Dear friends,
We have achieved Friday, but just barely. By my count, three North American towns have been swallowed by wildfire this summer, and others are under serious threat. There was five-hour long siege at the Capitol yesterday, before a North Carolina man was arrested for threatening to detonate a bomb in his truck outside the Library of Congress.
Hospitalizations of young Americans — those under 18 and those in their thirties — are behind a new peak in COVID hospitalizations of people under 50. Twenty thousand students in Mississippi are now quarantined, having been exposed to COVID, while parents continue to challenge mask mandates and some localities are enforcing them in violation of executive orders.
And I haven’t touched on world events. It is time for slow, deep breathing and purposeful action, because a person could be tempted to call it a day.
First up, climate action. It is urgent that we stop the completion of the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota. Hundreds of Indigenous protesters halted traffic and faced arrest on their way back from a failed appeal at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers building in Duluth. They went to
demand that the federal government revoke permits for Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline.
“This isn’t about reservations. This isn’t about a couple tribal nations. This is about everyone, absolutely everyone,” said Taysha Martineau, a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa who helped form the Line 3 resistance camp in Cloquet.
Opponents of the oil pipeline have long said it violates Indigenous treaty rights, threatens to contaminate water with risk of oil spills, contributes to climate change as it strengthens reliance on fossil fuels and exposes communities next to the construction projects to human trafficking.
They marched yesterday. We’re going to follow up in writing to Jaime Pinkham of the Army Corps of Engineers. Pinkham is a citizen of the Nez Perce tribe and a member of the Biden Administration.
Write to the Assistant Secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers to ask him to revoke the permits for the Line 3 tar sands pipeline. This is a ready-made action.
It is important to remember that activism works: In the spring, we added our voices to those of the Black communities protesting the construction of an industrial complex to produce plastics in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. We called on the president to revoke the permit.
On Wednesday, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the agency responsible for granting construction permits under the Clean Water Act, announced it would commission a full environmental impact statement, which advocates say could delay future construction for a number of years. The announcement comes after the agency suspended an earlier permit last November, after acknowledging errors in its original analysis.
Local activists fought for years to stop the construction of the plant, which would likely
release 13 million tons of greenhouse gases a year.
Fighting polluting infrastructure is everybody’s fight.
Did you write to the Assistant Secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers?
Members of congress are in their districts this week, and we have to remind them that climate change has no recess and we need a budget reconciliation bill that invests in renewable energy and environmental justice. Bernie Sanders described the commitments in the draft of the $3.5 trillion bill this way:
Massive investments in retrofitting homes and buildings to save energy.
Massive investment in the production of wind, solar and other forms of sustainable energy.
A major move toward the electrification of transportation, including generous rebates to enable working families to buy electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances.
Major investments in greener agriculture.
Major investments in climate resiliency and ecosystem recovery projects.
Major investments in water and environmental justice.
Major investments in research and development for sustainable energy and battery storage.
Billions to address the warming and acidification of oceans and the needs of coastal communities.
Tell your elected representatives to invest in a bold climate agenda!
Next up, voting rights. If you are close to someone who is in Gen Z (born in 1997 or after), you might want to see if their thumbs are free on Monday. In the run-up to the March on Washington planned for this August 28th, Gen Z activists will call on legislators to pass the For The People's Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and will text unregistered voters across the country.
Here’s the registration information for this Gen Z action!
It’s housing time. Our soon-to-be-homeless, soon-to-be-ex-Governor is lounging around the executive mansion without doing his job. It’s been more than two weeks since Cuomo has signed any legislation, and there’s a pile of important housing measures on his desk.
They include:
A05363 — which would add a surcharge to real estate broker or salesman license fees to fund fair housing testing — and A04638, which would require brokers and salespeople to take implicit bias training when renewing their licenses.
A05359 [to] add new required training for the same people in regards to housing discrimination and fair housing laws.
Under A05428, an obligation would be created to affirmatively further fair housing by any state offices involved in housing laws or programs, as well as local entities receiving state funds for similar purposes.
A06866 would establish an anti-discrimination housing fund, which would allocate to the Fair Housing Commission in each county.
Bill A06355 would require associate real estate brokers who serve as managers of their offices to supervise other associate brokers and salespersons.
Finally, A06186 would standardize real estate agent procedures and allow brokers and salespeople to be penalized for those who fail to comply with procedures aimed towards ending disparate treatment in sales.
For the last time, contact Governor Cuomo and ask him to do the people’s business. Here’s a ready-made message.
We’ll end today with the ultimate intersectional effort, to promote an issue that is anti-poverty, rural and urban, green, and supportive of immigrant women of color: Fair Pay for Home Care.
Call our almost-Governor at 518-402-2292 and tell her to make Fair Pay for Home Care her signature initiative. There’s a script and next steps here.
I feel better about the day already. Have a great weekend!
with love,
L