WS Chronicle

Emancipation Association needs your money, support

To the Editor:

A personal plea for W-S/FC EMANCIPATION ASSOCIATION SUPPORT:  As a longtime member and past leader of the local organization, having learned of its purpose, goals/objectives, strengths and weaknesses, I am making this early plea for your support throughout the year, rather than to wait until the last minute to give it consideration.

The Board of Directors meets at least 10 times during the year to take care of the business and work of the organization and sponsors its ANNUAL EMANCIPATION ASSOCIATION CELEBRATION on January 1, unless January 1 comes on a Sunday, at which time it is held on the following Monday.

Including the excellent programs with dignitaries, outstanding speakers, great music/musicians, recognition of members and financial sup-porters, the organization awards meaningful scholarships to graduating high school scholars.

As you can envision/understand, it takes money to finance such a celebration.

Membership fee is $10.00 per person. Contributions of $25.00 or more qualify an individual or organization’s name to be printed in the program and newsletter, plus to receive a newsletter prior to the celebration.

Individuals, families, churches, organizations are encouraged to put the Emancipation Association in your budget and pay your commitment ASAP.

Checks may be written to: W-S/FC Emancipation Association and mailed to Mrs. Larn Dillard or to the Hanes Hosiery Center, 205 Reynolds Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC 27105, where the group meets. The Board had its recent ANNUAL MEETING and elected new officers on this past Monday, January 23, 2017.

All citizens are encouraged to commend the Board of its past and present work/accomplishments, and show them your support with a membership/contribution!

Thanks for spreading this message to family, friends, churches and organizations to which you belong!HAVE A FREE, PEACEFUL AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Rudolph V. Boone Sr. 

Immediate Past President 

(as of Jan. 22, 2017)

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Emancipation Association

Get ready for a year of moral resistance

To the Editor:

Today [Jan. 21], I felt proud to be a North Carolinian. Tens of thousands of people across the state took to the streets and made the #WomensMarch so powerful it could not be ignored. An estimated 17,000 people in Raleigh and 10,000 people in both Charlotte and Asheville and that is only three of the dozens of events that took place.

I was in Siler City as we continue to fight the deportation of Yosselin Herrera, a Chatham County high school student who came to North Carolina in 2014 fleeing gender-based gang violence in her native El Salvador. She knows that a deportation could mean her death sentence. Today I stood with Yosselin, her family, and many of our immigrant justice partners calling that she be granted asylum.

We know that she is not the only one facing this future.  Now more than ever, we must be committed to fighting for each other and today North Carolina proved that we are ready to do just that.

Today was only the beginning of a year of massive #MoralResistance. I look forward to seeing you all again in Raleigh on February 11 for the 11th annual Moral March on Raleigh & HKonJ People’s Assembly as we continue to demand a government that respects the dignity of all of its people and that governs for the good of the whole.

Congratulations to the NC Women’s March. You have inspired the nation and you have inspired me.

Forward together, not one step back!

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, 

President 

N.C. NAACP

Durham

Provide jobs, insurance  coverage  for N.C. citizens

To the Editor:

North Carolina’s leaders need to use every tool they have to boost the State’s economy.  Expanding Medicaid insurance coverage will create thousands of good new jobs and insure hundreds of thousands of people.

We should put aside power struggles, stop sending North Carolina tax dollars to other states who have expanded insurance coverage, and work with our Governor to provide those in need insurance and jobs here at home.

Expanding insurance coverage would pump $4 billion into our economy and add as many as 40,000 new, good paying jobs in health care, construction, retail and other professional fields.  Thirty-one (31) states have expanded insurance coverage through Medicaid.  They are seeing job growth and better health for their citizens as a result.

Jobs have grown more in states that expanded insurance through than in states that didn’t.  North Carolina is missing out!  States like Kentucky and Colorado have seen job creation in the tens of thousands as a result of expansion.   Hard working North Carolinians have already paid money to Washington for expansion.  Those same dollars are going to other states that have provided insurance opportunities for their citizens.  Why are we paying for jobs and insurance in Kentucky instead of helping our own people in North Carolina?

Healthier citizens means better job productivity and fewer emergency room visits for the uninsured. In excess of 144,000 of those 500,000 who would be insured in N.C. have a mental illness or drug/heroin disorder that would finally be covered.  Getting the help they need will keep them out of jails and off the streets.  These folks will finally be in treatment where they belong instead of posing a threat to our already overworked and under-appreciated law enforcement officers.  This is not even to mention 10,000 of our military veterans in North Carolina who honorably served and are currently without insurance.  That is abomination.  These men and women would get the help and respect through insurance and possible employment they deserve and are owed.

The economic benefits of expanded insurance coverage would impact rural areas as well.   Our failure to expand insurance availability disproportionately hurts our rural hospitals and our citizens in 85 of our 100 counties.  This failure has already contributed to the closure of at least one crucial hospital in the east resulting in unnecessary death and job losses.

Even Vice President Mike Pence, then the Governor of Indiana, chose to expand Medicaid in his state!Regardless his position on ObamaCare/ACA, he realized that insurance expansion through Medicaid would bring jobs, revenue, and health care to his constituents. Why would we continue to deny the same benefit to North Carolinians that our newly elected Vice President gave his constituents in Indiana?

Though Congress is poised to repeal the ACA/ObamaCare, Medicaid is here for the long haul. We must do what is best for North Carolina right now and support the Governor in his effort to insure the health and job prosperity of our citizens.

N.C. Rep. Ed Hanes Jr.

(D) Forsyth 

Co-Chair Forsyth County

Legislative Delegation