Meet Roxanne Walker….The girl who scares the boys. The woman who gets turned on by politics and stimulated by a good steamy discussion of current events.
I was taught at an early age by my parents to have the courage to remain true to my convictions and beliefs in spite of the consequences. My belief in this concept has been sorely tested by the consequences of my early opposition to the war in Iraq. Speaking out against the war in Iraq led to my dismissal from WMYI a Clear Channel station on April 17, 2003. A lawsuit filed in July 2003 charging Clear Channel with unlawful termination of employment in violation of SC law which protects employees from termination of employment for espousing political opinions in the work place was settled by mediation in the spring of 2005.
Mark Sanford Fiddles While South Carolina's Economy Burns
South Carolina’s jobless rate rose to 11.6% in September, up two-tenths of a point from the previous month. The Palmetto State currently has the 5th highest unemployment rate in the nation, trailing only Michigan (15.3%), Nevada (13.3%), Rhode Island (13%) and California (12.2%). More than 250,000 South Carolinians (including myself) are currently out of work. South Carolina has lost over 24,000 factory jobs in the past year alone…more than at any time since 1994.
Roxanne Walker
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South Carolina-A Rudderless Ship in an Economic Storm
A few weeks ago I went to the SC Employment Security Commission office in Greenville for a mandatory meeting to update officials there on the status of my seven month long search for a new job. The waiting room was filled to capacity with a line stretching around the room. You could find a representative from nearly every walk of life in that room; young and old, black, white, brown, white- collar, blue-collar workers, high school drop outs and college graduates. The common thread among all of us was our need for employment. No one there seemed happy or comfortable in their unemployed state; no one spoke of the joys of being jobless. I was impressed by the professional and prompt service provided by the over-worked staff at the local ESC office. When I thanked the young woman who updated my paperwork and approved an extension of my unemployment benefits, she said she did her very best to complete everyone’s paperwork at the end of the day, often working until 7 o’clock or “until they turned the computers off for the day.”
Health Care Reform-A Moral Imperative
In a recent article in Newsweek Magazine, T.R. Reid the author of The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care, characterizes national health care systems as reflecting a nation’s basic cultural values. “The fundamental truth about health care in every country,” notes Princeton professor Uwe Reinhardt, “is that national values, national character, determine how each system works.” If this is the case, then the United States of America is certainly not a moral nation.