U. S. Representative Michael C. Burgess
WASHINGTON, DC OFFICE
1224 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
P: (202) 225-7772
F: (202) 225-2919
RE: Congressional
Change & New Leadership
My Dear Congressman:
It would be unbecoming of Eddie Griffin not bid to you
farewell and God’s spend, after all the memories and good times we have shared
together, with you as my congressional representative.
I wish to thank you for your diligent service to the
community, and for the grace and favor you have shown to me, personally.
I am especially thankful to your assistant, Erik With, for
making me a part of the Economic Summit
Workforce of the Future Advisory, which has proven to be a great work in my
life and a work that continues to this day in its implementation stage.
Besides this, I wish to thank you for supporting my campaign
against
Misogyny
and for reading
my
letter to entertainment industry executives before the Congress into the
Record, Sept. 25, 2007.
I want to thank you also for that one vote that you
characterize as “this vote is for Eddie”, in voting to raise the
Minimum Wage,
albeit this was a compromise included in President George Bushes’ 2007 “War
Funding Bill”.
Your supportive role in voting
NO
to the “Walk Street Bailout” was instrumental to changing the tide in
Washington, D.C.’s culture of K-Street domination, although for a short time period. But
for those who hedged their bets, banking on an early bailout from Congress, on
a particular day, the big disappointment led to great losses and the collapse of
the stock market. It was the turning point in the economy that got Barack Obama
elected.
Thank you for also building a VA Clinic in Southeast Fort Worth. The clinic, built across the
street from Tarrant County College, helps support the institutional
infrastructure in our community, besides the local jobs it created.
I am particularly thankful insofar as it enabled the VA to
provide medical services, locally, to a disabled veteran old warhorse like me.
I am thankful to God for you, and I pray on your behalf, each
and every morning, of every day.
THE MIRACLE OF
REDISTRICTING- When It All Began
April 11, 2005
From: Eddie Griffin
To: Erik With
RE: “No Plates For Some”
Dear Erik:
I love my new congressman, Michael
Burgess. Thank you for introducing us. I told him that “one day I woke up in
his gerrymandered district”. He said it was “the miracle of
re-districting”…
Since the congressman is just now
getting a feel for this new population, he might be tickled pink to know that
he now represents the “poorest section of the Fort Worth community”, which
brings me to your comment in your last email: The concept of shortage is
difficult to imagine in a country as blessed as the US.
I am inspired to speak on behalf
of “the poorest of the poor” in irony to “the concept of shortage” in a nation
of prosperity. Once again, I allude to Thomas Malthus: “There are no plates for
some”.
Eddie Griffin
ACCEPTING THE
CHALLENGE
Fort
Worth, Texas
Congressman Michael Burgess, District 26, kicked off the Smart
Commute Initiative before an audience of about 100 southeast residents and
community leaders. The Initiative is designed to attract people back into the
historic inner city district, after years of decline.
Congressman Burgess praised the coalition that put the
Initiative together, which included representatives from Transportation,
Housing, and the community. Glenn Forbes, president of Southeast Fort Worth,
Inc., served as master of ceremony. Also, participating in the program was
Mayor Pro-Tempore Ralph McCloud, Tarrant County Commissioner Roy C. Brooks, and
State Representative Marc Veasey.
Re-Urbanization Plan
Community leaders and financial institutions have been
meeting with community residents in developing a re-urbanization plan for some
time. Increasing the population density of Near Southeast Fort Worth has been a
long-range goal for business visionaries like Glenn Forbes. New home building
in the area would create an Urban
Village, which is attractive to new business capital.
The Initiative represents a grand
vision in modern urban development
planning and provided Congressman Burgess, who serves on the Energy and
Commerce Committee, with some ideas to take back to Washington, D. C.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
The East and Southeast Forth Worth Economic Development
Summit convened on June 3, 2005, organized by the Public Forum Institute
and hosted by honorary chairman U.S. Congressman Michael C. Burgess (District
26). Keynote speaker for the event was Acting Deputy Secretary of Commerce
David Sampson. About 225 community and business representatives convened with
local, state, and national leaders to develop plans on how to attract
investment, encourage entrepreneurship, change perceptions and prepare the work
force in some of Fort Worth's most blighted neighborhoods…
Congressman Michael Burgess called for a unified vision that addresses economic
development from the inside out. "Growth and economic prosperity flourish all
around this section of Fort Worth, and we must find a way to end the cycle of
neglect," he stated, citing the area's trouble in attracting private
investment. "As we look at our urban communities, we must work
cooperatively together to turn our words into actions. It will require putting
community interest ahead of self interest."
Summit Workshops
· Attracting
Investment
· Preparing the
Workforce of the Future
· Building
Communities & Changing Perceptions
· Encouraging
Entrepreneurship
Summit Objective:
- To
Stimulate Economic Growth In East And Southeast Fort Worth
- To
Help The Region Define A
Vision And Plan For Its Economic
Future
- To
Seek To Identify A
Champion Who Would Promote And
Advocate For The Area With Their Words And Their Wallet
- To
Examine Approaches To Strengthen
Educational Achievement Of Local
Students
- To
Remove Barriers To
Employment For An Aging Labor Force
- To
Improve Quality Of Life For Are Residents
- To
Change The Negative
Perceptions Held By Others Outside
The Community
- To
Help Reduce Crime And Promote A More Positive Image Of The Area
- To
Examine How Entrepreneurs Bring
Innovation To The Area And Develop
Businesses That Can Serve As A Catalyst For New Growth
ACTION PLANS for
Workforce of the Future
Eddie Griffin, a
member of the Workforce of the Future Task Force, helped identify areas of
priority and helped build the framework for developing the future local workforce. By
working together with constituents across boundaries, we formed lifelong bonds
and working relationships and alliances between local institutions and our
community.
I championed the cause for a “livable wage” at the low-end
wage scale and advocated raising the Minimum Wage. An unfair distribution of
profit is the formula for the rich getting rich and the poor racing to keep up
with inflation. Through inflation and stagnate wages, the purchasing power of low-end
wage earners continues to erode.
An Action Plan to raise the minimum wage reached outside the
state of Texas to other states that eventually enacted new minimum wage rates
and forced Congress to do the same.
Interdiction through the School System
Since the future workforce must come through the public
school system, the taskforce identified local high schools as the ideal point of
interdiction to upgrade workforce training and development.
We confronted the high school dropout problem head on, and
formed various work groups and committees to study the issue, and worked in
conjunction with FWISD Community Action Teams (CAT) to find viable solutions.
Members of the congressman’s Workforce Advisory also worked on CAT teams. To
date, this is what has been accomplished:
GO Centers were created
by a business and social service collaborative to provide computer resources,
internet access, and guidance that would help students in high risk areas to
navigate their way to and through college. These were first placed into all the high
schools, and later expanded to middle schools and into faith-based community
centers and churches, to form a community support network for education at the
grassroots level. The Centers would later also provide tutorial services to
struggling students and other parental assistance programs.
Vocational and
Technical Certification programs were introduced into the high schools for
students who wanted or needed to get straight into the job market. These
programs allowed students to become viable earn wages before high school
completion, and provided a powerful incentive against having to drop out of school
in order to go to work because of family needs. Some students gained certified
skills as technicians, medical assistants, and tax preparers.
The programs have since evolved into the FWISD Gold Seals Programs that teach
skill sets in other vocational fields like culinary arts.
Virtual Education,
a cause for which we lobbied, was championed by State Rep. Jerry Madden, who
helped pass of a bill that allowed school districts to use online curriculum
and materials, and set the state for the use modern technology like whiteboards
in the classrooms. Thus, FWISD became the first digital school district of its
size in the stage, which is now poised for a new round of education technology.
More recently, new FWISD Supt. Walter Dansby invited Eddie
Griffin to assist in developing a strategic 5-year vision for the public school
system.
THE NEW FRONTIER
All of the old frontiers are conquered. The current state of
the workforce, that once spearheaded the growth industries of yesterday, is now
aging and old skill sets are becoming antiquated. We are moving into a world of
Nano-Technology, at a time when our
school children are lagging behind in their academic understanding in math.
The workforce of the future is now engineering at a
sub-atomic particle level, creating new composite materials in bio-medicine,
and connecting new wave theories to voice recognition programs and receptors
that execute voice commands.
Heretofore, the greatest challenge between the students in
poor districts versus those in richer districts was the digital divide. But new
cost-effective technology is bridging the gap, and bringing a whole new experience
and medium into the classroom.
The Workforce of the
Future for the next generation will depend on putting the right tools into
the hands of our children and teaching them early on how to use and master them.
The higher the educational skill sets, the more competitive the labor force in
the global economic environment.
Parity in Educational
Resources
There is still structural disparity between the districts that
give favor to students in the richer schools. This advantage provides for unequal
competition in the job market. The Federal Equal Opportunity Employment laws can
protect again discrimination, but it cannot equalize and protect the lesser
educated. Therefore, inner city unemployment is higher, without recourse to
Civil Rights protections.
This is a problem that we can solve by first utilizing best what
we have now-- more wisely, more efficiently, and more purposefully- and secondly, continuing
to fight for parity in education resources and equality in employment
opportunities.
This has been and remains my greatest mission.
FINAL NOTE ABOUT OBMACARE
One factor in the Workforce of the Future scenario is
healthcare- infant, child, mother and worker healthcare, in general.
A vibrant workforce begins with healthy babies. And, the
Affordable Healthcare Act, otherwise known as Obama Care, eliminated certain preexisting conditions like “Blue
Babies” syndromes, where babies are born into the world with breathing
problems.
Women’s healthcare provisions allow expectant mothers to
receive early prenatal care and disease prevention strategies for unborn
children. Obama Care allows women to get early diagnosis, medical advice and
care, and services that enable unborn children to come into the world with
healthier prognoses.
And, worker healthcare provides protection against medical
insurance overcharges, by forcing insurance companies to refund excess profits.
These protections, benefits, and safeguards should not be taken
away, now that the law is enacted.
AS FOR MANDATES UNDER THE AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE PLAN
I always disagreed with compulsive subscription to insurance policies. And, I
believe also that President Barack Obama would not have capitulated to the
Insurance Industry, if the government had been allowed the power to sell cheaper insurance
coverage, as the original bill first proposed.
As you know, the government insurance option was designed to
give the public an alternative to high rate private insurance providers. It did
not eliminate a patient’s choice, as propagandists claimed.
But having the
government in the insurance business, and its ability to uncut the rate of private
insurers, was something repulsive to Congress at the time. Thus, the congressional
rejection of the public option forced the Obama administration to make a deal
with the devil, so to speak. Mandatory insurance coverage for all then became the only
way to get the Insurance Industry to support Universal Healthcare
Coverage.
All other partisan claims are distortions.
Eddie G. Griffin (BASG) will continue to support the right of the unborn
child to come into the world with full healthcare provisions and coverage, and a mother’s
right to medical services of her choice and according to her needs, at the
advisement of her own medical doctor, and not doctors chosen for her by the
government, whether federal or state.
I will continue to support healthy working conditions
through industry regulations, and covered medical service for workers injured
on the job. I will oppose exploitation of undocumented laborers who have no
protection or medical coverage.
CONCLUSION
Of course, we will continue to disagree on much legislation,
particularly those immediately identified above. But you are and will always be
my friend.
I have hereby officially adopted you as my FACEBOOK FRIEND, in hopes
of continuing to win your support and your vote on issues key to the concerns of our new U.S.
Congressional District 33.
Sincerely,
Eddie Griffin
