Let Justice Roll - Raise the State and Federal Minimum Wage

Norman faith community focuses on living wage and families
Norman Transcript, 11/9/07

The Living Wages for Oklahomans Forum will focus on the impact low wages have on Oklahoma families from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at First Presbyterian Church of Norman, 555 S. University Blvd. The Rev. Barbara Boyd will deliver the keynote address.

Panelists for the public education event include author and nationally syndicated columnist Holly Sklar and Unitarian Universalist social justice leader Shelley Moskowitz. Sklar is the author of "Chaos or Community? Seeking Solutions, Not Scapegoats for Bad Economics" and co-author of "Raising The Floor: Wages and Policies that Work for All of Us," and a former Tulsan. Moskowitz, a native Oklahoman, is manager of public policy for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, an international human rights organization.

Joining Boyd as local panelists will be Lisa Sorrells, director of Food and Shelter for Friends; Lex Holmes, chairman of the OU Economics Department; Derrick Johnson, owner of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory; and Kenneth Kickham, assistant professor of political science at the University of Central Oklahoma. The speakers will provide a variety of perspectives on living wages. Refreshments will be served and free child care is offered.

A dialogue session will follow the panel to explore cooperative solutions to address the payment of just wages and examine better ways for Norman's local faith community to overcome poverty. Boyd, in speaking to why the issue is important to her, said, "Until we learn how to consider the lowest paid member of our society as our own brother and sister, we will not be a nation living with fair wages for all. We seldom truly practice the 'Golden Rule' in our society, and this is where the injustice resides."

The forum is being hosted by a coalition of eight Norman churches, spanning six denominations, in cooperation with an array of state and national faith-based and social justice organizations. Sponsors include Let Justice Roll, a national nonpartisan alliance of over 90 faith, community, business, and labor organizations; and People of Faith for Fair Wages, a project of the Peace with Justice Task Force of the Kansas/Oklahoma Conference United Church of Christ; the Oklahoma United Methodist Church -- Society; and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

Local sponsors include First Christian Church, First Presbyterian Church, McFarlin United Methodist Church, Norman United Church of Christ, Norman Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, St. Stephen's United Methodist Church, St. Thomas More Catholic Church and the Unitarian Universalist Community Church.

For information, call Karen Spradlin at 213-3282.