JENNIFER GUTIERREZ | Posted: Wednesday, January 9, 2008 6:00 pm
We take care of our own in Nebraska. Whether we are working together to rebuild a town devastated by a tornado, or giving Christmas gifts to a family in need, if our neighbor needs a hand we give it. That’s what being a Nebraskan is all about.
We, your representatives at the Nebraska Women’s Commission, want to let you know that women and families in our state are suffering. These are hardworking women — women like Julie Reynolds in Nance County, who was working three minimum-wage jobs to provide for her daughter. Women like Sondra Foulk in Merrick County, a farmer’s wife who, after his death, learned she was saddled with an incredible debt that left her penniless, or women like Cathy Rakes in Gage County, who could work only part time in order to care for her husband who was sick with cancer. In the meantime, medical and living expenses piled so high that after her husband’s death she was left with nothing.
These women are not special or unique cases. They are representative of thousands of Nebraska women living among us. In fact, one of your commissioners, Barb Micek, a journalist from Fullerton, traveled to 24 counties across the state to record these national award-winning stories. “Displaced Dreams,” our exhibit of these stories, is on display this week in the Capitol Rotunda. These real-life stories were written for you in order to put faces and lives with these statistics:
Is this OK with you?
Is it OK with you that for 58 percent of retired women in Nebraska, their Social Security checks are the only things standing between them and poverty?
Is it OK with you that 41 percent of the homemakers in Nebraska who stayed home to raise children and then later needed to re-enter the workforce live below the poverty level?
Lincoln, is it OK with you that in the November “A Time for Thanks, A Time for Giving” insert in the Lincoln Journal Star, 54 of 68 requests for help were for women or women and children? (This does not count the requests from organizations such as the People’s City Mission, the Food Bank or Kids for Recovery).
This is not OK, Nebraska. We can do better. At the Nebraska Commission on the Status of Women, we are working to enhance the quality of life for all Nebraskans by promoting equality of opportunity for Nebraska’s women and families through research, outreach, awareness and referral.
One way that we do this as your 13 appointed representatives is to make you aware of the situation so that we can work together to change it — at both the community and state levels.
Admittedly, over the past year it has become significantly more difficult to effect change. In 2007 the Nebraska Commission on the Status of Women was the only commission to be defunded by the Legislature, with the exception of reimbursement for travel expenses to and from meetings for commissioners.
With or without funding, the need for a Women’s Commission exists now more than ever, which is why we continue to serve you. When we were appointed by the governor, we made a commitment to serve women and families, which we intend to keep.
Do you know someone like Loretta in York County, who works four jobs from dawn to dusk to support her children because she cannot obtain child support and needs health insurance? Do you know someone like Veda in Dawes County who finally received her first child-support check when she was 70 years old and her youngest of five sons was nearly 40? Then, after receiving the $200 support check, her Medicaid was dropped.
If what has been described is not OK with you, go to www.women.ne.gov and contact any of the commissioners listed to tell us what you think. You may also contact us by phone at (402) 326-2449, via e-mail at ne.women@yahoo.com or by mail at the Nebraska Commission on the Status of Women, P.O. Box 94985, Lincoln, NE 68501-94985. We will then take your questions, concerns and requests directly to our state senators.
Gutierrez was appointed by Gov. Dave Heineman to represent District 1 on the Nebraska Commission on the Status of Women.