The Liberal Arts Forum at Elon University will host a debate about welfare reform between Cheri Honkala, a former welfare recipient, and Reginald Jones, an advocate for reform, at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 10 in Whitley Auditorium, located on campus. The debate is free and open to the public.
Honkala is director of Kensington Welfare Rights Union, a grass-roots organization of welfare recipients. She also serves as co-chair of the National Welfare Rights Union. A former welfare recipient and single mother, Honkala speaks out against welfare reform and poverty as a violation of economic human rights. She is a leader of the Economic Human Rights Campaign, which attempts to hold the United States accountable for economic human rights abuses caused by downsizing, poverty and welfare reform. Honkala has also written “Taking it Back,” a one-person play about her experience as a homeless, pregnant woman.
Jones is an entertainer and lecturer who has been a frequent critic of welfare and its role in American society. He has been a guest on major network news talk shows and hosts his own talk show, “Generation Now,” on the Radio America Network. He is a frequent speaker and lecturer on college campuses on the topic of race relations and welfare. He argues that black Americans have been misled and misinformed by the civil rights movement, and that they have been tricked into believing they cannot succeed without government assistance.