Dear friends,
A while back, I read a great article about how much our friends appreciate hearing from us. It came to mind this morning, when I sent off a quick email to my council member’s office and got a quick, friendly reply.
It’s nice to know that someone is out there, caring about us and our concerns and our work. It’s likely that elected officials sometimes feel that their constituents are insufficiently attentive to critical issues. They need to know we’re out here.
My email was about the latest ill-conceived Eric Adams ‘policy’. Adams announced his intention to use police and emergency services to more aggressively hospitalize those with mental illness who are living on the streets, even if they pose no threat to other people and do not consent to their hospitalization.
Advocacy groups who work with unhoused people have raised alarms about Adams’s plan. It’s not even a plan, according to sources within the NYPD, who were not briefed or consulted before Adams announced his intentions at a public event on Tuesday.
Ask your council rep what steps they’re taking to prevent the Adams Administration from involuntarily hospitalizing unhoused people with mental illness.
Climate is an everywhere issue. We are either going to act now, or keep making enormous payouts to salvage what we can.
NY Renews has organized a call relay for Monday 12/5 to bombard the state’s legislative leadership with the message that climate justice must be top of mind. These messages are received by staff, who may feel irritated by hearing the same script 10 times every hour.
But some of them — young, idealistic staffers who are hoping that their work in government will have a meaningful impact — are glad that we are out here pushing.
What I love about call relays is that my participation is just a few minutes AND it is part of something bigger: a day of action.
Join the NY Renews call relay on Monday, December 5! Choose a convenient time for you and use their script. The climate can’t wait!
Here’s an even easier action from NY Renews. Note that neither action is limited to NYS residents. The climate does not respect political boundaries.
Call on your NYS senators to support the Climate Jobs and Justice Package! This 15-second action is from NY Renews!
One reason that Congress is frantically trying to avert a rail strike is that the terms offered to the unions did not include paid sick leave. You wouldn’t think that we would still be debating the necessity of paid sick leave two years into a global pandemic. What a country!
Of course, as pressing as the issue is for railway workers, they are not alone.
Roughly one-third of workers in service, construction, extraction and farming occupations don’t have paid sick days. About half of part-time workers lack the benefit, as do more than 40% of those in the lowest quarter of wage earners.
Contact your senators and tell them that you want them to avert a strike AND make sure that railroad workers to get sick time! This action is from Chop Wood, Carry Water.
with love,
L