more information or tickets, contact Trebor Healey, Development Coordinator, at (213) 977-9400, x134.
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Author David Korten comes to Los Angeles
David Korten, author of the bestseller When Corporations Rule the World – one of the first books to articulate the destructive and oppressive nature of the global corporate economy – will be appearing at several Southern California readings and workshop events this month. Korten will discuss his latest book, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, in which he makes the case that we have the opportunity to choose our future in the face of climate change and the financial instability inherent in an unbalanced global trading system that is fast unraveling.
The book describes how we can turn a potentially terminal crisis into an opportunity to bring forth a new era of community grounded in the life-affirming cultural values shared by the majority of people around the world.
Friday, May 12, 7 p.m.
Reading Event
Saturday, May 13, 8:30 a.m.
Daylong Workshop with Author Frances Moore-Lappe
Sunday, May 14, 10:15 a.m.
Rector's Forum
All events will be held at
All Saints Church
132 North Euclid Avenue, Pasadena |
For more information call
626-796-1172.
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2006 City of Justice Dinner
Mark Your Calendars!
LAANE’s 2006 City of Justice Awards Dinner is set for Thursday, November 30. Following the success of the 2005 event last December, LAANE is looking forward to another gala celebration, bringing together activists, elected officials, and community, religious and business leaders from around Los Angeles and beyond in support of LAANE’s mission to build a city of justice. |
Past Event Review |
Film Premiere of Lyn Goldfarb’s The New Los Angeles
Community, business, civic and religious leaders, along with dozens of hotel housekeepers, walked down the red carpet at Paramount Studios in Hollywood on April 19 to celebrate the world premiere of Lyn Goldfarb’s powerful documentary The New Los Angeles, which recounts the rapid social and economic changes in Los Angeles over the last three decades. Part of a new four-part PBS series, California and the American Dream, the film takes viewers on a journey from the bitterly fought, racially driven elections that brought Mayor Tom Bradley to power in 1973 to the historic 2005 election of L.A.'s first Latino mayor in more than 130 years, Antonio Villaraigosa.
Along the way, The New Los Angeles examines how race, labor and immigration have shaped the city's political life and landscape, employing historical footage of the 1992 riots, hotel and liquor store pickets, protests against Proposition 187, and actions by striking janitors and hotel workers. "Coalitions helped build L.A., and coalitions will help carry us into the future," said Goldfarb. "Right now we are a model.”
Visit CaliforniaDreamSeries.org to find out more about the series, the film’s community outreach campaign or to purchase a DVD or VHS of the series. |
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