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(Washington, DC) The NAACP issued the following statement today, in response to the Kansas Health Care Freedom Amendment that was proposed today in the Kansas State Legislature.

This afternoon, members of the Kansas House and Senate will introduce a proposed Amendment to the Kansas State Constitution, called the “Kansas Health Care Freedom Act”. This proposed Amendment seeks to prevent the implementation of any national Health Care reform measures within the state of Kansas.

“This amendment is outrageous and does nothing to address the current health care crisis. The tactics being used by Representatives Landwehr and Mast and Senator Cook are the very same tactics perfected by segregationist Dixiecrats of the 1960’s,” stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “In the last century the Dixiecrats tried to obstruct the rights of Black Americans, and now in this century they are trying to obstruct the rights of everyday working Americans. It was wrong then and it’s wrong now. All who believe every Americans right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must stand up and fight egregious pieces of legislation like this, we cannot let the greedy insurance company CEO’s trump the needs of patients and physicians.”

The legislation would add a new article to the State Constitution, which would read, “A law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system or purchase health insurance”.

“The way to achieve real health care reform is not to preempt federal law, nor use political gamesmanship; this legislation will have an adverse effect on everyday working people and will put us further away from achieving comprehensive health care reform. Over 880,000 African Americans have died in the past decade due to the disparities in our health care system and having access to quality affordable health care is not something that should be reserved for the wealthy, or the few. It should be for everyone, and that’s not the case today, and will not be the case if this amendment is passed,” concluded Jealous.

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Reposted from KTKA.com

“I’m sorry that I offended you, I wish that I had made some choices of different things,” says State Representative Bill Otto of LeRoy.

The NAACP has a little piece of mind after confronting Rep. Otto.

Glenda Overstreet; Vice President of the NAACP Kansas State Conference says Kansans aren’t the only people who were offend by his You Tube post. She says, “people outside of the state saying you know, you have a state representative that would voice these opinions. So people clearly were offended, not only in the state of Kansas, but around the state of Kansas in the regional area.”

Otto used the term redneck in his rap and wore a hat that said “Opossum the other dark meat.” Choices that he would later regret. ” I wish I had chosen a different hat, I wish I had called it hillbilly instead of redneck,” Otto says.

Retired member of the U.S. Army Lt. Colonel William Richards felt it was important to attend the forum. He says after fighting and giving up so much for his country he wants his son and grand kids to have the same freedoms he served for.

Richards says, “the nation is going back to the fundamental principals provided by our founding fathers and this is basically what I’m concerned about. Equal opportunity, equal respect.”

Otto says he’s thankful for the opportunity to meet with the NAACP. “There’s many issues that I have cared about and worked for that I would like this organization to continue to be with me and to continue to be supportive and try to get some common goals accomplished,” he said.

Otto feels both parties have finally reached an understanding. He says he intends to leave up his You Tube post. He also feels that if he had chosen to use the word Hillbilly instead of Redneck there would have been no controversy.

This effort was led by the Topeka Branch Branch NAACP. On behalf of the Kansas State Conference of NAACP Branches, we would like to acknowledge and applaud President Ben Scott and the members of the Topeka Branch NAACP for their leadership and vigilance on this effort…

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Several members of the Kansas State Conference of the NAACP and regional activists attended a meeting with Tom Perez; Assistant Attorney General of the United States and head of DOJ Civil Rights Division, to discuss the strengthening of the agency’s Civil Rights enforcement efforts. In attendance were Kevin Myles; President of the Kansas State Conference, Henry Lyons; President of the Olathe Branch, Katrina Robertson; President of the Johnson County Branch, Loris Jones; State Conference Education Committee Chair, Former State Conference President Charles Jean-Baptiste, and Mary Ann Flounder. Also in attendance Nimrod Chapel; Political Affairs Chairman for the Missouri State Conference, Marvin Szneler of  the Jewish Community Relations Bureau, Gwen Grant of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, Mona Lee Perry of the American Indian Council, Alvin Sykes of the Emmett Till Justice Campaign, Jessica Piedra of the Coalition of Hispanic Organizations,  and several representatives of the US Attorney’s Office and the Kansas City Human Relations Department.

The Kansas Delegation called for the agency to focus additional attention on:

• Child Welfare disparities in removal and reunification rates
• Non-Compliance of States with the National Voter Registration Act of 94
• Unitary Status/Re-segregation and the inequitable distribution of talent and teaching experience in recently desegregated districts
• Ricci Vs DeStephano and its impact on Title VII enforcement
• Wren Vs the United States and why we believe statistical Racial Profiling data rises to the level of a 14th amendment claim
• The underfunding of Public Defender’s offices and the resulting effect on poor and low income peoples ability to obtain adequate representation
• And Employment Discrimination; namely how shifting interpretations of the term “similarly situated” creates a practically insurmountable standard that makes racial discrimination cases almost impossible to win.

We were also given direct contact numbers for the registering of complaints and in the coming days, we will be re-filing complaints that were overlooked or dismissed by the previous administration; foremost among these – the case of Rowana Riggs…

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