The Diversifieds A publication of the EDRC at Grays Harbor College
Volume 1, Issue 2
January 2009
Poverty In America Do you know someone who is just hanging on, having to make hard choices between hunger, housing and health? Has the recent eco‐ nomic downturn negatively impacted you and your family, relatives, or friends? January is Poverty in Amer‐ ica Awareness Month. The number of Americans be‐ low the poverty line today is staggering—nearly 37 mil‐ lion. What does it look like for our communities? In 1999, 16.1% of Grays Har‐ bor and 14.4% of Pacific County were below the poverty line. This is how it looked in your neighbor‐ hood: Aberdeen ‐ 22% Cosmopolis ‐ 11% Elma ‐ 19% Hoquiam ‐ 19% McCleary ‐ 18% Montesano ‐ 12% Ocean Shores ‐ 12% Westport ‐ 14% In 2005, the poverty rate for the U.S. was 13.3% and 12% for Washington State. In the same year, Grays Har‐ bor County had a 17.2% poverty rate.
The Poverty Line Each year, the U.S. govern‐ ment calculates the mini‐ mum income needed to attain basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, health care, transportation). The result is what is commonly referred to as the "poverty
line." Using 2005 data, the government has set the 2006 poverty guidelines at: Size of Family Weighted Unit Average Thresholds One person $10,294 Two people $13,167 Three people $16,079 Four people $20,614 Five people $24,382 Six people $27,560 Seven people $31,205 Eight people $34,774 Nine people + $41,499 To better understand what it means to live below the poverty line, view a 3 minute video clip at www.usccb.org/cchd/ povertyusa/tour.htm Support efforts to eradicate poverty by increasing your understanding of the causes and practical solu‐ tions and by active partici‐ pation in your community. For more information visit:
Campus Happenings
Winter Transfer Fair The winter quarter Transfer Fair will be held on January 14th. Contact the counseling center for more information at 538‐4099
Inauguration Day The ASGHC, Phi Theta Kappa, and EDRC will be sponsoring an Inauguration Day Presentation on January 20th. The event will take place from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the HUB. Staff and stu‐ dents are invited to attend. For more information, please contact Jim Sorensen at 538‐ 4099.
MLK Jr. Presentation The EDRC will be sponsoring a presentation in recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day that will take place on Jan. 20th, following the Inaugura‐ tion Day presentation. Two sessions will take place, one at 11:00 and one at noon. Each session will be approxi‐ mately a half hour.
www.povertyusa.og
Literacy Tutors Needed Volunteer tutors are needed for Grays Harbor College’s Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English as a Second Lan‐ guage (ESL) programs. If you are interested, you can con‐ tact Jennifer Barber at 538‐ 2516 or jbarber@ghc.edu for more information.
www.povertyaction.org www.census.gov
www.ghcog.org
www.usccb.org/cchd/ povertyusa
December is... • National Poverty in America Awareness Month • Financial Wellness Month • International Wealth Mentality Month • National Mentoring Month
Awareness Dates: New Year’s Day Emancipation Proclamation World Braille Day Women’s Self-Empowerment Week
Epiphany (Christian) Orthodox Christmas Day Coming of Age Day (Japan) Orthodox New Year Religious Freedom Day World Religion Day Hunt for Happiness Week Martin Luther King Jr. Day Inauguration Day No Name-Calling Week Chinese New Year Holocaust Memorial Day
1 1 4 5-11 6 7 14 14 16 18 18-24 19 20 21-25 26 27
The Diversifieds are a publication of the EDRC of Grays Harbor College. The mission of the EDRC is to promote awareness, respect, and equitable treatment of the diverse individuals and groups that exist within our campus and surrounding communities. The EDRC is open to all! Please come visit us in the 200 building.
The Diversifieds
“The greatest Birthday gift my husband could receive is if people of all racial and ethnic
Martin Luther King, Jr. “During the 1950s and ’60s, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the power of service to strengthen communities and achieve common goals.
come together to improve lives, bridge social barriers, and move our nation closer to the ‘Beloved Community’ that Dr. King envisioned.” (www.mlkday.gov/)
Initiated by Congress in 1994, King Day of Service builds on that that legacy by transforming the federal holiday honoring Dr. King into a national day of community service grounded in his teachings of nonviolence and social justice. The aim is to make the holiday a day ON, where people of all ages and backgrounds
Visit www.mlkonline.net/ to access Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches, quotes, biography, pictures, video clips and more. Also, visit www.thekingcenter.org, established in memory of Coretta Scott King, to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. speak on greatness through service and access more information about how to honor his mem-
ory. What steps will you take toward making his dream a reality. In his own words: “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?’”
backgrounds celebrated the holiday by performing individual acts of kindness through service to others.”
- Coretta Scott King
The Golden Rule Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Buddhism What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary. Judaism Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Christianity No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Islam Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself. Baha'i Faith
Religious Freedom Religious freedom is celebrated in the United States this month. Religion is an area of diversity in which we have the right to express freely, unlike many individuals around the world.
The goal of ReligiousFreedomDay.com is to promote and protect students' religious expression rights by informing educators, parents, and students about these liberties.”
“Each year, the President declares January 16th to be Religious Freedom Day, and calls upon Americans (ReligousFreedomDay.com) to ‘observe this day through appropriate events and activities in homes,
Visit ReligiousFreedomDay.com for more information, including Presidential Proclamations, and the complete text of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. World Religion Day also takes place this month on the 18th. Visit www.worldreligionday.org to learn more about the many religions of the world, including origins and statistics.
Women’s Self-Empowerment Week By Amber Bailey January 5—11 is Women’s Self Empowerment Week, a week that a woman’s performance in her abilities is recognized, and her role in the community is acknowledged and appreciated. This is a week to glorify everything a woman has accomplished and the potential that she holds for the future. Recognize the people that reach for their stars. For example, a 13 year old in
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schools, and places of worship.’ The day is the anniversary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.
England earned her bachelor’s degree in Pure Mathematics from Oxford University. That is an amazing achievement that can seem very large. But there are those achievements that don’t have to mean anything to the world, but they mean a lot to you. Getting an A in your Physics class, even a B in English can be an achievement for you. Or if you know someone that had a goal and obtained it, tell
her “Great job!” Take time to think about those women who have achieved something great or something miniscule. And let them know they are appreciated. Give a little gift of appreciation, a card, or if you’re thinking of yourself, take the night off and indulge in whatever you want. A nice bubble bath, or if you want to feel great about yourself, go for a jog. What empowers you the most?!
Volume 1, Issue 2
New Year Celebrations By Echo Hahn New Year's Day is the only secular holiday that the entire world observes regardless of race or religious beliefs. It is based on the solar calendar established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and adopted by most countries. However, many Orthodox Eastern churches continue to use the earlier Julian calendar with the New Year falling on January 14. Some cultural groups, including Jews, Chinese, Hindus, and Muslims, use a lunar calendar or some combination of a lunar and solar calendar. The date of the Chinese New Year may fall on any date between January 21 and February 19. For 2008, the Chinese New Year occurs on February 7 and the first day of the Jewish New Year begins on the first day of the month of Tishri, or sundown on September 29. Different cultures also count years from different starting points. For example, January 1 is year 2008 according to the Gregorian calendar, but falls in year 5768 according to the Jewish calendar and in year 1428 according to the Islamic calendar.
Sending Off the Kitchen God Day A week before the Chinese New Year, January 23rd in 2008, people burn the Kitchen God. The Kitchen God is called Zao Jun. It is thought that he is sent from Heaven to watch over the family throughout the year. He is also said to have invented fire. He’s present in the kitchen in the form of a picture, or a banner with the Chinese symbol that represents him in gold. When the Kitchen God is burned it is
said that the smoke from the burning paper sends him to heaven. Once there, he reports to the Jade Emperor, who is the highest god in Taoism. He’ll report to the Jade Emperor about the moral behavior of the family, whether good or bad.
Happy H y New e Year!
Before the family burns the image or symbol of the Kitchen God, they offer him sweets as a bribe to say nice things about them. They also smear his lips with sugar or honey to either sweeten what he says, or to make his lips stick shut so that he won’t say anything at all. A new Kitchen God is placed in the kitchen on the first day of the New Year. According to the folk custom, "men do not worship the Moon while women do not offer sacrifices to Kitchen god." Thus, sacrifices to Kitchen god are confined to men. Besides on New Year's Eve (the last evening of the lunar year), Kitchen god and various other gods will come down to the earth to spend the New Year's Day in the human world. So on New Year's Eve there is a ceremony to usher in Kitchen God and other gods. After burning the paper sedan-chairs and paper horses and sprinkling three cups of liquor, people give the gods a send-off. Then it is the turn for every family to offer their memorial sacrifices to their ancestors. The twelfth month is the last month of the year. Every family is busy preparing for the Spring Festival, so every household will give a general cleaning to their houses, to bid farewell to the old year and to usher in the new year. In Beijing people usually take the 24th day of the 12th month as "Spring Cleaning Day".
The year of the Ox.
January
Awareness Trivia Translate the following phrase adapted from the novel The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Stop by the EDRC to see if you have the correct answer to this month’s trivia and your name will be put in the EDRC’s monthly drawing.
World Braille Day World Braille Day takes place on Jan. 14th, the birth date of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille. This year marks Louis Brailles’ 200th birthday. Louis Braille opened social and economic doors for the blind
with his revolutionary six raised dots in 1829. Today, even with advances in technology, Braille is used in virtually every language as the standard form of reading and writing for those who are blind, deaf blind, or
living with vision loss. The Braille Alphabet, Numbers and Symbols can be viewed on the last page of this newsletter. Step into someone else’s shoes and give it a try.
‘A New Birth of Freedom’ is the 2009 Inaugural Theme commemorating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Find out more information about this year’s theme, the history of inaugurations, this year’s schedule of events, and much more at: http://inaugural.senate.gov/ Page 3
Braille System
Braille Numbers and Symbols
The basis of the braille system is known as a braille cell. The cell is com‐ prised of six dots numbered in a specific order. Each dot or combination of dots represents a letter of the alphabet. For example, by checking in the braille alphabet, you will see that dot 1 is the letter "a" and dots 1 and 2 the letter "b".
Numbers and punctuation signs are also rep‐ resented in braille. By looking at the chart below, you will see that braille numbers are announced by a sign using dots 3, 4, 5, and 6. The use of dot 6 just before a letter indicates a capital.
Braille Alphabet Source: http://www.cnib.ca/en/living/braille/Default.aspx
Further Information:
Calling All Writers!
No Name-Calling Week - www.nonamecallingweek.org Braille - www.brailleauthority.org/ Emancipation Proclamation www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/ Holocaust Memorial Day - www.un.org/holocaustremembrance/
Deadline for submission in next month’s newsletter is Jan. 21
The Diversifieds are an extension of the GHC campus and our surrounding community. We would like to welcome and encourage students and staff to submit articles for publication in The Diversifieds. This is a monthly publication. Please contact Erin Frasier at efrasier@ghc.edu for next month’s topics and to submit articles, poems or artwork.
Equity & Diversity Resource Center DIVERSITY COMMITTEE
360-538-4247 Room 219
Committee Chair: Brian Shook The Diversifieds Staff: Erin Frasier Echo Hahn
1620 Edward P. Smith Drive Aberdeen, WA 98520 edrc@ghc.edu http://www.ghc.edu/edrc/brochure.pdf