Hi friends,
I hope you took some time to celebrate. In addition to the beginning of Passover, there were some important some victories for democracy in Wisconsin, Chicago, and Manhattan.
I was moved by the advertisement in the New York Times, paid for by Yusuf Salaam, one of the Exonerated Central Park Five. It was a response, of a sort, to the advertisement Trump paid for more than 30 years ago to call for the restoration of the death penalty following the wrongful arrest of Salaam and the other four teenagers.
Salaam rejects the hatred and bias that motivated Trump. Salaam had this message for the former president, on the occasion of his first indictment. Under the headline “Bring Back Justice and Fairness,” he wrote,
“I am putting my faith in the judicial system to seek out the truth. I hope that you exercise your civil liberties to the fullest, and that you get what the Exonerated 5 did not get — a presumption of innocence, and a fair trial.”
I’m not sure the Republicans know which way the wind is blowing, because they’re committed to a strategy that has poor long-term prospects.
The goings on in Tennessee are extraordinary. Margaret Renkl’s essay about the efforts to crush dissent there is an important read. The rationale for expelling members of the legislature is that they were speaking out of turn. Really.
Renkl describes the resistance to taking up gun-related bills in the wake of the Nashville school shooting and the impulse in the Republican-controlled General Assembly to
turn Nashville’s school shooting into an opportunity to weaken gun safety in the state even further.
These repeated demonstrations for gun safety legislation were the context in which the Republican supermajority of the Tennessee House moved to expel Mr. Jones, Ms. Johnson and Mr. Pearson from the statehouse. But the three Democrats had more than public sentiment on their side. They had more, even, than moral authority on their side. They also had a practical reason for flouting chamber rules: “Our mics were cut off throughout the week whenever we tried to bring up the issue of gun violence,” Mr. Jones told WKRN.
It seems obvious that Republicans are unable to see the irony of their behavior; they defend a criminal ex-president vociferously while bringing down the hammer on political opponents who have not broken the law.
They ban books, silence dissent, and somehow expect that we will take it. They gerrymander districts but they are outnumbered.
The descent into authoritarianism is no joke, but the right is creating populist heroes on the left. Our vigilance is required.
Responding to the Pro Publica report on the corruption of Clarence Thomas will be on our agenda next week. I am still absorbing the news.
It’s the first day of school vacation in NYC, and I went to a midday birthday party in Sunset Park to celebrate my favorite 9-year-old. It is important to celebrate good people, good work, and good ideas.
The President has designated April as Care Workers Recognition Month. In his powerful statement, he calls on Congress
to invest $150 billion over the next decade to improve and expand Medicaid home- and community-based services — making it easier for seniors and people with disabilities to receive care in their own homes. This funding would improve the quality of jobs for home care workers and support family caregivers
Read the President’s whole statement.
I was interested to learn of new seder tradition that acknowledges the struggle of people living with chronic illness and fatigue. The idea is to place a spoon on the seder plate to represent “the finite units of energy” that chronically ill people must ration in order to function in their daily lives.
The imagery comes from Christine Miserandino’s “spoon theory,” first articulated in 2003. She started referring to herself and others whose health conditions limit their daily energy as “spoonies.”
If you have a seder ahead of you, place a spoon on your seder plate.
The excerpt that follows is from a poem by Renee Christian, a NY Caring Majority activist.
For those with disabilities,
Impairments that they never chose,
They too have the right to fight
To live their lives with freedom's light.
For those who face oppression's hand,
Who seek to break the chains that bind,
Remember that you have the might,
To fight for every single right.
For every gender, every race,
For every person in every place,
We must fight to keep the flame,
Of hope, of justice, and of change.
Let the Governor your budget priorities: affordable housing, Fair Pay for Home Care, and the preservation of 2019 bail reform. I made it easy.
There are plenty of members who voted to maintain masking rules. Among them are folks who are immunocompromised or are caring for vulnerable members of the community.
Read the full letter to PSFC. Then, please sign and circulate.
advocates and parents to urge the Governor not to raise the Charter School cap.
“This debate is not about access or parent choice but rather how we can use public funds to properly fund our New York City public schools.”
NYC public schools are fighting their way back from the pandemic. More charter schools generally result in the defunding and even displacement of public schools.
Tell the Governor not to use public education funds to expand charter schools. This action has been updated.
My busy council member also wrote to alert constituents about the Mayor’s plan to institute across-the-board 4% cuts to city agencies. The reductions required of the Department of Education and the City University of New York will be ‘only’ 3 percent.
City Comptroller Brad Lander criticized the approach:
“City Hall’s response to uncertainty from Albany is a blunt approach that cuts arbitrarily rather than plans strategically for the future,” he said in a statement. “These broad cuts will hit agencies that already faced large and arbitrary headcount reductions imposed by City Hall earlier this year.”
Tell Mayor Adams that we want #CareNotCuts! This quick action is from The People’s Plan.
Thanks for keeping alive “the flame of hope, of justice, and of change.”
with love,
L