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A burden black people can no longer endure By Tolson Banner Have you ever been caught in the middle of "sumptin" where it seemed as if there was no way out? Like table tennis, you are "pinged and ponged" between two opposing forces: red and blue states. Incessantly, you are slammed into the net because neither side is willing to reconcile the dichotomy of America's ongoing white tribal war: benign neglect by Democrat liberals and recalcitrance by Republican conservatives. Malcolm X referred to this as the fox or the wolf for black people. This is the nature of reparations where white people are either asking black people to be patient like the Biblical Job or resign ourselves to the waiting room, get in line, take a ticket and listen out for their number (untold millions of Africans who died, as well as, those who were enslaved during the Christian/Atlantic enslavement trade) - which to this day has never been called. No reconciliation; no atonement; and no ealing. This constant request from white people (some blacks as well) to be patient and wait are the critical reasons why Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the book Why We Can't Wait. King laid out several reasons to make his case during the tumultuous 60's. Those same reasons are applicable today for black people: disillusionment with the way justice is served up for black people; lack of confidence in politicians and the government; decolonization of Africa (today neo-colonialism); living out the true meaning of the Emancipation Proclamation; and economic inequality. Even before the news pundits pontificate and before election gurus peer into their crystal balls, Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders with his echo chamber renowned scholar, Cornel West have already told black people to forget about having reparations as part of Sanders' platform or the Democratic platform for that matter (although we are beginning to hear a faint chorus in favor of reparations from some Democratic hopefuls). Need I remind my Democratic socialist and Christian revolutionary brothers that anytime is the right time, as Spike Lee reminded us, to "Do the Right Thing! The pain and suffering experienced by the Jewish people during the holocaust engendered "esprit de corps" with African-Americans from the Atlantic enslavement holocaust. But that is where the similarities end. The Reparations Agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany was signed in 1952. In short, Germany was to pay Israel for the costs of "resettling so great a number of uprooted and destitute Jewish refugees after the war and to compensate individual Jews." Three quarters of a century after the holocaust ended, former U.S. Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat negotiated settlements for victims who were not covered under previous agreements. In contrast, when the Civil War ended in 1865, ideas on how to make the enslaved African-American "whole" were bandied about but never took hold. With the U.S. Presidential election between Hayes and Tilden hanging in the balance, the North conceded to the demands of the South by removing all Federal troops: unleashing another reign of white domestic terror known as Jim Crow. No reconciliation here Bernie... Cornel. President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act in 1988 to compensate over 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were incarcerated in internment camps during WWII. The federal government legislation extended a formal apology from the U.S. government and paid out $20,000 in compensation to each surviving victim. For black people incarceration and their continued enslavement were surreptitiously upheld by the 13th Amendment which was ratified in 1865. Michele Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow" documents this loophole in the 13th amendment which states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or anyplace subject to their jurisdiction." The railroading of black people by this nation's legal system for crimes they did not commit are well documented. Add "Three Strikes Legislation" - courtesy of the Democratic Party and signed into law by "Slick Willie" aka former President Bill Clinton - and you'll witness the makings of raw material for the prison/enslavement/industrial complex. No atonement here Bernie... Cornel. After 12 years of research, Dr. DeGruy developed her theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. DeGruy went on to publish her book of the same name which outlines and addresses the residual impacts of generations of slavery, explain the causes of many of the adaptive survival behaviors in African-American communities. These maladies show up as lack of self-esteem; feelings of hopelessness/depression; and a general self-destructive outlook. Anytime America has experienced major catastrophes, as in school shootings, grief counselors are rushed to the scene to begin the healing process which hopefully would allow people to handle the trauma. For almost five centuries, no grief counselors were dispatched to help African Americans deal with the trauma and horror of their brutal enslavement. To all the other naysayers who reject the idea of "work-done payments" for black people on the basis of not quite understanding how disbursements would be handled, allow me to remind them there are various models and formulas already in existence for computing and calculating reparations. For example, black people could be exempt from paying federal taxes and allowed to attend universities who benefitted from our enslavement tuition free. Georgetown University recently passed a student referendum to increase the school's tuition by $27.20 to compensate the descendants of 272 enslaved Africans who were sold to save Georgetown and the Catholic Church. This bears scrutiny - not waiting! Even former President Barrack Obama maintained black people were too far removed from our enslavement to seek compensation - Bernie echo those sentiments. The recent findings from the Freedmen's Bureau Project have identified a listing of enslaved Africans and their "property value" thus illuminating a direct line to their descendants. I ask, are we too far removed to see and witness the toils of our labor? No we are not! Most notably, our enslaved labor was used in the construction of the U.S. Capitol and the White House: two shining beacons of light promulgating democracy, while at the same time highlighting the hypocrisy. Above and beyond these examples, our "free" enslaved labor made America the richest nation in the world - but we are too far removed for compensation? The weight of waiting is a burden black people can no longer endure. David Brooks, a white moderate conservative seems to agree. Brooks writing an op-ed piece for the New York Times titled "The Case for Reparations" opined, "Slavery and the continuing pattern of discrimination aren't only an attempt to steal labor; they are an attempt to cover over a person's soul, a whole people's soul." Gifted artist, musician and ancestor, Gil-Scott Heron captured this soul wrenching pain and suffering of black people in his song, "Who'll Pay Reparations On My Soul?" Bernie... Cornel I think this question is for the two of you. Barack feel free to chime in. Tolson Banner is a writer and columnist, Vincent Jones also contributed to this article.

Top talents featured in weekend tournament The Rose City Showcase is a Portland basketball tournament that draws many of the top young men and women players from AAU and high school teams. Before Dwight Howard became an NBA All-Star, before Josh Smith and Gerald Green won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, before O.J. Mayo, Michael Beasley, and Kevin Love became All-Americans and before Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers led Kansas to the 2008 NCAA Championship, they all had one thing in common - they participated in the Rose City Showcase by NIKE! Now in our 17th year, the Showcase is held this weekend at Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus in north Portland. The event will kick off Friday night, June 7. The intensity continues through Sunday evening when the 2019 Rose City Showcase Champion will be crowned. The Rose City Showcase field includes 170 of the top young men and women from AAU and high school teams, continuing a tradition of featuring the nation’s next generation of basketball stars on this exclusive Northwest platform. For maps and detailed schedules, visit rosecityshowcase.com.

Japanese Americans from Portland and other West Coast cities are forced by the federal government onto trains for relocation to inland camps during World War II. A new performance piece explores the profound challenges the community has faced. A new performance piece exploring the profound racism and other challenges experienced by Portland Japanese American community, and the resilience and fortitude of that same community, is open for multiple showings, Saturday, June 1 through Wednesday, June 5 at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 4340 N. Interstate Ave. Through theatre, dance and music, the 90-minute performance “Gambatte: An American Legacy” is a way to raise empathy and heal the emotional legacy and the effects of racism in America. The production is presented as a part of Portland’s annual Vanport Mosaic Festival. Combining the talents of four featured artists, Chisao Hata, Heath Hyun, Ken Yoshikawa and Jenna Yokoyama, and other artists, the show explores what it means to be Asian American in today’s landscape, and the historical complexities informing identity in America. Seating is limited and reservations are recommended. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors, available through the Vanport Mosaic Festival website vanportmosaic.org.

These are draconian abortion bans By U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden Editor’s note: The following speech by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. was delivered last week on the Senate floor in Washington, D.C., against the recent passage of some of the nation’s strictest abortion bans in U.S. history: Right now in state capitals across the country, Republican lawmakers are passing extreme bills that throw 45 years of settled law on reproductive rights out the window. This is an open, coordinated attack on Roe and a woman’s right to choose the healthcare she needs. These Republican lawmakers are passing bills that are not only harmful, but are overwhelmingly opposed by the public -- bills with harsh criminal penalties for women and doctors. Bills with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Bills that explicitly compare women getting medical care to the Holocaust. Let’s be clear on what this is all about. The party of Donald Trump is insisting on government control of women’s bodies. That’s what’s on the table with the laws you’re seeing in Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and elsewhere. Government control of women’s bodies. Millions and millions of women across the country are watching in anger and in fear as this plays out. I’ve heard from many of them back home in Oregon. They’re afraid for the future - their futures, their families’ futures - because they know what’s at stake with this attack on their rights. First, it puts women’s lives in danger. The reality is, abortions will still happen in states that pass these laws, but those abortions will happen later and they will be unsafe. Women will die. That is a fact. Women will die because of these restrictions. If you need proof, just look at the figures before and after Roe. In the decades before Roe, thousands and thousands of women died due to unsafe abortions - and those are only the ones we know about. What about the unnamed, unknown victims of that misguided policy? After Roe was decided in 1973, women’s health care got safer. Now they are talking about undermining that safety. Second, in key ways, the future these restrictive laws are creating is worse for women and health care professionals than before Roe. They are talking about jailing doctors for life. They are talking about treating women like hardened criminals after they get a medical procedure. Women in some places are facing the prospect that they might need to report miscarriages to the government, or else they could wind up in prison. The other side in this debate paints a picture of women exercising their right to choose that is unfair and unrealistic. This is an incredibly difficult choice. Many women exercising their right to choose have just been hit with the most devastating medical news that prospective parents can face. It is not up to state lawmakers and government bureaucrats to step in and interfere in that choice. But that’s exactly what’s on offer with the laws being passed in statehouses around the country. These laws bind and punish women with a level of government control that did not exist before Roe. This is straight out of nightmarish fiction. This coordinated attack on women’s rights is cruel and dangerous. Abortion and other reproductive decisions are health care, and health care choices ought to be made by women with the help of the doctors they trust. Not the federal government. Not state lawmakers. Women and their doctors -- that’s it. My Democratic colleagues and I are going to fight against this at the federal level with everything we’ve got. Women across the country are standing up and fighting with everything they’ve got. The government should not have control of women’s bodies. End of story.

DePass elected for Portland Public and Penson for PCC Michelle DePass (left) and Tiffani Penson, won election in local school board races Tuesday will the preliminary results showing DePass being the successful candidate for Portland Public School Board, Zone 2 and Tiffani Penson winning a seat on the Portland Community College Board of Directors, representing north and northeast Portland. Two longtime African American community members won election in local school board races Tuesday with the preliminary results showing Michelle DePass being the successful candidate for Portland Public School Board, Zone 2 and Tiffani Penson winning a seat on the Portland Community College Board of Directors, representing north and northeast Portland and Columbia County. DePass—who works for Portland’s Housing Bureau--pulled in 66 percent of the vote while her opponent, Shanice Clarke, another African American woman and an educator, netted 29 percent. Carlos Jermaine Richard, also vying for the position, garnered four percent of the more than 62,000 votes cast. DePass’ win marks the first time in over 10 years at least one black member of the community will be represented on the seven-member Portland School Board when the district begins its new fiscal year in July. Andrew Scott, Eilidh Lowery, and Amy Kohnstamm—the only person to return for another term—also secured seats on Portland Public School Board, the unofficial results said. Tiffani Penson--also a city worker--garnered 86 percent of the 20,600 total votes for the Portland Community College Board of Directors for Zone 2 while her opponent, Leonardo Kendall, a Portland State University student, garnered almost 13 percent. Michael Sonnleitner also secured a seat on the board for Zone 3. Numerous other school district positions were also on the ballot, which saw a statewide turnout of nearly 15 percent—or 500,000 of Oregon’s nearly 2.8 million eligible voters--according to the Secretary of State’s website as of Tuesday.

PCC installs monument to local black history Portland Community College at the Cascade Campus in north Portland honors the late Evelyn “Evie” Crowell with the opening of the Evelyn Crowell Center for African American Community History. “Education is often seen as a pathway out of poverty,” reads the opening line on one of the displays in the new Evelyn Crowell Center for African American Community History. Perhaps no one else embodied this notion more than the late Evelyn “Evie” Crowell, the namesake and inspiration behind the new historical exhibit, which was installed this week in the library at Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus. The Evelyn Crowell Center for African American Community History is a monument to both Crowell’s extraordinary life and to the generations of African Americans who breathed life, culture, and resiliency into the Albina Neighborhood of north and northeast Portland. An opening ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, June 3, in the PCC Cascade Library. “Evie was someone who truly lived what she preached,” said Karin Edwards, president of the Cascade Campus. “She believed in education as the means for people to live the life they want, and she put her own time and her own hard-earned money to work in service of this ideal and of her community.” The center is comprised of a series of panels depicting the many decades of African American life in inner north and northeast Portland, tracing the history of the Albina district from the Vanport flood of 1948 through the Civil Rights Era to the present day and beyond. It was curated by James Harrison, a local historian and former instructor at the campus. Evie Crowell was not just a part of that history, but a leader and pioneer in her community. After finishing high school at age 16 in 1959, she went on to be part of the first four-year graduating class of Portland State University. Next, she earned her master’s degree in library science from the University of Washington, and followed that by working at the library at Jefferson High School and soon becoming the first black librarian at Linfield College in McMinnville and, later, the first at PSU. Crowell recorded a number of other “firsts” in her illustrious life, including becoming the first single African American woman in Oregon to adopt children, and the first African American president of the Portland YWCA. She also served a term on the Portland Public Schools Board, and lent financial support to a number of local grade-school and college students. Crowell, who passed away in 2017, has an endowed scholarship at the PCC Foundation dedicated to assisting African American students at the college. “It’s an honor for us to host this tribute to Evie and the community she loved so much,” Edwards said. “We hope that, as the years go by, the Center will grow and evolve to reflect the continuing history of African Americans in Portland.”

Oregon is expanding its school lunch program. Oregon lawmakers have approved the largest statewide expansion of the federal free lunch program, ensuring all students living up to three times above the poverty line will have access to free meals. It's the first time a state has offered to completely take on school meal costs, which can often run tens of thousands of dollars for individual school districts. The move is expected to provide hundreds of thousands of students with free breakfast and lunch. The meals expansion is tucked away in tax package for schools, a sweeping $1 billion annual investment explicitly dedicated to boosting student performance. The program, which will cost the state $40 million a year, will be paid for through a new half a percent tax on business. Gov. Kate Brown signed the school funding tax package, but it's likely to be referred to the voters to decide in 2020, thanks to Oregon's robust referendum process.

Billionaire technology investor Robert F. Smith (left) with David Thomas and actress Angela Bassett at Morehouse College graduation ceremonies in Atlanta on Sunday. Smith announced he will provide grants to wipe out the student debt of the entire graduating class - an estimated $40 million. (AP photo) (AP) -- A billionaire technology investor stunned the entire graduating class at Morehouse College when he announced at their commencement Sunday that he would pay off their student loans, estimated at up to $40 million. Robert F. Smith, this year’s commencement speaker, made the announcement while addressing nearly 400 graduating seniors of the all-male historically black college in Atlanta. Smith, who is black, is the Founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in software, data, and technology-driven companies. “On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” the investor and philanthropist told graduates in his morning address. The announcement immediately drew stunned looks from faculty and students alike. Then the graduates broke into the biggest cheers of the morning and stood up, applauding. Morehouse said it is the single largest gift to the college.

Blazers test champions, but still get swept Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry celebrates as he runs next to Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum at the end of Game 4 of the NBA basketball playoffs Western Conference finals on Monday at the Moda Center. The Warriors won 119-117 in overtime. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) The Golden State Warriors swept their way to a fifth straight NBA Finals, getting triple-doubles from Stephen Curry and Draymond Green in a 119-117 overtime victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night at the Moda Center. Green had 18 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, and made a key 3-pointer in overtime. Curry added 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. He and Green became the first teammates to have triple-doubles in the same playoff game. Damian Lillard, playing with separated ribs, had 28 points and 12 assists for Portland. He missed a 3-point attempt as time ran out in the extra period. Meyers Leonard added a career-high 30 points along with 12 rebounds. The Warriors were up 114-113 in the extra period after Green missed the first of a pair of free throws. CJ McCollum's jumper from out front briefly gave Portland the lead but Alfonzo McKinnie's basket put Golden State back ahead and Green made a 3-pointer to push it to 119-115 with 39 seconds left. Lillard made a layup and Curry missed a jumper to give Portland back the ball. Facing stifling defense from both Green and Klay Thompson, Lillard couldn't get off a shot but the ball went out of bounds in the scramble. The Blazers got it back with 3.3 seconds left but Lillard's final shot didn't fall. For the third straight game the Trail Blazers led at the half. They stretched the lead to 17 points in the third quarter, but the Warriors went on a 12-0 run to close within 95-90 early in the final period. Green's long baseline jumper gave the Warriors a 108-106 lead with 3:30 left. Lillard's 3-pointer put the Blazers back ahead and Leonard's dunk extended it to 111-108 with just under 2 minutes to go. After Thompson's 3-pointer tied it up again both Curry and Lillard missed 3s. Curry made a 3 from the corner with 10.7 seconds left but he was called for traveling first and it didn't count. Lillard's layup bounced around the rim and out and the game went to overtime. Lillard separated his ribs in Game 2 but was playing through the pain. He averaged 33 points in the first-round playoff series against Oklahoma City, hitting a series-clinching 3-pointer in Game 5, but he struggled against Golden State's defensive focus on him. --Associated Press

PCC installs monument to local black history Portland Community College at the Cascade Campus in north Portland honors the late Evelyn “Evie” Crowell with the opening of the Evelyn Crowell Center for African American Community History. “Education is often seen as a pathway out of poverty,” reads the opening line on one of the displays in the new Evelyn Crowell Center for African American Community History. Perhaps no one else embodied this notion more than the late Evelyn “Evie” Crowell, the namesake and inspiration behind the new historical exhibit, which was installed this week in the library at Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus. The Evelyn Crowell Center for African American Community History is a monument to both Crowell’s extraordinary life and to the generations of African Americans who breathed life, culture, and resiliency into the Albina Neighborhood of north and northeast Portland. An opening ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, June 3, in the PCC Cascade Library. “Evie was someone who truly lived what she preached,” said Karin Edwards, president of the Cascade Campus. “She believed in education as the means for people to live the life they want, and she put her own time and her own hard-earned money to work in service of this ideal and of her community.” The center is comprised of a series of panels depicting the many decades of African American life in inner north and northeast Portland, tracing the history of the Albina district from the Vanport flood of 1948 through the Civil Rights Era to the present day and beyond. It was curated by James Harrison, a local historian and former instructor at the campus. Evie Crowell was not just a part of that history, but a leader and pioneer in her community. After finishing high school at age 16 in 1959, she went on to be part of the first four-year graduating class of Portland State University. Next, she earned her master’s degree in library science from the University of Washington, and followed that by working at the library at Jefferson High School and soon becoming the first black librarian at Linfield College in McMinnville and, later, the first at PSU. Crowell recorded a number of other “firsts” in her illustrious life, including becoming the first single African American woman in Oregon to adopt children, and the first African American president of the Portland YWCA. She also served a term on the Portland Public Schools Board, and lent financial support to a number of local grade-school and college students. Crowell, who passed away in 2017, has an endowed scholarship at the PCC Foundation dedicated to assisting African American students at the college. “It’s an honor for us to host this tribute to Evie and the community she loved so much,” Edwards said. “We hope that, as the years go by, the Center will grow and evolve to reflect the continuing history of African Americans in Portland.”

We all lose from the harm this causes By Marian Wright Edelman The Children’s Defense Fund recently released our latest report on Ending Child Poverty Now once again showing just how much poverty is hurting our children and nation and sullying our pretensions to be an equal opportunity society. We all lose in a nation that allows millions of children to face the minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day harms of poverty. In 2017 over 12.8 million of our children lived below the official poverty line—$25,094 for a family of four—based only on cash income. Nearly half lived in extreme poverty below half the poverty line. More than two-thirds of poor children in related families live with an adult who works and more than a third live with an adult who works full-time year round. Poverty stacks the odds against children and stalks them down every avenue of their lives. As our latest national plea to end child poverty now carefully documents, poverty places children at risk of hunger, homelessness, sickness, violence, educational failure and family stress and too often deprives them of positive early childhood experiences and opportunities that prepare more affluent children for school, college and work. Poverty wears down children’s emotional reserves, saps their spirits and confidence and threatens their potential and aspirations. From infancy through adulthood poverty gnaws away at child resiliency and hope and harms them for life. Beyond its individual human costs, child poverty has huge economic costs for all of us. One study shows the lost productivity and extra health and crime costs stemming from child poverty add up to about $700 billion a year, or 3.5 percent of GDP. Another study found eliminating child poverty between the prenatal and age 5 years would increase lifetime earnings between $53,000 and $100,000 a child—a total lifetime benefit of $20 to $36 billion for all babies born in a given year. And we cannot measure the countless innovations and discoveries that never occur because so much child potential is lost. Child poverty also fuels a destructive intergenerational cycle of poverty with compounding effects that can have lasting consequences into adulthood. Children who grow up poor have a harder time escaping poverty as adults. Research shows people who experienced poverty at any point during childhood are more than three times as likely to be poor at age 30 as those who were never poor as children. The longer a child is poor, the greater her risk of becoming a poor adult. A 2017 Urban Institute report found only 20 percent of children who spent half their childhoods in poverty were consistently working or in school during their twenties. No families should have to fight so desperately to beat the odds in this battle that is so hard to win in a nation with the largest economy in the world. We must act now to save our children’s lives and our nation’s soul. Inaction is not an option; poverty is far too costly for our children and nation to continue. Ending Child Poverty Now shows we already have the solutions and that by investing just a small percentage of our federal budget into existing programs and policies, we can make significant progress and rescue many child lives from stunted futures. We just need the moral decency, political will and economic common sense to do it. Marian Wright Edelman is founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund.

And for other children and adults like her By Karen Dolan What mother on earth doesn’t want equality and health for her child? I certainly do. I gave birth nearly two decades ago to a healthy, beautiful, intelligent child, who cried more than I thought she would and whose tutu-wearing terrible twos persisted into her tiara-wearing terrible threes. This willful nature turned out to be both her most challenging and her finest quality. She skipped kindergarten because her mind was so sharp. She built fairy houses during recess and enlisted the whole school in creating a moss-covered, magical twig town. She wrote poems about springtime and belted out preteen pops songs about cute boys. She was popular among her girlfriends. But she wasn’t allowed to use the girls’ bathroom. She had shoes thrown at her head when she wore leggings and lacy tops. She endured public school teachers making the sign of the cross and running off when she walked between classes. All because my daughter was born transgender. In high school she became part of the solution. She became an advocate for transgender youth, who suffer discrimination and violence at alarming rates. With the help of her mentors, she eventually brought her advocacy to Obama White House, where she helped Education Secretary Arne Duncan craft guidance making sure Title IX included nondiscrimination against transgender and gender nonconforming students. Then came the Trump administration — and the equality that she and so many had fought for was cruelly ripped away. Almost immediately, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded the very guidance protecting her that my daughter had helped to craft. My willful child was able to meet with DeVos. She explained what this would mean for children like her who would again be denied the use of the bathroom — and who would continue to be hit, suspended, and bullied by students and teachers alike. But DeVos and Trump don’t care about my daughter’s welfare. They want her very human and civil right to exist in public spaces to disappear. At the National Prayer Breakfast on May 2, Trump told an audience of right-wing religious leaders about a sweeping new rule that will allow medical professionals and employers to deny health care to transgender children and adults for so-called “religious reasons.” He’s already banned transgender soldiers from serving in the military. He’s already rescinded protections for transgender students in schools. And he’s already stricken the very word “transgender” from any publication by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, a beacon in the storm came a day before the ominous Prayer Breakfast announcement: The House Judiciary Committee passed The Equality Act, and it’s expected to pass the full House. This could be a historic victory — not only for my child and the LGBTQIA community, women, and people of color, but for principle of equality for all that must stand in any democratic society. The Equality Act amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and many subsequent civil rights-related acts so that they will explicitly and consistently, across all states, provide equal protection against discrimination for the categories of gender identity and sexual orientation. So that my child can have the same health care as your child. So that my child can have the same right to education, housing, transportation, credit, employment, and existence as your child. So that my child may live freely and equally to others. My child continues to use her voice loudly and effectively. She is not bowed. But her very right to exist is threatened even more now than when people were throwing shoes at her head. All I want us equality for my child — and for other children and adults like her. Is this any different from what every mother wants? Karen Dolan directs the Criminalization of Race and Poverty Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords.org.