GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP MAY 2018 VOLUME 9 ISSUE 5 Your donation directly benefits the vendors. Please buy only from badged$2 vendors. Ypsi Bike Co-op p. 6 INSIDE Systemic poverty 2 America’s “Hello Girls” 3 Renter empowerment 4 Billy Davis interview 5 Book review 5 Asian cashew stir-fry 7 Boober Tours update 8 Puzzles 9 Among the trees 110 Story of a prep cook 11 www.GroundcoverNews.org 2 OPINION VETERANS 3 Poverty-perpetuating structural forces to tackle Remembering the “Hello Girls” – America’s first female soldiers ranges from too little income to afford and is a project worthy of support. tions but migraines, asthma, severe ar- by Will Shakespeare toward the end als. They were nition to their services. However, only housing or health care to the fallout thritis and other diseases still preclude Groundcover Vendor #258 of World War I turned down. 50 were still alive. Breakdowns in health impede regular from past economic catastrophes con- regular work for some sufferers. The (1918), young According to by Susan Beckett employment and family stability. With- tinuing to drag people back under. It proposed changes to the federal food Memorial Day (or Decoration Day) is American wom- Ron Harrison of Articles written by historian Lois Keel Publisher out effective treatment, they often lead takes wealth to build wealth – even on assistance program, SNAP, to require a federal holiday set aside for honoring to self-medicating with alcohol and en were enlisted Michigan State for the Bell Telephone News, Volume 9, a modest scale. Renting a place requires 20 hours of weekly work to receive food people who died while serving in this street drugs. The Medicaid expansion in the army. University, the described the Michigan connection to savings of triple the monthly rent. Our country’s armed forces. It is important General John Hello Girls were the Hello Girls of World War I. Oleda shelters and County help with this for has helped with managing some condi- see POVERTY, page 11 to understand the difference between “Black Jack” turned down Joure Christides came from Marine As Ted Sylvester takes over the day- their clients, and sometimes funds are Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Vet- Pershing of the because regula- City, Mich. and was in the final unit of to-day operation of Groundcover, I found for suddenly displaced rent- o e erans Day is designed to celebrate the American Expe- tions addressed the Hello Girls sent to France. She was have more time to contemplate what ers, but savings are necessary for most LETTERS t th EDITOR service of all U.S. military veterans – ditionary Force males, not only 20 years old. Another Michigan I’ve learned and how to use that to people to be able to rent. not just the war dead as on Memorial asked for and females. There Hello Girl who joined the Michigan make a difference. The Poor People’s Kudos on King article When living hand-to-mouth, there Day, when many people visit cemeter- received more was also a con- State Telephone Company was Ms. Campaign and efforts to restore equal I recently read Will Shakespeare’s It is very important to have this his- isn’t much left to cover emergencies. ies and memorial places to honor the than 200 women sensus that the Louise Gordon. After their military ser- representation in government provide article in Groundcover (April, 2018) toric context in order to understand sacrifice of men and women who died soldiers who immediate opportunities. For people working in the informal titled “Martin Luther King, Jr. re- why, as Mr. Shakespeare wrote, there Hello Girls were vice, she and Oleda Joure continued to economy (such as selling Groundcover membered: ‘A Drum-Major for Social are “millions of poor and homeless during military service. enlisted and more civilian work for the phone company. The third I’ve been privileged to work with and News, babysitting or shoveling snow) Justice’.” blacks” in our country today. served as “front- volunteers than member of the Michigan Hello Girls learn from Groundcover vendors and or at part-time jobs without benefits, The precise origin of Memorial Day line computers” military mem- was Cora H. Barlette from Hillsdale. I would just like to comment that This article also serves as a wake- volunteers who fight through so many getting sick or hurt can mean imminent remains the subject of intense debate in the war zone bers. this was a very well-written and re- up call to Americans: that it is not Some female soldiers in WWI served on the She did not come home alive. She was disaster, especially if they do not have a obstacles on a regular basis. Doing searched article. I greatly appreciated merely enough to idolize Dr. King. – informal memorials appear to have of France. front lines as telephone operators and members the only female casualty of World War something with what I’ve learned is im- lease in their name. the author’s reflection on the historic We must continue his struggle started in the South early in the Civil of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Eventually, the I. She was not killed by shell or gas. She portant to me. Obstacles generally fall discrimination African Americans against racial and economic in- War, and gatherings of newly freed Women used injustice of the And once a person undergoes a finan- was killed by a worldwide pandemic into four categories: economic, health, have faced, such as community equality. slaves to honor black Union soldiers early 20th-century telephone technol- Hello Girls’ story gave new energy to cial collapse, climbing out of the hole called the Spanish Influenza, which criminal justice and addiction. They are redlining and disinvestment, as well who died in the war form another ogy to help the Allied forces win World the Suffrage movement, and in 1920 killed more U.S. soldiers than battles is made more precarious by the lack of as those that still persist, such as mass Rabi Osagie often intertwined. important chapter in the story. By the War I in France more quickly than Congress passed the 19th Amendment access to banking services. If back taxes incarceration. did. 1860s, 27 northern states had started The wide swath of economic difficulties are owed or a creditor has a judgment, anticipated. These young women were to the Constitution, giving women the money deposited in a bank account is Fermi 2 up for DTE stockholder vote to observe the holiday at hundreds of popularly known as “The Hello Girls.” right to vote. In the age of the #MeToo movement, likely to disappear and be applied to cemeteries. Michigan led the way leg- About 7,000 U.S. and Canadian women it is especially fitting that this Memo- GROUNDCOVER the debt. Consequently, people hide A DTE Energy shareholder submitted ning them any longer increases the islatively in 1871, making Decoration heeded the call to volunteer during It took 60 years to rectify the wrong rial Day we acknowledge the sacrifices or pocket their money for rent and a resolution for DTE to do a study on risk of a major disaster on the scale Day an official state holiday. By 1890, World War I. Three hundred thirty-two done against America’s first female made by the women of the Armed MISSION: the economics of closing the Fermi of Fukushima. In his testimony the other monthly payments and it is not every other northern state followed were accepted, but only 223 were al- soldiers. President Jimmy Carter signed Forces, too. 2 nuclear power plant before the end official gave the example of a paper Creating opportunity and Michigan’s example. Today, Memorial lowed to serve. They became telephone Senate Bill 1414 in 1978, giving recog- uncommon for it to get stolen or lost. of their newly extended closure date clip being bent. He said that if tests a voice for low-income They also end up paying fees for money in 2045. DTE lawyers appealed to the are done to show that one can bend a Day speeches speeches have become operators, and some of them came from people while taking action orders and check cashing. U.S. Securities and Exchange Com- paper clip five times before it breaks, something to expect from politicians, Michigan cities. They were trained to to end homelessness and mission (SEC) to be allowed to omit then that should be the rule. Don’t religious leaders and community lead- serve overseas as members of the Army poverty. But even worse is the lack of access to the resolution. However, the SEC bend the paper clip more than five ers. Signal Corps. credit – especially to fix or acquire a ruled that it was a viable resolution times. This analogy suggests that the Susan Beckett, Publisher critical piece of machinery on which that stockholders needed to vote on, reactors were designed to run for 40 History tends to be written by men, In March 1918, the first contingent of [email protected] one’s livelihood depends, such as a and so it is now Proposal 5 in DTE’s years before they faced a potential about men. Nowhere is that tendency Hello Girls was sent to numerous battle painter’s power washer. After the reces- Stockholders Resolutions for share- breakdown from fatigue. Now, Fermi Ted Sylvester, Executive Director more conspicuous than in the way our locations. Some were sent to the front sion ended, a person I knew received a holders’ vote. 2 is licensed to run 60 years, with nation’s military history is normally lines in France.