Latest news with #socialchange
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Frank Chopp, a force that reshaped Washington's political landscape
House Speaker Frank Chopp delivering remarks in the House of Representatives on Jan. 11, 2016, the first day of the legislative session. (Photo courtesy of Legislative Support Services) Frank Chopp, a citizen activist who became the state of Washington's longest-serving House speaker, spent a half-century relentlessly agitating for social change. It seemed fitting then that Chopp, who died in March, would deliver a final call for action to hundreds attending his memorial service in Bellevue on Sunday. 'We have made so much progress, but let us also remember how lucky we are,' he says in a taped excerpt of a speech on the opening day of a legislative session. 'None of us go without a paycheck, none of us go hungry, none of us go homeless, none of us lack health care, none of us lack the opportunity to get an education.' 'The people we represent just want what we have,' he said. 'So we have a lot to do. Let's get to work.' Applause and cheers erupted through the crowd of lawmakers past and present, community leaders, current and former governors, and family friends gathered in the Meydenbauer Center to celebrate Chopp, whose death March 22 at the age of 71 stunned them, coming less than three months after his political retirement. For two hours, they told stories and paid tribute to the mustachioed maestro of politics, a streetwise and strategic solon who sought no higher office than the Seattle legislative seat he occupied for three decades. A Democrat, he managed to be both high-profile and behind the scenes, fomenting change without leaving visible fingerprints. 'With Speaker Chopp, we witnessed a rare fusion: the heart of an organizer, the strategy of a legislator and the savvy of a political mastermind,' said Teresa Mosqueda, a King County Council member. 'Frank blended these elements into a force that reshaped our social contract.' Former Gov. Jay Inslee said Chopp's blend of personal passion and strategic ability was the 'rocket fuel' that drove significant housing, health care and social justice policies across the finish line. Though only one person with one vote, his role in pushing the state to strengthen the social safety net, build affordable housing and improve public schools is unmatched, they said. 'Frank Chopp was the greatest legislator in the last century. Period,' proclaimed Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, a close friend and fellow Democrat. Chopp had two North Stars. There was his family: Nancy Long, his wife of 41 years, and Ellie and Narayan, their children. Chopp would tear up when he'd mention them on the House floor, for they were his touchstone. He was 'an equal partner at home,' doing the laundry and shopping and 'showing up for the small stuff,' Long recounted. Amid the steady seriousness of the job, she said he was funny and 'sometimes downright goofy.' His other North Star was adapting government to serve the state's most vulnerable. 'His daily focus from the time he was in college to the very day he died was improving the lives of others,' Long said. 'Frank started with no connections, no positional power, no money, no real standing. What he had were these very adaptive personal traits, a very solid understanding of history, a curious and amazingly agile mind and a total disregard for the status quo.' Chopp was first elected to represent Seattle's 43rd Legislative District in 1994, an election that proved catastrophic for many other Democrats. His party lost more than two dozen seats, going from a near supermajority in the House to a 62-36 minority. He ascended to leader of the House Democratic Caucus and, in 1999, became co-speaker with Republican Clyde Ballard of East Wenatchee when there were equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans in the House. Democrats won a special election in Snohomish County in 2001 to gain control of the chamber and installed Chopp as speaker in 2002, a job he kept until stepping aside in 2019. He won two more elections before retiring last year. Chopp understood persistence and patience could achieve lasting progress while impatience could trigger a political recoil. 'He believed it only mattered to be right if you were getting results,' Long said. As speaker, Chopp's sometimes cautious approach, or pragmatism, depending on one's perspective, incited the pique of the caucus' more caffeinated progressives. 'He was not an incrementalist,' declared Mosqueda, who emceed the portion of the memorial devoted to building on Chopp's legislative and political legacy. 'He knew that bold, progressive victories require smart, strategic steps. He was relentless in his drive to dismantle inequity, and his strategies were thus layered and often multi-year.' Inslee said Chopp recognized the potential that a temporary victory could derail policies and cause Democrats to lose seats. 'He made sure that we didn't get too far out ahead of the people,' he said. Chopp was the grandson of Croatian immigrants. His father began working in the Roslyn coal mines at age 12 and later became a union electrician at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. His mother served as a school cafeteria employee. She left school at 14 to work but earned her high school diploma from Green River Community College at age 65, according to his obituary. He grew up in Bremerton and graduated from the University of Washington. He served several years as executive director of the Fremont Public Association, now known as Solid Ground, which offers resources such as food banks, housing and employment programs. In his 30 years as a lawmaker, he focused heavily on housing and homelessness, working to increase the amount of affordable housing across the state, improve access to homeownership and house people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He helped start the Seattle Tenants Union and the Cascade Shelter Project, living in a geodesic dome in a rented parking stall to bring attention to the need for affordable housing in the area. He helped lead efforts to set up the state's Housing Trust Fund and its Apple Health and Homes program, which uses Medicaid dollars to fund housing. Creation of the state's covenant homeownership program was one of the crowning achievements of his tenure. Chopp also pushed policies to expand behavioral health care facilities, child care access and student financial aid for more Washingtonians. Yona Makowski, a longtime budget analyst with the House Democratic Caucus, said Chopp was 'willing to break tradition and adapt government procedures' to achieve broader objectives. 'I'll lose my composure if I talk about what Frank meant to me,' she said, instead offering what her family members thought of him. 'They knew him from me talking about him at the dinner table.' 'My son thought he was a great strategist in getting meaningful things done to help disadvantaged people. My daughter compared him to the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, but if the wizard was actually the hero,' Makowski said. 'And lastly, my late husband perhaps said it best, Frank was a very good man.'
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Only radical action can block Britain's path to penury
Someone said to me the other day that Britain's national characteristic is no longer queueing or complaining about the weather. As they put it, it's about trying to 'carry on and pretend that none of this is really happening to us'. Look around you, and it's maybe a rational view, if you are a citizen. It ought to be less so for the policy-making classes. But nevertheless, faced with economic and social crisis, the dominant view of Britain's governing class is 'yes, things are bad, but there's very little to be done and the best thing is to get used to it'. They refuse to contemplate any serious change and prefer to retreat to their comfort zone and blame 'populism'. I'm often asked, not least in the reactions to these articles: 'OK, so what would you do instead?' In truth I think it's clear. We are beyond tinkering. When things are as bad as they are, only radical reform can make any difference. So set to one side party politics. For now, this isn't about which party is best placed to do it. Set to one side the endless 'who's up, who's down' SW1 analysis. Let's look at the big picture. Two sets of actions are needed to get back on track. The first is to rebuild our country: its institutions, its government machine, its borders, its history, its culture. This is crucial. People always want to give their loyalty to something. Without a respected, effective nation state, they will be loyal instead to an ethnic group, a religion, or a cause. We have gone much too far down that particular road already. The other is to get economic growth going again: to rebuild a market economy with a social contract, an economic machine that benefits working people and doesn't leave anyone behind. If we don't do the first we lose all the things that actually make a country a country. If we don't do the second we carry on getting poorer. We need to do both. Rebuilding the country involves first of all reforms to state machinery. Without this, everything else is impossible. We must remove the major remaining international legal constraints on our actions – mainly from the EU, the ECHR, and certain UN conventions. We must reform the civil service so ministers are genuinely in charge and have more political support and control. And we must limit judicial review and at least constrain and probably abolish the Supreme Court, reverting to pre-Blair arrangements. There can be no argument about these things. The necessary legislation should be in the manifesto and ready to go on Day 1 of a new government, in a State Reform and National Independence Bill. It is a pre-requisite to taking back proper control and making sure the state does its core jobs properly. Those core jobs include controlling the borders and reducing migration to zero. Cracking down on real crime. Putting in place an assertive integration programme to foster loyalty to Britain – a daunting task, but one which must be taken on. Scrapping most of the Equality Act and bringing in a proper Freedom of Speech Act. Re-establishing credible armed forces. Putting in place a proper national resilience programme covering trade policy, energy, core economic capacity, and connectivity. All this is essential to running a country properly in the first place. But we also want a successful country – which means re-establishing confidence in a market economy and its ability to make everyone better off. There's no alternative to tough decisions here. We need a ten-year programme of consistent but radical change. And it must be explained correctly. There is a widespread belief that the last twenty years have seen crazed free market reform and austerity. The exact opposite is true. The economy is corporatist, entrepreneurialism and the self-employed have been crushed, and the tax burden is higher than ever. It is undoing this that leads to prosperity, not more of it. So, the tax and spend burden needs to be cut, slowly but surely, and the tax system reformed to be more family-friendly and more supportive of work. That has a transitional cost and it can't all happen at one go, but a course must be set, and in a decade the tax burden has to be back at Blair-era levels – hardly a time of free market madness. There will have to be welfare reform. Those who genuinely can't work – the elderly, sick, disabled – should be protected as far as possible, but everyone else has to be expected to earn their living. We can't have a system where you can often have the same disposable income not working as on the median national wage. And markets need to be freed up. Net zero must go, giving us both a fiscal and a growth benefit. A Royal Commission should examine moving to European-style health and social care arrangements. Planning liberalisation can unleash the market to build houses and infrastructure. Child care can be deregulated to make it cheaper. Labour's employment laws should be reversed. There is no shortage of things to do. A serious reform programme will soon lift the growth rate. Look at Argentina and how quickly fast growth has returned after the initial pain. The programme can't all be done at one go. So politicians who just add up all the pledges and claim this means a fiscal 'black hole' are just posturing. The programme needs careful sequencing and it will take time. But the direction must be set and it can be set in Opposition. Effective leaders must explain it, persuade the voters, and get the legislation ready. Of course we can say all this is too difficult. But in that case we are condemning ourselves to permanent decline. Plenty of other countries have gone down that route. We don't have to. The great if occasionally wayward political adviser Sir Alfred Sherman once said: 'You can wake someone who's asleep, but you can't wake someone who is pretending to be asleep'. The British people are beginning to wake up to the extent of their problems. But too many of our leaders are still pretending to be asleep, imagining the problems will go away, or at least not hit them personally, if they can just keep their head under the pillow. This country and its people deserve better than that.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Social Entrepreneurship Ideas to Fuel Your Civic Passion
Young colleagues in greenhouse with solar panel. getty The term 'social entrepreneurship' has grown in popularity recently, but what exactly does it mean? What are the key values of social entrepreneurship? And how can you turn your civic passion into a social entrepreneurship career? Let's break it down. Social entrepreneurship occurs when a person (or 'social entrepreneur') uses entrepreneurial principles to create a business that impacts a key societal or environmental challenge. These people are driven by a passion to do social good and make a difference in their community. Social entrepreneurship isn't limited to charities and not-for-profits, though. These organizations typically exist to make a profit and positively impact their chosen issue simultaneously. For example, the issue could relate to climate change, pollution, human rights, education, activism, accessibility for marginalized groups, physical or mental health, citizenship, or governance. Whatever the mission, social entrepreneurs have a dual purpose: to create a viable business and reinvest profits back into the business while influencing social change. If you're exploring the idea of a social entrepreneurship career, it's essential to understand some core values you'd need to adhere to. See if they line up with your own values. Out-of-the-box, creative thinking is essential to running a successful social entrepreneurship business. You have to find unique and different ways of solving problems that traditional companies have been unable to solve. Where others have failed, you innovate and progress boldly. A few risks are involved in becoming a social entrepreneur; you must accept them and become resilient if they arise. Risks may be financial, with the potential to lose your initial investment and your business not becoming financially viable. Risks may be economic - how susceptible is your business to economic fluctuations in your chosen market? Risks may be reputational - social entrepreneurs are held to a higher standard than traditional entrepreneurs. At the heart of every social entrepreneur is a driving purpose and passion for their chosen cause. If you have a strong passion and desire to improve the lives of others, you're well on your way to becoming a successful social entrepreneur. founded by Ned Tozun, provides affordable and accessible solar-powered lighting products to low-income and/or off-grid people all around the world, with a goal to transform 1 billion lives. By focusing on improving people's lives and utilizing clean energy, they're a great example of people, planet, and profit. While Lush is a for-profit global beauty retailer, it's focused on the ethical and Fair Trade sourcing of ingredients, sustainable packaging, zero-waste initiatives, and cruelty-free practices with no animal testing at any point of the production line. Lush shows that you can create a profitable social entrepreneurship business without compromising on product quality, leaving the world 'lusher than we found it'. While there are certainly challenges to starting and running a profitable social entrepreneurship business, there are many successful ones all around the world. In fact, research found that there are around 10 million social enterprises globally, generating $2 trillion in annual revenue and creating 200 million jobs. Here's what you need to start a career in this field: If you're an aspiring social entrepreneur, here are a few ideas to get you thinking: While there are many factors to consider before starting a social entrepreneurship career, making a difference in a community can be highly fulfilling and rewarding. If you have a civic passion that you can't stop thinking about, why not explore the possibility of creating a business? Surround yourself with doers, changemakers, and those with entrepreneurial mindsets, and you, too, can turn your passion into a successful and profitable social enterprise.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Our 3 kids still live at home after high school. We thought we'd be empty nesters, but intergenerational living works for us.
My husband and I have been married for 27 years. We thought we'd be empty nesters by now. Economic and social changes have made leaving the nest less than ideal for our young adults. I've learned that there is no one-size-fits-all definition of success. At 20 years old, I married a man I met in kindergarten. Together, we checked off all the supposed-to-dos that defined success in our generation. We got our college degrees, started our careers, paid off our college debt, bought our first home, and then had kids. Those kids — a daughter, 21, and two sons, 19 and 17 — are all still at home. At first glance, this might seem like something went wrong. Shouldn't our kids be "grown and flown"? But a quick look behind the curtain reveals how this is working well for all of us. I always knew I wanted to stay at home with my kids, like my mother and her mother before her. I longed to be there for my kids' ups and downs and to be their biggest cheerleader. But I also didn't want to set my career aside for two decades. My solution: working from home. Throughout my kids' childhood, I was able to maintain my sense of self through constant writing, querying, pitching, and publishing. The curveball came when my oldest was diagnosed with dyslexia, and her school and I agreed that homeschool was a better option for her. I pursued dyslexia training, and we hit the ground running. Within a year, we found a rhythm, and I asked the boys if they, too, would like to try homeschooling. It was a choice we never regretted. But still, I assumed life would change after they graduated from high school. I assumed they'd be sick of their parents' rules and want to leave the nest. I was wrong… kind of. None of them has decided to go to a traditional four-year university, though we would have supported that decision if they had. And no, none of them has moved out of our house yet. As my husband and I looked around at our peers, we realized how lucky we were that the traditional script for life had worked for us. Many of our friends seemed stuck, weighed down by unfulfilling careers and relationships and hefty financial burdens. It wasn't anyone's fault; they had followed the same script we were handed, only to find something was still missing. That realization encouraged us to create a broader definition of success for our kids: health, wisdom, and happiness. By opening up what success could mean, each of our kids also started defining it for themselves. They grew into young adults who were not only capable but deeply connected to who they were and what they really wanted. Our daughter is a photographer and globetrotter whose dreams have taken her from being at Ground Zero during the Turkey earthquake in February 2023 to being featured in magazines that showcase her art. My older son always advocates for the underdog, which landed him a team lead position at a fast-food restaurant within months of starting. He is now concentrating on which trade he wants to pursue long-term, so he and his girlfriend can start their lives together. My youngest son is service-minded and fearless. He is an entrepreneur who ran three different businesses before finishing high school. He serves as a singer, teacher, and handyman at church while training for a team lead position at a fast-food restaurant. Rather than focusing on obtaining money and things, they are focused on health, wisdom, and happiness. Over the years, as I've watched my friends post pictures of their kids graduating from universities, getting married, and having babies, I wondered if I failed my kids somehow. Would the traditional script have made their life easier? Better? But then I look at my kids with their significant others and friends, and I'm overwhelmed with gratitude. The economic reality is that even with four or more years of college, many young adults can't land jobs that cover their bills (much less pay off their degrees). Why not lean into the multi-generational living situation that many cultures around the world thrive in? Each of my kids wants to leave the nest and build their own lives eventually, but we've mutually agreed that, for now, staying at home and shifting our relationship from parent-child to co-inhabitants is the best way to set them up for success. The idea is simple: save your money and chase your dreams, while contributing to the family unit. They're young adults, figuring out who they are and who they want to become, with the benefit of doing it without the weight of a mortgage or student debt. Together, we are happy, healthy, wise, and debt-free. That sounds like success to me. Read the original article on Business Insider
South China Morning Post
10-05-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Hongkonger Bonnie Lee hoping to use new IOC role to inspire next generation to greatness
For Bonnie Lee Tin-sum, sport has always been about more than the physical. She sees it as having the power to bring people together, change society and teach life values. Advertisement Now, she hopes to use her position as one of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) young leaders to 'plant the seeds' for the next generation, after learning first hand what having resources could mean. The 25-year-old Metro radio presenter does not have a particularly stellar sporting résumé, but she was chosen, along with 24 others, from 5,270 applicants to be a young leader for the next three years. 'My vision is to bring happiness and hope back to Hong Kong, especially for our youth,' Lee said. 'It still feels like a dream come true. Our city has faced many challenges in recent years, and I see sports can drive social change. I truly believe the best of Hong Kong is yet to come.' In her new-found role, Lee will be provided with expert guidance and coaching, access to sport and sport-for-development network, and seed funding of US$10,000 (HK$78,000) to turn her ideas into impactful and sustainable initiatives. Bonnie Lee previously spent some time working at the United Nations. Photo: Bonnie Lee 'It's a 10-day journey for 16 youths, aged 11 to 13, to hike a 178-kilometre trail in Hong Kong, filled with a set of mission-based mental challenges,' Lee said. 'The core idea is to target individuals who could greatly benefit from this growth opportunity.
