Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appeared in Selma, Alabama today to give speeches recognizing "Bloody Sunday." Bloody Sunday is described in this way:
"On March 7, 1965, 600 marchers gathered outside of Brown Chapel and set out for Montgomery by way of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Acting on orders from Governor George Wallace, Alabama state troopers stood in their pathway and ordered them to turn around. The marchers were then met with billy clubs, tear gas, and bullwhips and were trampled by horses. The attack was televised, and by the time of the second march two days later, whites and blacks from other parts of the country had joined in their struggle. Restrained by a court order, King led them to the bridge, prayed and turned around."
It led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act by Congress.
Senator Barack Obama was invited to give the keynote speech at a service honoring the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, joining Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and other veterans of the civil rights movement in marking the historic event. But not to be oudone, Senator Clinton arranged to speak at almost the same time as Senator Obama, but at a different church.
Who came out on top? Well, since C-SPAN covered all of Senator Obama's speech and only part of Senator Clinton's speech, you've got to score that round to Obama. But I saw both speeches and while Obama's still the more passionate speaker, Senator Clinton gave the best speech I've heard from her. The one problem is that she reads, where Obama talks, looking down a scant few times and only for a fraction of a second.
He spends more time talking and less time reading. He connects.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Marriage Becoming An Act Of America's Wealthy and Educated - Blame The Economy
That news comes from the Washington Post , which states...
"Punctuating a fundamental change in American family life, married couples with children now occupy fewer than one in every four households -- a share that has been slashed in half since 1960 and is the lowest ever recorded by the census.
As marriage with children becomes an exception rather than the norm, social scientists say it is also becoming the self-selected province of the college-educated and the affluent. The working class and the poor, meanwhile, increasingly steer away from marriage, while living together and bearing children out of wedlock."
The article also points to the decline in economic prosperty since World War II. But the basic problem is the overall decline in manufacturing jobs, which have fallen from just over 20 million in 1979 to about 14 million in 2004. That's a loss of 6 million jobs. And many of those jobs were taken by people who didn't have masters degrees or college degrees for that matter, but they were good, well-paying gigs. It used to be that one person could make enough money to feed a family, but that's no longer true. It takes two. It's hard to have time to raise a family and work at the same time. Something's got to give.
Marriage, sadly.
"Punctuating a fundamental change in American family life, married couples with children now occupy fewer than one in every four households -- a share that has been slashed in half since 1960 and is the lowest ever recorded by the census.
As marriage with children becomes an exception rather than the norm, social scientists say it is also becoming the self-selected province of the college-educated and the affluent. The working class and the poor, meanwhile, increasingly steer away from marriage, while living together and bearing children out of wedlock."
The article also points to the decline in economic prosperty since World War II. But the basic problem is the overall decline in manufacturing jobs, which have fallen from just over 20 million in 1979 to about 14 million in 2004. That's a loss of 6 million jobs. And many of those jobs were taken by people who didn't have masters degrees or college degrees for that matter, but they were good, well-paying gigs. It used to be that one person could make enough money to feed a family, but that's no longer true. It takes two. It's hard to have time to raise a family and work at the same time. Something's got to give.
Marriage, sadly.
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