Born On This Day- April 10th... Liberal Pioneer Frances Perkins

History seems to have forgotten poor Frances Perkins she was one of the most influential

women of the 20^th century. If they knew their US History, the Right Wing Religious Conservatives heads would explode if they understood the story of the life of this accomplished woman. She is a Current Republican’s worst nightmare.

Perkins was named Secretary of Labor by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. She was the first female cabinet secretary; she dedicated her life to improving the lives of American working people even as she faced challenging & complex family concerns of her own. Perkins’ ideals would become the building blocks for the most important social welfare legislation in US history: unemployment compensation, child labor laws, & the 40 hour work week.

She started her job as secretary at the apex of the Great Depression. Perkins pushed for massive public works projects that created millions of jobs for unemployed workers. She reengaged the labor movement, boosting living standards across the country. As head of the Immigration Service, she fought to bring European refugees to the safety in USA. Her greatest triumph was helping creating Social Security.

She accomplished all these progressive programs for FDR’s administration while confronting family issue including a frequently institutionalized husband with severe psychiatric problems & her only child’s Manic pression. She was in a deeply secret relationship with Mary Harriman Rumsey (sister of Averell Harriman). The pair lived together in DC, hosting parties for the famous & powerful. It makes me wonder if the couple played softball with Eleanor Roosevelt & Lorena Hickok. Rumsey died in a riding accident in 1934. Perkins grieved by throwing herself into work on her progressive reforms.

Perkins is depicted in a WPA mural displayed in the Maine Department of Labor headquarters, the native state of both of her parents. In March, 2011, Maine's Republican governor, Paul LePage, ordered the removal of the mural. A spokesperson for the governor said they received complaints about the mural from state business officials & from an anonymous source charging that it was reminiscent of “communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.” LePage also ordered the name of conference room in the State Department of Labor be changed, the room was named after Perkins.

Suspension of Classes and Government Work in NCR declared by the Malacañang, DepEd

Suspension of classes in colleges as well as cancellation of government work in the National Capital Region starting 1 p.m. have been declared by the Palace today upon recommendation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

"Pres Spokesperson: Upon recommendation of NDRRMC, the ES has declared suspension of college classes & gov work in NCR effective 1pm." the Malacañang tweeted.

The Department of Education has earlier suspended classes in Kindergarten to High School levels in NCR. Check the details HERE.

Words To Reflect On

Senator John F Kennedy, while running for president in 1960:

“I believe in an America where the separation of church & state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the president, should he be Catholic, how to act, & no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, & where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him…. I believe in a president whose views on religion are his own private affair, neither imposed upon him by the nation, nor imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office… This year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed; in other years it has been & may someday be again, a Jew, or a Quaker, or a Unitarian, or a Baptist. It was Virginia’s harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that led to Jefferson’s statute of religious freedom. Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you, until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril.”