Hi friends,
I’ve been writing to some of you since June 2, 2020, when I sent an email to some friends and colleagues about how we could work for justice from home. Within a few days, I sorted out the name of the publication and by September of that year, I moved to Substack because the email list was too unwieldy and I was committed to keeping this effort going. This week, we turned four.
I have found some community on Substack, which has been a pleasant surprise. A Substack buddy, Garrett Bucks, mentioned this fundraiser in his post this week and I was eager to get on board, since the cause is undeniably just.
In the words of James Baldwin:
The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe.
The best thing about belonging to any group is that the work is easier with others pulling in the same direction. I am referring to you, of course.
Contribute to Substackers for Palestinian Children’s Relief.
As intensely as I feel the satisfaction of working with others, I feel the frustration with people who are responsible for shameful acts playing the “This is not who we are” card.
Regrettably, we are complicit in the violence against civilians in Gaza. There was another Israeli strike today on a UN school, which killed at least 33 people, most of whom were women and children.
A US-made missile, the GBU 39, was used in the airstrikes on the school, fragments captured in videos and photos from the site show. It is the same weapon used to bomb near UNRWA sites in southern Gaza last week, an attack that sparked fires in crowded tent areas that killed at least 45 people.
The opposition to the war and to the US policy of arming Israel has grown among American Jews.
The survey was conducted between 9 May and 11 May and included 511 Jewish American respondents.
"Approximately one-third of respondents agreed with the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, while about half disagreed," the survey found.
The survey also found that just over half of respondents would support a US decision to halt arms shipments to Israel, while 22.2 percent were against the move and one-in-four neither supported not opposed it.
Tell the president that this is not who we want to be. The US must stop arming Israel. The action has been updated!
India’s recent heatwave was a preview for the "dangerously hot conditions” that the National Weather Service (NWS) has forecast for parts of the American southwest this week.
It is critical to bear in mind that the built environment intensifies heat.
A 102-degree-Fahrenheit air temperature, NWS Sacramento noted, yields 106-degree green grass, 120-degree brown grass, 143-degree concrete and 167-degree blacktop — five degrees higher than the point at which human skin is instantly destroyed.
Well, that’s pretty sobering.
Stop the Money Pipeline is organizing for the Summer of Heat. Join some climate actions around NYC!
Temperatures in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona, are expected to pass 110F for the first time this year today. This is the same heatwave that hit Mexico, killing dozens of people. Perhaps you heard about the howler monkeys dropping out of trees. Same heatwave.
Tell Congress to protect the Endangered Species Act. This quick action is from Friends of the Earth.
I’m guessing you saw the terrible news about congestion pricing. I updated the action from yesterday. There will be more to come.
Tell the Governor she did us wrong.
We wanted to be the first US city to institute congestion pricing.
with love,
L