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Do you know someone who is just hanging on, having to make hard choices between hunger, housing and health? Has the recent eco‐nomic downturn negatively impacted you and your family, relatives, or friends? January is Poverty in Amer‐ica Awareness Month. The number of Americans be‐low the poverty line today is staggering—nearly 37 mil‐lion. What does it look like for our communities? In 1999, 16.1% of Grays Har‐bor and 14.4% of Pacific County were below the poverty line. This is how it looked in your neighbor‐hood: Aberdeen ‐ 22% Cosmopolis ‐ 11% Elma ‐ 19% Hoquiam ‐ 19% McCleary ‐ 18% Montesano ‐ 12% Ocean Shores ‐ 12% Westport ‐ 14% In 2005, the poverty rate for the U.S. was 13.3% and 12% for Washington State. In the same year, Grays Har‐bor County had a 17.2% poverty rate.

The Poverty Line Each year, the U.S. govern‐ment calculates the mini‐mum income needed to attain basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, health care, transportation). The result is what is commonly referred to as the "poverty

line." Using 2005 data, the government has set the 2006 poverty guidelines at:

To better understand what it means to live below the poverty line, view a 3 minute video clip at www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/tour.htm Support efforts to eradicate poverty by increasing your understanding of the causes and practical solu‐tions and by active partici‐pation in your community. For more information visit:

www.povertyaction.org

www.povertyusa.og

www.census.gov

www.ghcog.org

www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa

Poverty In America Campus Happenings

Winter Transfer Fair The winter quarter Transfer Fair will be held on January 14th. Contact the counseling center for more information at 538‐4099

Inauguration Day The ASGHC, Phi Theta Kappa, and EDRC will be sponsoring an Inauguration Day Presentation on January 20th. The event will take place from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the HUB. Staff and stu‐dents are invited to attend. For more information, please contact Jim Sorensen at 538‐4099.

MLK Jr. Presentation The EDRC will be sponsoring a presentation in recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day that will take place on Jan. 20th, following the Inaugura‐tion Day presentation. Two sessions will take place, one at 11:00 and one at noon. Each session will be approxi‐mately a half hour.

Literacy Tutors Needed Volunteer tutors are needed for Grays Harbor College’s Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English as a Second Lan‐guage (ESL) programs. If you are interested, you can con‐tact Jennifer Barber at 538‐2516 or [email protected] for more information.

January 2009 Volume 1, Issue 2

The Diversifieds

December is...

• National Poverty in America Awareness Month

• Financial Wellness Month

• International Wealth Mentality Month

• National Mentoring Month

Awareness Dates:

New Year’s Day 1 Emancipation Proclamation 1 World Braille Day 4 Women’s Self-Empowerment Week

5-11

Epiphany (Christian) 6 Orthodox Christmas Day 7 Coming of Age Day (Japan) 14 Orthodox New Year 14 Religious Freedom Day 16 World Religion Day 18 Hunt for Happiness Week 18-24 Martin Luther King Jr. Day 19 Inauguration Day 20 No Name-Calling Week 21-25 Chinese New Year 26 Holocaust Memorial Day 27

The Diversifieds are a publication of the EDRC of Grays Harbor College. The mission of the EDRC is to promote awareness, re-spect, and equitable treatment of the di-verse individuals and groups that exist within our campus and surrounding com-munities. The EDRC is open to all! Please come visit us in the 200 building.

A publication of the EDRC at Grays Harbor College

Size of Family Unit

Weighted Average Thresholds

One person $10,294 Two people $13,167 Three people $16,079 Four people $20,614 Five people $24,382 Six people $27,560 Seven people $31,205 Eight people $34,774 Nine people + $41,499

“During the 1950s and ’60s, civil rights leader Mar-tin Luther King, Jr. recog-nized the power of service to strengthen communities and achieve common goals.

Initiated by Congress in 1994, King Day of Service builds on that that legacy by transforming the federal holiday honoring Dr. King into a national day of com-munity service grounded in his teachings of nonvio-lence and social justice. The aim is to make the holiday a day ON, where people of all ages and backgrounds

come together to improve lives, bridge social barriers, and move our nation closer to the ‘Beloved Community’ that Dr. King envi-sioned.” (www.mlkday.gov/) Visit www.mlkonline.net/ to access Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches, quotes, biography, pictures, video clips and more. Also, visit www.thekingcenter.org, established in memory of Coretta Scott King, to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. speak on greatness through service and access more information about how to honor his mem-

ory. What steps will you take toward making his dream a reality. In his own words: “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individual-istic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?’”

England earned her bache-lor’s degree in Pure Mathe-matics from Oxford Univer-sity. That is an amazing achievement that can seem very large. But there are those achievements that don’t have to mean anything to the world, but they mean a lot to you. Getting an A in your Phys-ics class, even a B in Eng-lish can be an achieve-ment for you. Or if you know someone that had a goal and obtained it, tell

January 5—11 is Women’s Self Empowerment Week, a week that a woman’s performance in her abili-ties is recognized, and her role in the community is acknowledged and appre-ciated. This is a week to glorify everything a woman has accomplished and the potential that she holds for the future. Recognize the people that reach for their stars. For example, a 13 year old in

her “Great job!” Take time to think about those women who have achieved something great or something miniscule. And let them know they are appreci-ated. Give a little gift of ap-preciation, a card, or if you’re thinking of yourself, take the night off and indulge in what-ever you want. A nice bubble bath, or if you want to feel great about yourself, go for a jog. What empowers you the most?!

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Women’s Self-Empowerment Week By Amber Bailey

Religious Freedom schools, and places of wor-ship.’ The day is the anniver-sary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Reli-gious Freedom. The goal of ReligiousFree-domDay.com is to promote and protect students' reli-gious expression rights by informing educators, parents, and students about these liberties.” (ReligousFreedomDay.com)

Visit ReligiousFreedom-Day.com for more informa-tion, including Presidential Proclamations, and the complete text of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. World Religion Day also takes place this month on the 18th. Visit www.worldreligionday.org to learn more about the many religions of the world, including origins and statistics.

Religious freedom is cele-brated in the United States this month. Religion is an area of diversity in which we have the right to ex-press freely, unlike many individuals around the world. “Each year, the President declares January 16th to be Religious Freedom Day, and calls upon Americans to ‘observe this day through appropriate events and activities in homes,

“The greatest Birthday gift

my husband could receive is if

people of all racial and ethnic

backgrounds celebrated the

holiday by performing

individual acts of kindness

through service to others.”

- Coretta Scott King

The Diversifieds

The Golden Rule

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself

would find hurtful. Buddhism

What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man.

That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary.

Judaism

Do unto others as you would have them

do unto you. Christianity

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother

that which he desires for himself.

Islam

Blessed is he who preferreth his brother

before himself. Baha'i Faith

New Year's Day is the only secular holi-day that the entire world observes re-gardless of race or religious beliefs. It is based on the solar calendar established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and adopted by most countries. However, many Orthodox Eastern churches con-tinue to use the earlier Julian calendar with the New Year falling on January 14. Some cultural groups, including Jews, Chinese, Hindus, and Muslims, use a lunar calendar or some combination of a lunar and solar calendar. The date of the Chinese New Year may fall on any date between January 21 and February 19. For 2008, the Chinese New Year occurs on February 7 and the first day of the Jewish New Year begins on the first day of the month of Tishri, or sundown on September 29. Different cultures also count years from different starting points. For example, January 1 is year 2008 according to the Gregorian calendar, but falls in year 5768 according to the Jewish calendar and in year 1428 according to the Is-lamic calendar. Sending Off the Kitchen God Day A week before the Chinese New Year, January 23rd in 2008, people burn the Kitchen God. The Kitchen God is called Zao Jun. It is thought that he is sent from Heaven to watch over the family throughout the year. He is also said to have invented fire. He’s present in the kitchen in the form of a picture, or a banner with the Chinese symbol that represents him in gold. When the Kitchen God is burned it is

said that the smoke from the burning paper sends him to heaven. Once there, he reports to the Jade Emperor, who is the highest god in Taoism. He’ll report to the Jade Emperor about the moral behav-ior of the family, whether good or bad. Before the family burns the image or sym-bol of the Kitchen God, they offer him sweets as a bribe to say nice things about them. They also smear his lips with sugar or honey to either sweeten what he says, or to make his lips stick shut so that he won’t say anything at all. A new Kitchen God is placed in the kitchen on the first day of the New Year. According to the folk custom, "men do not worship the Moon while women do not offer sacrifices to Kitchen god." Thus, sacrifices to Kitchen god are confined to men. Besides on New Year's Eve (the last eve-ning of the lunar year), Kitchen god and various other gods will come down to the earth to spend the New Year's Day in the human world. So on New Year's Eve there is a ceremony to usher in Kitchen God and other gods. After burning the paper sedan-chairs and paper horses and sprin-kling three cups of liquor, people give the gods a send-off. Then it is the turn for every family to offer their memorial sacri-fices to their ancestors. The twelfth month is the last month of the year. Every family is busy preparing for the Spring Festival, so every household will give a general cleaning to their houses, to bid farewell to the old year and to usher in the new year. In Beijing people usually take the 24th day of the 12th month as "Spring Cleaning Day".

New Year Celebrations By Echo Hahn

January Awareness Trivia

Translate the following phrase adapted from the novel The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Stop by the EDRC to see if you have the correct answer to this month’s trivia and your name will be put in the EDRC’s monthly drawing.

Volume 1, Issue 2

The year of the Ox.

‘A New Birth of Freedom’ is the 2009 Inaugural Theme commemorating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Find out more information about this year’s theme, the history of inaugurations, this year’s schedule of events, and much more at: http://inaugural.senate.gov/

H y e Happy New Year!

with his revolutionary six raised dots in 1829.

Today, even with ad-vances in technology, Braille is used in virtually every language as the standard form of reading and writing for those who are blind, deaf blind, or

World Braille Day takes place on Jan. 14th, the birth date of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille. This year marks Louis Brailles’ 200th birthday. Louis Braille opened social and eco-nomic doors for the blind

living with vision loss.

The Braille Alphabet, Numbers and Symbols can be viewed on the last page of this newsletter. Step into someone else’s shoes and give it a try.

World Braille Day

Committee Chair: Brian Shook

The Diversifieds Staff:

Erin Frasier Echo Hahn

Deadline for submission in next month’s newsletter is Jan. 21

DIVERSITY COMMITTEE

Equity & Diversity Resource Center

360-538-4247

Room 219

1620 Edward P. Smith Drive

Aberdeen, WA 98520

[email protected]

http://www.ghc.edu/edrc/brochure.pdf

Further Information: No Name-Calling Week - www.nonamecallingweek.org

Braille - www.brailleauthority.org/

Emancipation Proclamation - www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/

Holocaust Memorial Day - www.un.org/holocaustremembrance/

Calling All Writers! The Diversifieds are an extension of the GHC campus and our surrounding com-munity. We would like to welcome and encourage students and staff to submit articles for publication in The Diversifieds. This is a monthly publication. Please con-tact Erin Frasier at [email protected] for next month’s topics and to submit arti-cles, poems or artwork.

Braille System

The basis of the braille system is known as a braille cell. The cell is com‐prised of six dots numbered in a specific order. Each dot or combination of dots represents a letter of the alphabet. For example, by checking in the braille alphabet, you will see that dot 1 is the letter "a" and dots 1 and 2 the letter "b".

Braille Alphabet

Source: http://www.cnib.ca/en/living/braille/Default.aspx

Braille Numbers and Symbols

Numbers and punctuation signs are also rep‐resented in braille. By looking at the chart below, you will see that braille numbers are announced by a sign using dots 3, 4, 5, and 6. The use of dot 6 just before a letter indicates a capital.

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