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Solidarity a principle of Catholic Social Teaching "We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a shrinking world. At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Pope Paul VI taught that "if you want peace, work for justice." The Gospel calls us to be peacemakers. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict." --The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, explaining Catholic Social Teaching The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement in November 2007 called "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship." This is the document that will serve as this year's "official" guidance from the Church on how to be civically engaged as a faithful Catholic. The Bishops are obviously encouraging every faithful voting Catholic to read the full statement, and we hope you'll do that as well. We call attention to statement 53 below: 53. We are one human family, whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions and requires us to eradicate racism and address the extreme poverty and disease plaguing so much of the world. Solidarity also includes the Scriptural call to welcome the stranger among us -- including immigrants seeking work, a safe home, education for their children, and a decent life for their families. In light of the Gospel's invitation to be peacemakers, our commitment to solidarity with our neighbors -- at home and abroad -- also demands that we promote peace and pursue justice in a world marred by terrible violence and conflict. Decisions on the use of force should be guided by traditional moral criteria and undertaken only as a last resort. As Pope Paul VI taught: "If you want peace, work for justice." (World Day of Peace Message, January 1, 1972). Senator Obama will best advance the civil rights agenda -- eliminating justice system inequities in prosecutions and incarcerations and ridding our nation of the shame of torture -- and faciliate a new kind of dialogue on race in America. Senator Obama will take the most compassionate and prudent approach toward immigration issues. Who will best advance the civil rights agenda -- eliminating justice system inequities in prosecutions and incarcerations and ridding our nation of the shame of torture -- and facilitate a new kind of dialogue on race in America? F R O M   T H E   B L U E P R I N T   F O R   C H A N G E AT A GLANCE Strengthen Civil Rights Enforcement Obama will staff the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department with lawyers who prosecute civil rights violations, employment discrimination, and hate crimes instead of political cronies. Protect the Right to Vote Obama will remove discriminatory barriers to the right to vote. Promote Fairness in the Criminal Justice System Obama will work to ban racial profiling, eliminate disparities in criminal sentencing. THE PROBLEM Pay Inequity Continues For every $1.00 earned by a man, the average woman receives only 77 cents, while African American women only get 67 cents and Latinas receive only 57 cents. Hate Crimes on the Rise The number of hate crimes increased nearly 8 percent to 7,700 incidents in 2006. Efforts Continue to Suppress the Vote A recent study discovered numerous organized efforts to intimidate, mislead and suppress minority voters. Disparities Continue to Plague Criminal Justice System African Americans and Hispanics are more than twice as likely as whites to be searched, arrested, or subdued with force when stopped by police. Disparities in drug sentencing laws, like the differential treatment of crack as opposed to powder cocaine, are unfair. BARACK OBAMA'S PLAN Strengthen Civil Rights Enforcement Obama will reverse the politicization that has occurred in the Bush Administration's Department of Justice. He will put an end to the ideological litmus tests used to fill positions within the Civil Rights Division. Combat Employment Discrimination Obama will work to overturn the Supreme Court's recent ruling that curtails racial minorities' and women's ability to challenge pay discrimination. Obama will also pass the Fair Pay Act to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. Expand Hate Crimes Statutes Obama will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice's Criminal Section. End Deceptive Voting Practices Obama will sign into law his legislation that establishes harsh penalties for those who have engaged in voter fraud and provides voters who have been misinformed with accurate and full information so they can vote. End Racial Profiling Obama will ban racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal incentives to state and local police departments to prohibit the practice. Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Support Obama will provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society. Obama will also create a prison-to-work incentive program to improve ex-offender employment and job retention rates. Eliminate Sentencing Disparities Obama believes the disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated. Expand Use of Drug Courts Obama will give first-time, non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior. OBAMA RECORD Record of Advocacy Obama has worked to promote civil rights and fairness in the criminal justice system throughout his career. As a community organizer, Obama helped 150,000 African Americans register to vote. As a civil rights lawyer, Obama litigated employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and voting rights cases. As a state senator, Obama passed one of the country's first racial profiling law and helped reform a broken death penalty system. And in the U.S. Senate, Obama has been a leading advocate for protecting the right to vote, helping to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act and leading the opposition against discriminatory barriers to voting. For More Information about Barack's Plan Read the Plan (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/votingrights/) Read the Speech on Civil Rights (http://www.barackobama.com/2007/09/28/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_26.php) Read 'A More Perfect Union' -- the Philadelphia speech on race (http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords/) "It is illegal and unwise for the President to disregard international human rights treaties that have been ratified by the United States Senate, including and especially the Geneva Conventions. The Commander-in-Chief power does not allow the President to defy those treaties. Source: Boston Globe questionnaire on Executive Power Dec 20, 2007 Those who worked on civil rights in the past realized that] to achieve racial equality was not simply good for African-Americans, but it was good for America as a whole; that we could not be what we might be as a nation unless we healed the brutal wounds of slavery and Jim Crow. Now, we have made enormous progress, but the progress we have made is not good enough. As many have already mentioned, we live in a society that remains separated in terms of life opportunities for African-Americans, for Latinos, and the rest of the nation. And it is absolutely critical for us to recognize that there are going to be responsibilities on the part of African-Americans and other groups to take personal responsibility to rise up out of the problems that we face. But there has also got to be a social responsibility, there has to be a sense of mutual responsibility, and there's got to be political will in the White House to make that happen." -- Barack Obama (Source: 2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University, June 28, 2007) "If we know that in our criminal justice system, African-Americans and whites, for the same crime, receive--are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, receive very different sentences. That is something that we have to talk about. But that's a substantive issue and it has to do with how do we pursue racial justice. If I am president, I will have a civil rights division that is working with local law enforcement so that they are enforcing laws fairly and justly. But I would expect a white president or a woman president should want to do the same thing, because I believe the pursuit of racial equality, of the perfection of this union, is not just a particular special interest issue of the African-American community. That is how all of us are going to move forward. And to the extent that we don't deal with those issues, those longstanding, deep-seated issues, we will continue to be hampered. We will be competing with the world with one hand tied behind our backs." -- Barack Obama (Source: 2008 Congressional Black Caucus Democratic debate, Jan. 21, 2008) "I have asserted a firm conviction -- a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people -- that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans.... And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.... In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper. In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us." -- Barack Obama (Source: 'A More Perfect Union' speech on race in Philadelphia, Mar. 18, 2008) View Video: Obama Commemorates Civil Rights View Video: Barack Obama speech in Selma, Alabama View Video: Barack Obama on Justice Inequalities View Video: Obama against torture View Video: 'A More Perfect Union' -- Barack Obama's speech on race in Philadelphia Who will take the most compassionate and prudent approach toward immigration issues? F R O M   T H E   B L U E P R I N T   F O R   C H A N G E IMMIGRATION AT A GLANCE Comprehensive Reform Barack Obama has fought for comprehensive immigration reform that secures our border, fixes our broken immigration bureaucracy and puts the 12 million undocumented immigrants on a responsible path to citizenship. Commitment If Congress does not act in the interim, Obama will revive immigration reform in the first year of his presidency. THE PROBLEM Undocumented Population is Exploding The number of undocumented immigrants in the country has increased more than 40 percent since 2000. Every year, more than a half-million people come illegally or illegally overstay their visas. Immigration Bureaucracy is Broken The immigration bureaucracy is broken and overwhelmed, forcing legal immigrants to wait years for applications. Immigration Raids are Ineffective Despite a sevenfold increase in recent years, immigration raids only netted 3,600 arrests in 2006 and have placed all the burdens of a broken system onto immigrant families. BARACK OBAMA'S PLAN Create Secure Borders Obama wants to preserve the integrity of our borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry. Improve Our Immigration System Obama believes we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill. Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally Obama will remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. Bring People Out of the Shadows Obama supports a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens. Work with Mexico Obama believes we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration. OBAMA RECORD Crack Down on Employers Obama championed a proposal to create a system so employers can verify that their employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S. Fix the Bureaucracy Obama joined Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) to introduce the Citizenship Promotion Act to ensure that immigration application fees are both reasonable and fair. Obama also introduced legislation that passed the Senate to improve the speed and accuracy of FBI background checks. Respect Families Obama introduced amendments to put greater emphasis on keeping immigrant families together. For More Information about Barack's Plan Read the Plan (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration_and_the_border/) "I think that if they are illegal, then they should not be able to work in this country. That is part of the principle of comprehensive reform, which we're going to crack down on employers who are hiring them and taking advantage of them. But I also want to give them a pathway, so that they can earn citizenship, earn a legal status, start learning English, pay a significant fine, and go to the back of the line. But they can then stay here and they can have the ability to enforce a minimum wage that they're paid, make sure the worker safety laws are available; make sure that they can join a union." -- Barack Obama (Source: 2007 Democratic radio debate on NPR, Dec. 4, 2007) "We've got to fix a broken immigration system not just for the undocumented but for legal immigrants. Because the backlogs are horrendous, the fees have been increased and doubled and tripled, and as a consequence more and more people are having difficulty just trying to reunify their families even if they're going through the legal pathways, and that puts more pressure on people to go into the illegal system. That is something we're going to try to pass." -- Barack Obama (Source: 2007 Democratic primary debate on Univision in Spanish, Sept. 9, 2007) "We have to make sure that employers are held accountable, because right now employers are taking advantage of undocumented workers. And we've got to give a pathway to citizenship. But people have to earn it. They're going to have to pay a fine. They've got to make sure that they're learning English. They've got to go to the back of the line so that they're not rewarded for having broken the law." -- Barack Obama (Source: 2007 AFL-CIO Democratic primary forum, Aug. 8, 2007) "I think it's possible for us to be a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. That's what we've always been and that's what we have to continue to be. And that's why I've worked in the Senate and will work hard as president to make sure that we've got comprehensive immigration reform that has strong border security. We need to make sure that it's orderly, that we don't have thousands of people pouring over our borders or overstaying our visas." -- Barack Obama (Source: 2007 AFL-CIO Democratic primary forum, Aug. 8, 2007) "We want to have a situation in which those who are already here, are playing by the rules, are willing to pay a fine and go through a rigorous process should have a pathway to legalization. Most Americans will support that if they have some sense that the border is also being secured. What they don't want is a situation in which there is a pathway to legalization and you've got another several hundred thousand of folks coming in every year. That is a central position we should be able to arrive at." -- Barack Obama (Source: 2007 Dem. debate at Saint Anselm College, Jun. 3, 2007) View Video: Barack Obama: Immigration View Video: Presidential Debate 6/3/2007 - Immigration View Video: California Debate: Humane Immigration Policy Contact us.    Register to vote. 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