Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 4-6-18

White House And Political News
Rally To End Racism Held On 50th Anniversary Of Dr. King’s Assassination
Commission Against Sexual Harassment In Workplace Asking Hollywood For Millions
A rally to end racism was held Wednesday on the Na- tional Mall.
The A.C.T. to End Racism Rally was planned by National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
Events of the day included: a Silent Prayer Walk to the Na- tional Mall from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial; an interfaith service: and the rally that included a variety of speakers, including Grammy Award-winning artist, Yolanda Adams, Lou Gos-
Dr. King giving his final speech on April 3, 1968. He was assassi- nated the next morning in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4th. The Rally began with a silent march to the National Mall from Dr. King’s Memorial in D.C.
sett, Jr., Rabbi Jonah Pes- Jerry Greenfield of Ben & ner, and Ben Cohen and Jerry’sIceCream.
The Anita Hill-led Com- mission on Eliminating Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace is asking Hollywood to pony up millions of dollars to fund its mission over the next five years.
All the major networks, stu- dios, talent agencies and guilds are being asked to contribute to cover the cost of its work.
The commission’s leader, Anita Hill, in 1991, then a law professor at the University of Oklahoma, came forward with public accusations that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexu- ally harassed her.
Thomas’ nomination by Pres. Bush (the father) was controversial from the start, but for other reasons. Many African-American and civil rights organizations including: the NAACP, the National Bar Association, and the Urban League, opposed the Thomas nomination. These organiza- tions feared that Thomas's conservative stance on issues such as Affirmative Action would reverse the Civil Rights gains that Justice Thurgood Marshall , who Thomas would replace, had fought so hard to achieve.
Thomas cleared the House committee with flying colors. However, when the nomina- tion moved to the floor of the Senate, it took a sudden and dramatic turn when Hill, who had worked for Thomas years earlier, charged that Thomas harassed her with inappropri- ate discussion of sexual acts and pornographic films after she rebuffed his invitations to date him.
Professor Anita Hill, the leader of the new commission, took a very public stand against sexual harassment in the work- place in 1991, when she publicly accused then Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
A media frenzy quickly arose around Hill's allegations and Thomas's denials. When Thomas testified about Hill's claims before the Senate Judi- ciary Committee, he called the hearings, "a high-tech lynching for uppity Blacks." In the end, the Senate voted 52-48 to con- firm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.
Anita Hill’s stand seemed to be a defeat, however, the controversy had other long- term consequences beyond Justice Thomas's life-term on the Supreme Court.
Foremost, national aware- ness about sexual harassment in the workplace heightened considerably. According to Equal Employment Opportu- nity Commission filings, sexual harassment cases have more than doubled, from 6,127 in 1991 to 15,342 in 1996. Over the same period, awards to vic- tims under federal laws nearly quadrupled, from $7.7 million to $27.8 million.
Netflix Names Former Obama Adviser and U.N. Ambassador To Board; Conservatives Call For Boycott
President Obama‘s for- mer national security adviser and U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, has transitioned from the hard-knock world of poli- tics to the land of moviemake believe. Rice is set to join the Netflix board of directors and is currently in negotiations to create a series with the com- pany.
The company made the an- nouncement last week with Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings praising her prior work on intelligence issues for the Obama admin- istration.
Susan Rice has bee appointed to Netflix Board of Directors.
Rice, 53, said she was “thrilled” to be joining the Board.
Rice currently is a distin- guished visiting research fel- low at American University’s School of International Serv- ice, as well as a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Everyone is not thrilled with the appointment. Conserva- tives have started the hashtag #BoycottNetflix in response to the company’s Rice’s appoint- ment to the board of directors.
Kaiser Report: As Republican Lawmakers Collapse Obamacare, Population Is
A poll, conducted by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, found that Oba- macare enrollees are not in- terested in switching to the skimpier, short-term plans, touted by the Trump admin- istration, which have fewer benefits and lower premiums.
As part of the Republican tax reform plan signed into law at the end of 2017, Con- gress eliminated the Afford- able Health Care’s (ACA) individual mandate penalty. The new law goes into effect in 2019.
However, the poll revealed that only 19 percent of the population are aware the mandate penalty has been re- pealed, but is still in effect for this year.
It also discovered that, re- gardless of the lack of aware- ness, 9 in 10 non-group enrollees say they intend to
continue to buy their own in- surance even with the repeal of the individual mandate.
Because of Republican push back and overall resist- ance to affordable health care, half of the people who have healthcare feel the system is “collapsing.
Although, those who buy their insurance through the
ACA marketplace report being satisfied with the insurance options available to them dur- ing the most recent open en- rollment period and more than half give the value of their insurance a positive rat- ing.
However, 30 % experi- enced problems while trying to renew or buy their coverage and6 in 10 marketplace en- rollees say they are worried about the possible lack of health insurance coverage in their areas.
The most common re- sponse offered by people who are uninsured when asked the reason why they don’t have health insurance is that it is too expensive due to insur- ance companies bailing from the program, followed by job- related issues such as unem- ployment or their employer doesn’t offer health insurance.
Satisfied And Still Buying It
PAGE 6-A FLORIDA SENTINEL-BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2018