Monday, March 16, 2015

Get Ready, Set, Go COP 24/7

Cotton Pickin Crazy????

Well it's happen yet again. All eyes are on Arkansas as one our own pop's off with another over the
top political stunt or maneuver that pings the "WTF" meter. His rush to the front of the pack has had social media a blaze with folks name calling and saying is he "cotton pickin crazy!" It's all about Freshman Senator Tom Cotton's letter to the Iran signed by 46 other Republican senators, which warned that without congressional approval, any nuclear-arms deal can be revoked when President Barack Obama leaves office in 2017. The Obama administration has called the letter an unprecedented intrusion into the president's role to set foreign policy for the United States.

The United States, Iran and five other countries have agreed to finalize a framework for the deal by the end of March, with a final deadline in June. Negotiations are currently taking place in Geneva. COP 24/7 watched Cotton as he did his "no regrets," talking head tour of Face The Nation as he waxed on that "the letter was intended to show that Americans won't support any plan that could lead to Iran creating a nuclear weapon."

However as the furor scales up, many of those 46 whom signed on are now murmuring that perhaps they should have taken further considerations before signing the piece, yet none have come outright to say they were wrong or this action should have been further discussed. Meanwhile Cotton is digging in as we await if his comrades might be digging out leaving him covered with their escape dirt.

The Business of Equality

Our March 9th post begin to highlight and explore the recent roll out of "Business is Our Equality," move that also got more top billing air time this weekend on KATV (see link below).
 
In a nut shell, all of this is a continuation of efforts dealing with a prior HRC assessment survey which cited numerous factoids including, " 37% of members of Arkansas' LGBT Community have experienced harassment at work."

For clarity sake, this forum has actually read the survey and applaud using such tools to make points about issues, we can't dismiss that we have reservations concerning the subject pool of which this data was gathered or the methodology to reach outcomes. Nevertheless it is done and now this initiative moves forward with a mighty list of local businesses pledged to "promote inclusion of the LGBT community work place."

Sounds wonderful and a great idea that hopefully garner some results other than stickers on storefronts or windows. The LGBTQ community for far too long has not been able to leverage its own buying power, not only among those non-gay businesses but certainly among gay owned businesses. This is old news as many local businesses have been of the open mindset that "since you don't have anywhere else to go, its here or no where." We are glad to learn that this attitude is about to get the boot.

Especially, now that this new business frontier is unfolding. Wouldn't it be great if they would be open to openly advertising in LGBT focused media such as this platform. What if more employment notices are forwarded? How about event sponsorships, supporting educational programming and or scholarships to enhance local community based organizations to build their own capacity. Amazing as it may seem this concept never seemed feasible before with local LGBTQ businesses not seeing this big picture approach. COP 24/7 is willing to be optimistic with hopes of significant and realistic outcomes that truly make impact in our community, not another checked box photo op program with limited service to anyone. Here's a link to a video: KATV - Breaking News, Weather and Razorback Sports
 
 
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