Today’s challenges require global cooperation
Last week marked IBank’s official return-to-office along with other state employees under the Governor’s announcement of April 10th. More than four years after the COVID-19 shelter-in-place was issued, followed by a long period of hybrid work, many of the staff expressed enthusiasm and delight to be back together in our collegial environment. We returned to an all-day All-Staff meeting where each department reported out on highlights and challenges of their respective units. IBank has made tremendous progress since the onset of COVID, achieving milestone after milestone. We are also facing several daunting challenges to overcome as we seek to serve the various needs of our communities. The in person All-Staff was smooth and wonderful I’m told, because ironically, I had to dial in since I tested positive for COVID that morning.
Dee Dee asked me the other day about the credit union market. Well, on this day in 1934, President Roosevelt signed into law the Federal Credit Union Act to make credit available through a new national system of non-profit, coop credit unions. Today, there are approximately 4,600 credit unions in this country, serving 140 million members with $2.3 trillion of assets. As an industry, they typically pay higher interest rates on deposits and charge lower interest rates on loans than banks and serve disproportionately more low-to-moderate income customers. Credit unions have become an integral part of the financial ecosystem, nobly filling gaps and serving their communities alongside us.
As we conclude Pride month this week, on this day in 2013, United States v. Windsor was decided by the Supreme Court, ruling the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, unconstitutional. Two years later on this day in 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples are guaranteed the fundamental right to marriage under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
This memorialized for the entire nation, a right that our Governor was first to grant to any jurisdiction in America twenty years ago when he was Mayor of San Francisco. However, let us not forget that it was a narrow 5-4 ruling and the Court’s composition has shifted with three of the five in the majority no longer on the bench while three of the four dissenting Justices remain.
Next we celebrate that on this day in 1945, at Veteran’s Memorial Hall in San Francisco, the foundational charter for the United Nations was ratified by 50 original member states, creating the preeminent global organization with a mandate for maintaining international peace, security and the protection of human rights. Now with 193 member states, the UN is more necessary than ever, to address climate change, rising inequality, and major wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan among numerous other armed conflicts around the globe. Now is not the time to back away from global cooperation to tackle societal challenges to peace and prosperity for all.
