MLK Keynore: How to Survive a Shutdown

"Fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, hate and fear are celebrated from the White House and seats of power and greed is extolled as good," decried Pastor Kelsey Steele at Varick Memorial AME Zion Church during a service and rally sponsored by New Haven Rising.

"I am tired of political theater. Trump wants a wall. We need a bridge. We have to unite and mobilize and educate people there is power in the vote," Steele emphasized.

"Progress report," said Steele. "Forty percent of the population in New Haven lives in low income neighborhoods and holds only four percent of the living wage jobs in this City."

"We are facing challenges associated with segregated development in our city and state." said Steele.

Tyisha Walker Myers, chief steward of Local 35 Unite Here at Yale, and president of the New Haven Board of Alders urged everyone to come to City Hall on February 21 for a public hearing at which Yale has been asked to present employment numbers.

April 1, 2019 is the deadline for the University to meet the agreement it signed in 2015 to hire 1,000 people who live in New Haven including 500 people who live in low-income, largely Black and Latino neighborhoods.

Steele linked the jobs struggle at Yale, New Haven's largest employer, to the national crisis, entitling his keynote call to unity and action, "How to Survive a Government Shutdown."

Addressing the long term struggle, Steele praised New Haven Rising as social justice warriors. "Where will we be on April 4, 2019, fifty-one years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr? We are on a path to move this city and country forward," he said leading the assembled in a passionate chant, "Jobs for Youth. Jobs for All."

The Connecticut legislature has enacted measures making available unemployment insurance and interest-free loans of up to $5,000 to federal workers during the shutdown and allowing towns to extend their property tax deadlines.

Emergency action and legislation is also required to bridge the gap for survival during the shutdown for thousands of Connecticut residents who rely on federal government administered SNAP for food security, WIC for their children's well being and Section 8 for housing.