Metro retirees back Hillary Clinton
Leaders at the Metro Retirees meeting. Substance photo by Jean Schwab.The members of "Chicago Metro Retirees," part of the Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans, met September 26, 2016, at SEIU Healthcare Union at 2229 S. Halsted Street. The meeting’s agenda was to form a "three-way intergenerational alliance", according to organizers.
The meeting was opened by Charles Hogan, President of Chicago Metro Retirees, who introduced new members and guests. A flyer entitled: "79 Organizations Endorse Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump" was distributed. According to the flyer, 71 organizations, including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, along with 24 unions, have endorsed Hillary Clinton. The other eight endorsed Trump.
According to the AFL-CIO, “Hillary Clinton has been a champion for retirees throughout her distinguished career. Her life’s work exemplifies the Alliance’s mission to enhance the quality of life for all Americans…”
“She will oppose efforts to cut, privatize or shift Medicare costs to retirees.”
“She has an unmatched record of public service and earned a lifetime score of 100% from the Alliance for her pro-retiree votes as a U.S. Senator.”
Jean Cameron, an officer of the Chicago Metro Alliance, announced that the Illinois Alliance of Retired Americans has endorsed over 30 candidates for state races. This list includes: Brad Schneider, William Enyart, Jennifer Berdino-Tarrant and Merry Marwig. People at the meeting were asked to phone bank for all candidates, especially Tammy Duckworth, who voted 96% with Alliance for Retired Americans while in the House of Representatives. Mark Kirk, on the other hand, hardly voted in support of any Alliance for Retired Americans issues in the Senate.
We were reminded that not only are the national candidates important, but state and Local candidates are too.
The first speaker was Lakesia Collins, President of SEIU Healthcare “Future Leaders. Collins explained; “The Future Leaders are young workers who have been volunteering to get young people to vote. They have been working to elect Hillary Clinton by phone banking and working at food depositories and talking to young workers. They also work with homeless young people. Future Leaders are interested in forming an intergenerational program.“
A representative of ATU, Amalgamated Transit Union local 308 also reported reaching out to young workers and getting them involved in talking to young people and volunteering. Justin Willis of local 5707 Steel Workers also works with young workers on food drives, phone banking and voter registration.
All of the speakers agreed that intergenerational working together would be beneficial. Dr. Lois Gueno, an Alliance member, pointed out that” young people don’t seem interested in causes. Civics courses are not taught in our schools. They were taken out of schools in 1980 by President Reagan because there was a fear that teachers might indoctrinate students.” Gueno believes that Civics classes need to be taught a full year for full credit. Gueno says that Governor Bruce Rauner (Illinois Governor) believes that Civics should be taught for one semester which is not enough. Lois Gueno also asserted that Public Schools counselors in CPS cannot council students to attend Community Colleges, which is a shame since city colleges and community colleges charge a flat rate. “
Jacki Algee, SEIU Healthcare, stated that SEIU has a group of young workers -Souls to Polls, which was a SEIU Brain child. Young voters volunteer to take other young people to the polls during early and regular voting. The meeting was closed with the understanding that the Alliance will be meeting and working with young workers.
