http://www.abetterbalance.org/web/component/content/article/49-familyleave/368-nypfloverview?can_id=6f708cddeee20a09fb78254c6be945fe&source=email-paid-family-leave-is-coming-to-new-york&email_referrer=paid-family-leave-is-coming-to-new-york&email_subject=paid-family-leave-is-coming-to-new-york&link_id=4

Victory for New Yorkers!!

Paid Family Leave will become law January 2018.  This is wonderful news for all New Yorkers!  As many of my long-time Followers/Subscribers well know I’ve been fighting to receive FMLA so that I may care for my brother Stephen who has Autism.  Please see and read the New York Times Article.   Also click on the Search category FMLA or Family Leave to see and read my previous blog posts on this subject.

The New York Times did an article on my brother Stephen and me. Please take time to read this eye opening article of our lives. Thank you.
http://nyti.ms/1BktTeP

Here is a synopsis from the Action Network.

The NYS Senate just voted to pass the strongest paid family leave bill in the country and we expect the Assembly to do the same this afternoon.

The passage of 12 weeks of paid family leave is a momentous victory for New York’s families. New York now leads the nation in ensuring that working families have access to this essential and long-overdue benefit.

New York’s families will now have access to 12 weeks of job protected paid family leavecovering all private sector workers, at a 2/3rds weekly wage benefit level.  In addition, public sector unions will be able to opt their members into this program.  

I’m sure many of you are wondering how does this affect Stephen and me.  Well to be truthful since it becomes a Law in Jan. 2018 not a whole lot because I will be retiring spring 2018.  No more begging and pleading for time scraps and leftovers. My time as a step-child from a Charles Dickens novel will officially be over.  I will no longer have to choose between keeping my job and caring for my brother Stephen.  Hallelujah!!

However with that being said, as an Activist particularly in my case as an Elder Activist and Autism Advocate the battle is not just for Stephen and myself but for future generations. My time in the wicked workforce is gradually coming to an end. I’m really looking forward to retirement and getting back control of my life as opposed to now where my employer has the control.  Anyway the point is when we fight to change laws or get new laws enacted it may not have the impact in our lives that we wish but we do it to alleviate the suffering of other families and our community.

I remember a long time ago when I was much younger my Aunt Helen Garcia recounting the racism, bigotry and prejudice she encountered trying to get a job in New York. Yes New York!  In the 1940s New York was only a few steps ahead of the South in terms its treatment of Black Americans.  My Aunt Helen cried because my generation, the Baby Boomers was the first generation to benefit from the Civil Rights Movement.  As I recall the stories of Jim Crow Dayton, Ohio from my mother, grandmother and Aunts I absorbed those stories and realized the opportunities available to me that their generation never had.

Now as I make a rapid approach to my 60th year on this earth I’m still out here as a walking wounded warrior but I’m holding out the baton to the next generations.

Millenials are you ready to carry the torch?

I stand on the shoulder of one of the Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement Fannie Lou Hamer.

https://dancingpalmtrees.com/2016/01/16/fannie-lou-hamer/

Millenials are you ready to pick up your swords. Have you put on the Full Armor of God in the fight for Disability Rights?  Autism Rights? Caregiver Rights? Human Rights?

Along with your human genius you have the genius of technology. Young People please use those innovations for more than just selfies and sexting.  There is a war going on. We need all hands on deck.  Like our grandparents and parents before us one day I will pass from time into eternity.  As one Watchman goes to receive their heavenly reward another must take up their post. To paraphrase the prophet Nehemiah, “I’m doing a Great Work for God and cannot come down from the wall.”    Nehemiah 6

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%206:10-18

Ephesians 6:10-18 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Whole Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,^[a] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

¹⁴ Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶ above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; ¹⁸ praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—