when pigs fly … expect the unbelievable

Courtesy of the Mississippi Commission on the Status of Women’s Annual Report 2008:

• The average child support payment is less than $600 a month.
• Single-parent families represent 11% of the families in Mississippi but 65% of the families living in poverty.  Eighty-five % of these parents who retain custody of children are women.
• Forty-two (42) % of Mississippi’s children live in a household with only one parent

As many of you know, Mississippi has statutory child support guidelines which Chancellors’ follow in ordering child support from non-custodial parents. This statute is found at 43-19-101 MS Code Ann. (1972).   This legislation was due to be reviewed for appropriateness every 4 year beginning in 1994 (e.g., 1994, 1998, 2002, etc.) but the Commission was unable to find any report.  After allowing for certain deductions from income (which are statutory), the rate applied to net income of the non-custodial parent in order to determine child support is:

14% of net income for 1 child

20% for 2 children

22% for 3 children

24% for 4 children

26% for 5 or more children.

There is certainly no “one size fits all” way to distribute income from custodial and non-custodial parents for appropriate support of their children.  Nor is there much of a way to enforce that the funds are being expended by the custodial parent in the best interests of the child.  But poverty is poverty and we in Mississippi have more than our fair share.  We can lift up the next generation only by lifting the current generation from poverty and generating interest in and support for education that will sustain these children in a manner that will allow them to live out of poverty as adults.

I have no answers.

You may not be interested in signing up for the RTSV group; you may be a little tame for that.  But it does not follow that you should do nothing.  For example, Mississippi has a Commission on the Status of Women that is open to ALL women in this state.  The Commission was created in 2001 by HB 797.  Commissioners are political appointees:  4 appointed by the Governor, 3 appointed by each of the Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House and Attorney General.  The Commission’s vision is the improvement of the overall quality of life of women in Mississippi, particularly in the areas of education, health, economics, political participation and race relations.

In accordance with the legislation under which it was created, the Mississippi Commission on the Status of Women is empowered to:

• Conduct research and study issues affecting the status of women;
• Advise and consult with the executive and legislative branches of government;
• Publish periodic reports documenting the status and concerns of women;
• Act as an information center on the status of women;
• Serve as a liaison between government, private interest groups, and the general public regarding the status of women;
• Recommend policies and make recommendations to public and private groups and persons concerned with any issue related to improving the status of women;
• Promote consideration of qualified women for all levels of government positions;
• Assess programs and practices in state agencies as to how they affect women; and
• Report annually to the Governor and the Legislature on the Commission’s activities and findings.

You can obtain more information on the Mississippi Commission on the Status of Women by visiting www.msstatusofwomen.org or contacting the executive director at mscomstatusofwomen2@gmail.com.

I will post the date and time of the next meeting so you can plan to attend.

I’ve got to tell you…this has great appeal.  RTSV stands for Rock the Slut Vote, a group created by Susan McMillan Emry.  Catherine Cooney at Times suggests that RTSV is the sequel to Rush Limbaugh’s “slut” comments about the Georgetown law student who testified before congress about contraceptive rights; it’s “The Sluts Strike Back”, she says.

This follows on the remote heels of something I absolutely missed in Toronto last summer.  Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Toronto for an “organized ‘slutwalk’” — after a Toronto constable told a safety class that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”

Emry’s website was created March 22.  Take a look if you are remotely interested.  It might surprise you.

We are fast approaching the second Ready To Run seminar to be held in Jackson.  It will be held on June 22-23.  Please log on to www.stennis.msstate.edu if you are interested in more information.

Research demonstrates that in order to change an agenda, a minority group must have a presence in a legislative body which exceeds 30%.  With respect to women in government, a few patterns persist that must be changed.  For example, there is no place in the world where women enjoy equal representation with men in government.  There are only 22 countries in the world where women represent 25% or more of elected legislatures.  And these are primarily countries that enforce explicit policies promoting equality — most notably in Scandinavia.

Recent studies suggest that when women are elected in sufficient numbers they introduce different perceptions of the norms for appropriate governance. But in only a few countries have women achieved a “critical mass” of elected representation.

FIRSTS:

FIRST woman prime minister in the world:  Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka (1960)

FIRST black woman prime minister of an independent state:  Elisabeth Domitien, Central African Republic (1975)

FIRST country to have a majority of female government ministers:  Sweden (1999)

Last week, the Washington & Lee Law School appointed the first woman dean in its 145 year history.  Her name is Nora V. Demleitner and she is the law school’s 17th dean.  Those of you who know me realize that W & L is my husband’s alma mater and an incredibly historic school.  It was founded in 1749 as Liberty Hall Academy, and it took the name Washington University in honor of the endowment of $20,000 by George Washington in 1796.  The institution’s name was later amended to Washington and Lee, in honor of Robert E. Lee, one of its greatest and most effective presidents.  It’s current president, Ken Ruscio, was a social brother of Sigma Chi, my husband’s house when he was a student.  Ruscio is the 26th president of W & L.

Dean Demleitner is currently Dean and Professor of Law at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.  She is a native of the Federal Republic of Germany.  She holds a bachelor’s degree from Bates College, a law degree from Yale, and a Master’s Degree in International and Comparative law from the Georgetown University Law Center.  She clerked for US Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito when he served as a member of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Demleitner has special expertise in sentencing and collateral sentencing consequences. She is the lead author of Sentencing Law and Policy, a major casebook on sentencing law. She also is an editor of the Federal Sentencing Reporter, and serves on the executive editorial board of the American Journal of Comparative Law.

She has also had extensive international experience, having lectured and served as visiting professor at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and the Sant’ Anna Institute of Advanced Research in Pisa, Italy.  She has been a research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Germany.  She has also been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School and St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami.

Demleitner is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Washington and Lee, a private liberal arts school in Lexington, Virginia, blessed with a strong endowment. was  all male until 1972, when women were admitted to the the law school; the first female undergraduates enrolled in 1985.  It is famous for it’s student honor code, a legacy of President Lee.