Voicemail (March 6, 2008)

As an alumnus of UTK who values our campus’ historical significance and natural beauty, I was shocked and appalled to see that a grove of trees, including a 100-plus year-old Ginkgo tree, have been ripped limb by limb from our honored and revered Hill at the expense of UT’s new Electrical Engineering building. This new building is being touted as UT’s first “Green Building,” one that is supposed to have reduced environmental impacts and help the campus reach its goal of energy reductions, carbon neutrality and cleaner air.

I personally know of botanists on campus who respected these trees for their ecological significance, and of students and administrators who have fought to save campus old- growth trees for the value of clean air and campus beautification. I find it truly shameful that there is such disrespect toward old- growth trees.

UTK has an Environmental Policy stating: “The University of Tennessee aspires to serve as a model of environmental stewardship and integrity, and to follow principles of good environmental conservation, waste reduction, and design on its Knoxville campus.” Someone apparently didn’t get the memo…

Thanks, UTK, for serving as such a strong model of environmental stewardship and integrity! I know my grandfather would really appreciate your efforts with the 100-plus-year-old tree, one that he may have studied under while he was an engineering student on the Hill in 1932.

Your child wakes up one morning and doesn’t feel well. You wish you could stay home with her, but if you miss work, you will lose a day’s pay — or risk being fired. Your family is already struggling to make ends meet. So you bury the guilt, give your child over-the-counter medicine to reduce her fever for a few hours, and send her to school. There, she exposes her classmates and teachers to her flu bug. Soon, they too get sick.

Scenarios like this take place every day in our nation’s homes, because 94 million workers in this country do not have a single paid sick day they can use to care for a sick child.  Fifty-seven million private sector workers do not have a paid sick day they can use to recover from their own illness.  If they stay home, they lose a day’s pay.  It’s an impossible choice.

The problem is especially serious for workers in low-wage jobs. Workers without paid sick days miss the chance to get mammograms and prostate exams, and take their kids for immunizations and check-ups, because they can’t take a few hours off work. Does your doctor see patients at night or on weekends? Mine doesn’t.

Right now, no federal or state law ensures that workers will have the paid sick days they need. That’s not compassionate. It’s not family-friendly. And it’s not right.

It’s also bad for workers, bad for families, bad for businesses and bad for our economy. Experts say if workers had just seven paid sick days per year, our national economy would experience a net savings of $8.1 billion per year.

We can help stop this public health crisis by supporting the Healthy Families Act now before Congress. It would guarantee workers up to seven paid sick days to recover from illness or care for a sick family member.

Speaking out for the Healthy Families Act is easier than ever.  Beginning on Feb. 29, the National Partnership for Women & Families is holding an online rally in support of the bill. Join the rally at www.EveroneGetsSick.org to learn more about paid sick days, and urge your senators and representative to support this legislation.

Everyone gets sick. Not everyone has time to get better.