Obama Talks Poverty and Farm Bill in Hampton, Manchester
On Friday Senator Obama came to New Hampshire to campaign for President. In Hampton, Michael Castaldo and his sons caught up with the senator to make sure that he saw and heard from ONE. Michael told me that Senator Obama talked about fighting global AIDS as a good way to show American leadership around the world. He even spoke about the Farm Bill and said that it was time to reform the slant towards factory farming, to truly help the small farmer.
Senator’s Obama staff said that no pictures were going to be allowed but Obama said that for ONE, he would take a picture. Michael and the family, thanked the senator for his support and Michael gave him a T-shirt for the next time he’s playing basketball.
Later in the day, I went with some ONE members to see Obama in Manchester where he reiterated the call to fight global poverty and disease. He even spoke about some of the top military commanders that are proposing US efforts to combat global disease and poverty as ways to prevent further military engagement.
ONE member Melissa Skinner was able to talk with the senator after the event. She talked to him about her recent trip to Namibia, and told him how important it was for the US to act and to save lives on the ground. I was able to ask the senator about reforming the cotton payments in the Farm Bill to allow the poorest people on Earth a chance to trade their way out of poverty. Obama yelled to me, “I agree”!
Right now, we – as Americans – have a real chance to make sure that the bottom billion people on Earth have a chance at survival and a stable future. From reforming the Farm Bill in the halls of Congress, to hitting the campaign trail, all ONE members are taking action to save lives and create a better and safer world for all.”
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July 24, 2007 at 6:17 am
I work at the department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights which handle the Black Farmer complaints. Under the directions of Sadhna True, no Black Farmer complaints has been resolved. Under her management she put a freeze on working on the cases.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was to ensure that all have equal
rights. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the United
States Department of Agriculture is an office delegated to enforce
civil rights laws for the Department. There have been numerous public
writings about how Black Farmers were treated by USDA and how their civil
rights complaint processing within the Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights has been mishandled. What is not known by the
public is how the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
mistreats their own employees. Employees are mistreated so badly that some
have been hospitalized for stress, fired, and treated without dignity and
respect. If these employees are mistreated, you can imagine how it
impacts the processing of Black farmers civil rights complaints and
employee complaints. For that very reason a total of 60 minority employees
since 2004 to present have either been terminated or forced into
retirement or detailed to other agencies or lateral to new positions
in other agencies.
No one has ever gotten to a root cause analysis of why Civil Rights
management at United States Department of Agriculture Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights is so dysfunctional.
Something MUST be done about management within the Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights or else taxpayers will continue to
make enormous settlement payments for civil rights violations as in the Black Farmers Class Action Lawsuit and these employees will continue to be violated.
Farm Bill
http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/Legislation/110/FB/TitleXI.pdf