Fawn Townsend
Posted on 08/18/2007 8:24:30 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Fawn Townsend Delivers the Democratic Radio Address
Fawn Townsend, a waitress and minimum wage earner from Raleigh, North Carolina, will deliver the Democratic radio address this Saturday, August 18, 2007.
Transcript of Radio Address:
"Good morning. My name is Fawn Townsend and I am proud to deliver the Democratic radio address this week.
"I am a waitress working the night shift at a restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina and- like millions of other Americans- I have tried to make ends meet on the minimum wage. And as anyone in my position knows, that is a very tough job. You can't pay all your bills. You struggle every day, but still find yourself falling behind.
"Despite the fact that more Americans are working harder while earning less, it took ten years for our representatives in Washington to raise the minimum wage, with Republicans in Congress blocking it along the way.
"But during the last election, the people spoke out loud and clear. We elected Democrats across the country who took the lead in passing several minimum wage increases at the state level and improving the lives of America's working families.
"Because the new Democratic Congress kept their word and increased the federal minimum wage last month, many more of us today have a better shot at achieving the American Dream. Millions of Americans now have a little more in their paychecks to help pay for basic necessities like food and clothing. And now more Americans can save to build a better future for themselves and their families.
"While the pay increase may not seem like much, it will create ripples in the lives of so many people. More than six million children whose parents earn the minimum wage will benefit with the earnings increase. When you add it all up, the resulting pay raise of $4,400 per year will help families pay for child care, housing and food. In recognition of their brave service to our country, Democrats in Congress passed a pay raise for our brave men and women in the military, helping them and their families make ends meet.
"With the money I earn, I hope to buy a used car. With a car, I might then be able to pick up more work so I have enough income to live independently- and no longer rely on my good friends who I live with now. And that is only the beginning.
"In order to truly get ahead and reach my life-long goal of becoming a nurse, I hope to attend college in the next couple of years. And thankfully, Democrats have made education a top priority and passed legislation that makes higher education more affordable, which helps make my goal no longer insurmountable.
"This year, Democrats in Congress provided aid and helped make the student loan system work for students rather than the banks. Democrats also passed a child tax credit to help parents put money away for college for their children.
"I believe that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to earn a decent living in our country. Democrats agree with that thinking and they have shown that raising the minimum wage is just the first step.
"Our Democrats in Congress are dedicated to getting millions of low-income children the health care they need by recently passing the Children's Health Insurance Program. Unfortunately, President Bush has threatened to veto it. On important issues like health care, we can't afford to put politics ahead of the well being of our children. Everyone should contact their members of Congress and urge them to support the children's health program and stop any veto, like I have.
"I'm grateful that our Democratic leaders in Congress are taking our country in a new direction. They have accomplished more this year than Republicans accomplished in the past six years combined - including giving people like me a long overdue raise.
"I'm Fawn Townsend from Raleigh, North Carolina and this has been the Democratic Radio Address.
"Thank you for listening and enjoy your weekend."
What a whiner..........
Get an education and a better job. No one is holding your wages back but you.
Plus under reported and under taxed tips.
Another person who wants to stick her hand out and have the government dictate her wages.
There are plenty of working class people who don't want their lives and potential restricted by the socialists in the Democrat party.
As usual, this Dim Poster Girl will likely turn out to be a little different than is being claimed.
GET AN EDUCATION, YOU DUNCE! THEN YOU, TOO, CAN BE AN EVIL RICH PERSON!.................
Proper Title: Woman Used by the Democratic Party
Link: Fawn Townsend's appearance in Associated Press article several weeks ago....
Link above is from a JULY 21 article, I believe.
Feels like it’s 1917 Russia.
she makes the minimum wage because she is........
I think she should apply for some positions at the DNC — let’s see if they’ll help her.
no pics?
Weird. Zabaserach shows no results for Fawn Townsend in Raleigh...
You didn't so, now you pay the price. Nobody made you not study in HS and not go to college. You rather wanted to party and skip school with your "friends". Where are they now? Cleaning up in the stock market?..........or cleaning up the cars at the car wash?...............
This is why the Democrats are so dangerous to the continued existence of freedom. Emotion trumps reason at every turn.
The article/address lends credibility to Fawn because she makes minimum wage. However she is probably doing quite well.
You nailed it. If she is even minimally good at what she does, then she makes much more than minimum wage. Unless the is the type person who believes she is entitled to a certain tip percentage regardless of the way she treats the customer.
If she’s a waitress, she gets min. wage + tips. lots of servers, having been one myself, do not declare their full amount in tips and thus get tax free income.
A slow waitress with a crummy attitude?
One of the GOP presidential candidates needs to blow this response out of the water.
And if you take her minimum wage and ad her tips, what does she make per hour, huh?
A typical liberal was spewing in chatroom one day about all the jobs being outsourced overseas including his.
I said, “You have three choices, you can re-train and get a new job.
2. You can move overseas and keep your same job ( with him being a whiner I hoped he took this one)
3. I said you can think like a Republican and develop a company that helps oursource jobs overseas and make a fortune.
He left in a huff! LOL.
My teenage daughters are busgirls in a dinner only restaurant. They make $3.35 an hour plus a flat rate of $35 in tips each and every night. This comes out to about $11 an hour. I don’t think this new law would affect them very much. Did the minimum wage for tip employees go up as well?
If Fawn was a good waitress she could get a job at a better place, the people I knew that used to wait tables made a miminum of $150.00 on a slow night, on the weekends I knew people who could walk out with at leas $300.00, not too shabby.
""Congress didn’t raise the minimum cash wage for tipped employees, which is $2.13 an hour for employers in states that follow federal law. Some lawmakers urged Congress to raise the minimum wage yearly through an automatic escalator tied to inflation — as several states have done — but it didn’t make that change.
Here's the link...
http://www.restaurant.org/news/story.cfm?ID=602
Anecdotal evidence is easy to find if it supports what your position is, even, if it is one in a million.
Minimum wage in North Carolina is already at $2.43 for tipped employees, so Fawn gains nothing, as I expected. Add Fawn to the long list of fake mouthpieces for the liberal left. Someone contact Ann Coulter!
Fawn lied, Democrats cried?
Wow. Back when I was earning minumum wage and striving to better myself, I couldn’t have imagined going on national radio to “teach” anyone anything (except maybe why it sucks to be broke). I was too busy trying to learn from those more accomplished than me.
Congress could raise the minimum wage to $50/hr and it wouldn’t help her. Her Democrat bigwigs want to bring in millions of cheap illegals who will be hired by greedy companies unwilling to pay any decent wage.
Somebody ask her why she belongs to a party that wants to give her job to some illegal alien.
Facts for Fawn........http://www.dol.gov/esa/programs/whd/state/tipped.htm#NorthCarolina
This is so pathetic. The President’s radio address was about national security and national resolve, and this is the best the dems can do: a waitress whining about minimum wage.
NPR:"The movie is Waitress, about a diner, its staff and one young woman's belief in the curative powers of pastry. It won rave reviews at the Sundance film festival — but its writer and director, Adrienne Shelley, was killed before it could be released. " "Andy Griffith says he was attracted to his Waitress character, Old Joe, in part because he's "firm in his beliefs." "And that firmness is what turns the picture around at the end," Griffith says."
What NPR leaves out (Waitress) is that the "victim" scenario in your above story: that the storyline that "Fawn Townsend Delivers DRA" does not apply in the life of the "Waitress". Even though faced with an abusive husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto), finding herself pregnant (husband tampers with protection), still working long hours in a small town diner (owned by cranky Joe aka Griffin) turning over her tips each day to said husband, but always tucking a little away for "when the day comes, naming imaginary pies of the moment - "I Hate My Husband Pie" etc..."..this "waitress" has more determination to become a success holding on to a "plan" for the future. The PG13 Movie works in its approach on social issues of this genre. American flag big and bold in the background when the "blue ribbon" is attained for the "best pie". So to achieve the blue ribbon in life, one struggles often against extremely difficult odds, as the Waitress by Adrienne Shelley, Griffin, Keri Russell and supporting cast skillfully seeks to deliver. The film, incidentally, is not "lightweight" in subject matter as a potential viewer might think, when choosing or renting a film.
Smaller theaters, so smaller distribution, seem to carry Waitress but was in the top five at one ratings pt.
Summary: Fawn Townsend vs. the film: Waitress by Adrienne Shelley.
No company can compete by paying employees more than they are worth and no competent employee will settle very long being paid less than they are worth.
The Democrats she praises have done her no favor by increasing the wages of those less competent than she is. If she was worth the extra pay she would have earned it soon enough without their help. Now she must settle for still being among the minimally competent while she and everyone else pays the higher price for the minimum service.
Shelly (The Waitress) was another victim of an illegal working in this country. The Times just blammed it on "construction noise complaint".
the silly aszzed cow should blame her PARENTS for naming her FAWN!!!
Unless you live in American Samoa. Then Pelosi has a financial advantage to keep the workers poor.
Let’s see, along with Heinz I now avoid buying Del Monte products. Including Starkist.
Wait a minute, if I remember correctly Raleigh has a living wage and I highly doubt she was making the min. federal wage.
Two thoughts:
1) Didn’t Hillary stiff a waitress in upstate NY when running for the senate?
2) Wouldn’t it be poetic if Fawn’s (conservative) employer felt that she was a liability to the establishment and released her from minimum wage servitude.
But if she works as a full service waitress, yeah she gets tips. A $30 check for two at a full service eatery gets about 5 bucks in tips around here. Depending on the kind of place it is, that might be shared with other people on the floor, so lets say the waitress gets $2.50 a table. Four tables an hour would be ten bucks on top of the base wage. That's about the same as the journey level staff I supervise in my parts department, a job more demanding than slinging hash, and just a bit less than I was getting in that position not long ago, with over 25 years experience.
So it's not an altogether bad career choice for someone who chooses to opt out of higher education and start earning a living right away. But one has to keep him or herself up appearance wise, do a good job, and move up in the business, to the $75 and $100 checks and beyond. Even in this town of 150,000 there are probably a few hundred jobs at that level, and staying employed is not at all difficult so long as the person stays away from the crank and whatnot.
Indeed. My neice is a waitress and makes far more from tips than her salary. In fact, she is now grossing more than her dad. Oh, there’s a reason for her good tips—she’s very pretty, very polite andf cheerful and gets the orders right. Those attributes work every time.
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