'Star' On 'Breaking The Cycle Of Poverty' At CWU

February 23, 2004

Contact: Leslie J. Webb (509-963-1685/fax 509-963-3561/e-mail: webble@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- Star Parker, a prominent social policy consultant and founder and president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), will discuss "Breaking the Cycle of Poverty" at a Central Washington University presentation slated for Thursday, March 11, at 7 p.m. in the Samuelson Union Building (SUB) Theatre.

According to conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, Star Parker is "the brightest light of the black conservative movement," and "a woman to watch." Parker is a vocal advocate of personal responsibility, faith-based initiatives and free market in her speeches and presentations on racism and poverty.

Founded in 1995, Parker's nonprofit CURE center helps address the impact of social policies on America's inner cities with the belief that faith and free market principles are key to curing poverty there. Under Parker's leadership, CURE was instrumental in developing the 1996 Federal Welfare Reform Bill. Parker's testimony was instrumental in making time limits and work requirements part of federal law.

"Star Parker's is the unique voice in the national dialogue on poverty and racism," says Leslie Webb, director of the CWU diversity education center, which is a co-sponsor of the event. "We are pleased to offer a different perspective on these important issues."

Prior to becoming a social activist, Parker was a single welfare mother of two in Los Angeles. She returned to college, received a bachelor's degree in marketing, and launched an urban Christian magazine.

Although the 1992 Los Angeles riots destroyed her business, Parker claims that event actually served to refuel her focus on faith-based and free market alternatives to empower the lives of the poor. As a public policy consultant, Parker now regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress and is a national expert on CNN, MSNBC and FOX News. Parker's latest book, "Uncle Sam's Plantation" was released in 2003 by Thomas Nelson. For the book, subtitled "How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It," Parker contends that America has two economic systems: capitalism for the rich and socialism for the poor. In response, Parker offers a five-step approach that would allow the nation's poor to go from "entitlement and slavery to empowerment and freedom."

The diversity education center and the College Republicans are co-sponsoring Parker's CWU presentation. For more information, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 963-1685, or for hearing impaired TDD (509) 963-2143.