“To begin by always thinking of love as an action rather than a feeling is one way in which anyone using the word in this manner automatically assumes accountability and responsibility.” - bell hooks
Dear friends,
Today’s post is a tribute to bell hooks, a feminist and a teacher who sought to make theory useful in peoples’ lives.
How would we behave if we really loved other people?
We would not keep them at work when their lives were in immediate danger.
Read Jamelle Bouie’s damning “This Is What Happens When Workers Don’t Control Their Own Lives.”
Night shift employees in a Kentucky factory complained that managers warned them that they would be fired if they left work, even as a deadly tornado was bearing down on them. Eight workers died.
Call on your Senators to pass the PRO Act, which would guarantee that workers have a voice in workplace safety.
If you haven’t already done so, support Jennifer Sung’s nomination to the 9th Circuit Court. Sung has represented workers and unions and will bring a pro-labor perspective to the bench.
Petition the Senate to vote to confirm Jennifer Sung to the 9th Circuit Court.
Since the end of last week, two more people have died on Rikers Island. Never mind love. This is not what basic decency looks like.
One of the men who died at Rikers, William Brown, was arrested for missing a court date.
Court records show he was accused of swiping 26 toothbrushes, detergent, soap and deodorant in two separate incidents at a Manhattan Rite Aid.
As it happens, I learned of Brown’s death shortly after it occurred, on a call with the Less is More coalition. The name is important: the article of faith uniting activists from around NY state is that less incarceration will yield more public safety.
It’s fairly plain that the 16 people who have died in city jails this year would have been safer on the outside. We are working to ensure that technical parole violations — failed drug tests, missed appointments — do not land folks back in jail.
Although Governor Hochul signed the Less is More Act this fall, the law does not require full implementation until March 2022. To people in the system, these four months can cost a lot.
New York still has the worst parole system in the country with its use of incarceration for non-criminal technical parole violations -- like missing an appointment or even being early for a job, yes early. The state spent more than $680 million in 2019 to reincarcerate people on such violations.
Black people are incarcerated for technical violations at five times the rate of white people in New York state. In the city, that rate grows to 12 times. Latino people are nearly 30% more likely to be incarcerated for a technical parole violation than whites. Technical violations rob weeks, months, and even years from people’s lives, keeping them stuck in the prison system. Tragically, these violations also affect parolees’ loved ones and communities.
Tell the Governor why full implementation of the Less Is More Act is so urgent. This is a ready-made action.
There was a lot of love-in-action at Tuesday’s relaunch event in Union Square to get Fair Pay for Home Care passed in NYS.
Attorney General Tish James talked about the caregivers who looked after her mother while she was in the city council. She became emotional talking about the importance of valuing the workers who keep our loved ones safe, who make our own work possible.
I met Tracey Ann Patterson, a home care worker who was standing with her friend at the back of the crowd. Later, she was at the mic. She talked about doing the work she loves, caring for others. And then, with great dignity, she said:
We want to be compensated, like anyone else. We want to take care of our families. We want to have a great Christmas.
Call on Governor Hochul to include Fair Pay for Home Care in the executive budget. There’s a call script from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
Tracey Ann spoke a few hours before my new computer arrived, to replace the one that finally gave up and died on Monday night. I felt my incredible privilege, to be debt-free and to have money in the bank for a major purchase. Why shouldn’t Tracey Ann be able to do the important work she loves AND be able to take care of her family AND have a great Christmas?
Watch Astra Taylor and Molly Crabapple’s powerful short film, Your Debt is Someone Else’s Asset, produced by the Debt Collective.
If love is action, then debt forgiveness is love.
Get ready for the January Week of Action to Cancel Student Debt.
RIP Medical Debt abolishes debt for people whose income is less than twice the federal poverty level and whose “debts are 5 percent or more of their annual income.”
Make someone’s day/month/year by lifting the burden of medical debt from their shoulders!
with love,
L