THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 23, 1995 TAG: 9509230255
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Elaine D. Johnson looked in the mirror on Thursday and steam-pressed a few more curls in her hair.
A mother of four children who receives welfare, Johnson has been looking deep in the mirror for the past four years. So even before all this welfare reform business got going in Washington and Richmond, Johnson had begun reforming herself.
She got a part-time job as a tutorial aide at Ruffner Middle School. She won a PTA post. She enrolled at Tidewater Community College.
On Thursday, Johnson decided there was another necessary step: registering to vote.
``It's time for me to have a voice,'' said Johnson, 35. ``We need to have a say about the people who will hold these power positions, especially because what they do affects our kids.''
Since President Clinton's campaign promise ``to end welfare as we know it,'' many welfare mothers have grumbled.
At home, Gov. Allen's fantastical reform ideas have only turned up the volume: ``What private sector jobs?'' ``The children will suffer most.''
Welfare mothers like Johnson eagerly embrace the challenge of reform. Some aspects of the effort have helped them nurture self-esteem and recognize potential they never knew they had.
But they detect problems, as I do: mainly, a lack of compassion for children. Consequently, many wised up to the need to have their say in reform matters. The ballot may be the best say.
It's too bad that reform had to sound the clarion call.
Apathy is a symptom of the culture welfare has created. It generally discourages personal and civic responsibility for one's lot in life. The result is spiritual disenfranchisement that dismisses political action.
But Johnson and her cohorts have the potential to be a powerful voting bloc that can influence elections and legislation on all issues.
So in the name of the great James Brown, girlfriends, ``Get up,'' get registered by Oct. 10, and get to the polls on Nov. 7.
Johnson patted her curls, wanting to look nice for this occasion, her first trip to the Norfolk City Registrar's Office since the 1980 Reagan-Carter election.
A seriousness held Johnson's sculpted, angular features as she filled out the application.
Guess who came to the counter to assist her? Phyllis Johnson of Tidewater Gardens is no relation to Elaine Johnson. But like her, she was once a welfare mother hellbent on reforming herself.
Since August, Phyllis Johnson, whose very smile seems to arouse the joy of voting, has worked in the Registrar's Office, computing, assisting citizens and earning the paycheck that has taken her off welfare. She registered for the first time the day she started.
Others are getting up.
In Portsmouth, Louis Ruffin has been for some time a regular at the registrar's. He signs up folks at Ida Barbour community center on the second Monday and third Friday of each month from 1 to 5 p.m.
And civic leader Thelma Hardy has also been deputized to register voters in the Dale Homes where she lives and elsewhere.
``I don't think you are doing your job as a role model to your children if you are not voting,'' says Hardy. ``You can't sit around and complain about what someone else is doing, if you don't voice your one vote. These women don't realize how much power they have.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON, Staff
Elaine D. Johnson sees voting in November as the next step in her
own personal reform plan.
KEYWORDS: VOTER REGISTRATION by CNB