{"id":1359,"date":"2017-10-09T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/?p=1359"},"modified":"2017-10-09T08:00:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T12:00:50","slug":"maxine-waters-strong-black-woman-role-model-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/maxine-waters-strong-black-woman-role-model-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Maxine Waters: A Strong Black Woman Who Is a Role Model for Us All"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<![CDATA[<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1361 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Maxine-Waters-A-Strong-Black-Woman-Who-Is-a-Role-Model-for-Us-All-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Maxine-Waters-A-Strong-Black-Woman-Who-Is-a-Role-Model-for-Us-All-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Maxine-Waters-A-Strong-Black-Woman-Who-Is-a-Role-Model-for-Us-All-768x543.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Maxine-Waters-A-Strong-Black-Woman-Who-Is-a-Role-Model-for-Us-All-1024x724.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Maxine-Waters-A-Strong-Black-Woman-Who-Is-a-Role-Model-for-Us-All.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>United States Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California has become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/07\/19\/magazine\/maxine-waters-is-learning-from-millennials.html?mcubz=0&amp;_r=0),\">heroine to many of us, especially millennials<\/a>, since she stood up for her principles and refused to attend President Trump\u2019s inauguration or his first speech to Congress. Her willingness to speak honestly about her values and beliefs has won the respect of people in all age groups. As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/la-pol-ca-maxine-waters-20170430-htmlstory.html\">Sarah D. Wire reports for the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>, Waters explained that she doesn\u2019t honor this president because of \u201chis insulting comments about former presidential rivals Carly Fiorina and Hillary Clinton, the lewd \u2018Access Hollywood\u2019 video in which he bragged about grabbing women and his mocking imitation of a disabled reporter.\u201d In addition, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecrisismagazine.com\/single-post\/2017\/04\/17\/Civil-Rights-Groups-Leery-of-TRump\">Lottie L. Joiner of <em>Crisis Magazine<\/em> reports<\/a> that Waters is determined to do what she can to stop Trump\u2019s agenda of undermining African American contributions to our democracy.\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/la-pol-ca-maxine-waters-20170430-htmlstory.html\">According to Wire<\/a>, Waters was born one of thirteen children raised by a single mother in St. Louis and began working at the age of thirteen. After high school, she moved with her family to California, began a career in public service as a teacher in the Head Start program, and earned a bachelor\u2019s degree. She was elected to the California State Assembly in 1977, where she became a very effective legislator. In 1991, she was elected to Congress.\nMaxine Waters is my heroine because she has consistently fought for social and economic justice on the local, state, federal, and international levels. For example:\n\n\n<ul>\n \t\n\n<li>While serving in the California state legislature, she led a drive to force the state pension system to divest billions of dollars in shares of companies that did business in South Africa in order to help end the oppressive system of apartheid.<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>In her congressional district, she helped found organizations that promote black women and provide job training to young people.<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>She helped write the Dodd-Frank Act, which instituted broad oversight of the banking industry after the 2008 market collapse.<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>She helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>Waters created legislation to put money back into minority communities devastated by the crash of the housing market to produce housing for low-income people.<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>Waters worked hard to draft legislation that funded HIV\/AIDS research among minority populations.<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>Currently Waters is working on closing the enormous wealth gap between blacks (and other minorities) and whites in the United States.<\/li>\n\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\nWaters provides inspiration to the rest of us, encouraging us to step forward and make a difference in our communities and in our country as volunteers, as activists, or by running for office. What steps are you taking to make a difference?\n&nbsp;\nPhoto courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mark6mauno\/7231449098\">mark6mauno<\/a> for a Creative Commons photo with the Share-Alike 2.0 license.]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<![CDATA[]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[377,457,615],"class_list":["post-1359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-maxine-waters","tag-politics","tag-women-in-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}