politics Archive
After a rollercoaster 16 days, the federal shutdown is over. Now it is time for us to look at what we as Americans gained, lost, and learned from the struggle. Yep, nothing. Everything just got pushed three months down the road. There was …
In the Spotlight Headlines from the first week of October have stressed that the government shutdown would specifically impact programs designed to aid poor and vulnerable populations. This is no longer simply speculative. As the government remains shut down for …
Today, I had the fortune and opportunity to meet an individual trained and working as a social worker in the Montreal area who is now running for political office in his borough as a city councillor; Alain Vaillancourt with Projet …
Social workers can be hard on the NASW, they are they obvious target for complaints about the health of the profession. In many ways working for the NASW can be thankless, our advocates are so busy fighting for us that …
There are many in this country who find politics to be rather sad. It is said that the public’s congressional approval has fallen to the single digit percentile. Many find the childish games of congressmen and presidents deeply wearying. Some …
Declaring in a speech Monday to the American Bar Association that “widespread incarceration at the federal, state, and local levels is both ineffective and unsustainable”, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a number of policy directives aimed at winding down the …
Consumers finally caught a break this week when the Republican leadership in the Senate relented and permitted a vote on Richard Cordray’s nomination as the director of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB). Twelve Republicans joined the Democratic majority for a 66-34 vote …
Compromise is hard, one of the secrets of the art of compromise is having all parties leave the table believing that they won. And yet, when it comes to social workers, it seems as though compromise means getting the least, …
After my previous posting, it dawned on me that calling for social workers to become more political was rather simplistic. Many social workers are political and have been for decades. I believe we need more social workers running for elected …
What would you do if you were the boss? It is easy to be negative towards a place, organization, government, or belief system without taking the moment to go “what would make a positive change.” Unless you directly work within …
