They deserve a break, and black folks and mental health.

O has a lot of haters out there, but there are a lot of you Negroes who love him as well. His latest domestic initiative is something that we all should love him for.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I really feel for those poor home- care workers who bust their asses every day (and night) while taking care of old folks who have been abandoned by their own children.

"The presidency is a powerful position. So powerful that it makes it easy to forget the reason one entered public service. But this president, President Obama, never forgets. Today was another shining example of a president who never forgets about the Americans who work hard, don't ask for much, and deserve better than they're getting. Today, the administration announced final regulations to include home care workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, making them eligible for minimum wage and overtime pay staring in 2015.

...the U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule today extending the Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage and overtime protections to most of the nation's workers who provide essential home care assistance to elderly people and people with illnesses, injuries or disabilities. This change will result in nearly two million direct care workers — such as home health aides, personal care aides and certified nursing assistants — receiving the same basic protections already provided to most U.S. workers.

Home care workers are some of the hardest workers doing some of the most important work in our country with the least amount of rewards. They care for the most vulnerable Americans - the elderly, the disabled, and people with serious injuries and illnesses. They do some of the toughest work - bathing, cleaning, moving and comforting people who cannot do it on their own.
The people they care for are our parents, our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, our sons and daughters, the people we love the most. And today, the people we entrust with this critical care can breathe a little easy knowing that while they're looking out for the society's most vulnerable, they have a president who is looking out for them. Today, they know that their president won't sit idly by while their employers (home care agencies) take advantage of lax labor rules to line their corporate pockets.

Of course, this isn't just a matter of doing the right thing - not that that wouldn't be reason enough. This is also about ensuring high quality services by making sure the professionals who provide these critical services are treated like professionals. This is as much about protecting quality care for the recipients of their services as much as it is about the workers who do this amazing work.

Let's talk a little about the workers who do this work. 90 percent of them are women, 32 percent are African Americans and 12 percent Hispanics. Notice something? These are also the groups with the highest poverty rates in this country. A good part of that wage disparity is because of labor rules that value their work less than the work of the rest, because we have regulations that say the industry they provide their critical skills and services to does not have to abide by the same rules of fair labor standards as everyone else.

Well, no more. Because of President Obama, a home care worker will no longer be equated with a babysitter.

The Republicans and corporate interest groups are howling with their tired old talking point that affording basic worker protections to hard working caregivers will cost jobs, hours, and fewer people availing themselves to the services provided by these working people. The Labor Department countered that of there has been no noticeable drop in employment in this industry in the 15 states that already extend minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers." [Source]

Good for you, O. Keep this up and I might even let your accidental diplomacy when it comes to foreign policy slide.

Finally, I hate to agree with Don Lemon so soon after he agreed with Bill O'Lie-ly, but he is right with his latest assertions about black folks and mental health. His statements about the shooter in D.C. was on point.

You Negroes need to stop going to the preacher to heal your mental health issues and get a real mental health professional to talk to. The Rev. has a degree in theology, not psychology. And some of these preachers don't have a degree at all. I know, I know, they were called by a "higher power", but that higher power put people on earth to handle this kind of stuff.

Getting your mind right is just as important as getting your body right. Black folks need to stop stigmatizing family members and friends who suffer from poor mental health.

"If we don’t wake up to these realities, that we cannot pray it away, the next time we see a crime on the news, especially a mass shooting, the first question you might ask yourself; is it the usual one? Oh, no, are they black? You know you all do it; I hope they’re not black. It might be the same one that the haters are posing on the Internet. If Obama had a son would he look like the killer?"

Well Don, we still have a long way to go to catch up to those "haters" when it comes to mass killings, but I get your point.

Second pic from Black Mental Health Alliance.