Dear friends,
Sometimes, I picture legislative interns opening and skimming bazillions of emails after a holiday weekend. I have compassion for them AND I want them shaken by the realization that we didn’t take the weekend off. This year, more than any in my lifetime, being a citizen feels like a full time job.
My birthday was yesterday and there were two things I wanted that I didn’t get (yet): the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Fortunately, I am not one to stand on ceremony.
Contact Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell today to urge them to set aside the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation. The actions are ready-made.
The voting rights legislation was on the top of my wish list because I’m pretty frightened about what’s happening in Republican-controlled states.
As I mentioned on Monday, in addition to direct attacks on voting rights, there’s a plan afoot to use Article V of the Constitution to call a Constitutional Convention.
The US Constitution was a total rewrite of the Articles of Confederation that the delegates showed up to discuss. That happened at the last convention. That’s also when a bunch of white men wrote the rules protecting the slave trade and allowing the enumeration of enslaved people to further empower those who held them in bondage, and a whole lot of other problematic nonsense.
You are, no doubt, familiar with some of the Constitution’s good points, too. But Article V, which seems innocuous enough, is not among them.
Learn about Article V from the folks at Common Cause.
There has never been a convention called under Article V, which represents a dangerous threat:
There are no rules or guidelines to help keep a convention in check if one were to be called and without these crucial guardrails in place to help protect our civil rights and liberties, the constitution as we know it could come under crossfire from wealthy special interest groups trying to leave their mark on our founding document.
Sign the petition to stop an Article V convention. This is a ready-made action with additional steps from Common Cause.
Less than ten days ago, Congress managed to temporarily raise the debt ceiling.
Without that increase — passed largely along party lines — the government would not have been able to borrow the money necessary to meet its obligations, threatening a crisis that [Janet] Yellen said could “eviscerate” the economic recovery.
Debt can have insidious effects on economic stability, and this is true for nations as well as individuals and families. Ordinary people do not have a mechanism parallel to ‘raising the debt ceiling’ for dealing with their mounting debt. Like the nation, they are often spending on worthy things, such as health care, education, and basic utilities.
There are Americans living without hot water and other basic utilities because they are unable to pay their bills. Utility debt grew by about $20 billion in the first nine months of the pandemic. I’m guessing that 2021 added significantly to that debt.
Right now, there are moves in New York to cancel utility debt and expand public energy utilities.
Dozens of groups are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul and State Assembly members to pass emergency legislation ordering the Public Service Commission to cancel all utility debt and to cover the cost using corporate utility shareholder returns. The letter also requests an extended two-year moratorium on all utility shutoffs.
In addition, groups working for energy justice are working for the passage of the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA).
[It] would guide a shift from privately owned power generation and distribution capacity to more democratically run, publicly owned systems. . .by requiring the state’s largest publicly owned utility to be the sole provider to both state-owned and municipally owned buildings and to exclusively source renewable energy.
By 2025, the BPRA would require every property leased or owned by the state or any New York municipality to use NYPA power.
Contact Governor Hochul to let her know that we want renewable energy and emergency legislation to cancel utility debt. A sample message is included.
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.
I like to think that I am getting wiser as I get older. I’m less impatient and impulsive, and though I make mistakes, I am less likely than young me to do mean or stupid things.
I am not alone. Older people in prison, when released, have the lowest rates of criminal recidivism.
A group called Releasing Aging People from Prison (RAPP) has been advancing clemency and parole reform. There are two bills before the state legislature that deserve support, one for Fair and Timely Parole, and one for Elder Parole. The first bill would base parole decisions on public safety considerations — considering individual behavior and evidence of rehabilitation — rather than punitive ones. The second would encourage the release of older people.
Write to your state legislators in support of compassionate parole reform bills. I made it easy.
Covid continues to rage and to wreak havoc on our plans and our spirits. Like most scourges, it doesn’t wreak equal amounts of havoc on all of us; some of us got sick, are contending with long-haul symptoms, and many people lost loved ones.
Read this powerful story about one doctor’s efforts to provide care for her patients with non-Covid health problems.
If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I’m not a religious person. Nonetheless, I am enormously grateful for my own good fortune, as my pandemic losses have been relatively scant. Perspective is good.
Rapid at-home Covid tests are in short supply and lines for tests are very long. Here’s a tip: the Brooklyn Public Library testing site had no line yesterday. Three cheers for BPL!
And some good news for teenage friends: NYS Regents have canceled the January Regents exams because of Covid. It’s always nice to know these things before you spend time studying for an exam over your holiday.
I am giving you the day off tomorrow. I also know that some of you won’t open this email for a few days. Like those legislative interns, you can scarcely keep up. This is the curse of too-muchness, and it is very real.
Get some rest!
If you are thinking that you shouldn’t bother sending messages on a holiday weekend, you’re wrong. Monday will come, and someone will tally up the shear number of us who bothered to write. They’ll note what we wrote about and which side we’re on.
We’re on the side of justice. Thanks for standing shoulder-to-shoulder in this good fight. Merry Christmas, if that applies.
Finally, if you need a last-minute gift and you know better than to walk into a store today, you can give money to RIP Medical Debt in honor of a friend or loved one.
Make someone’s day/month/year by lifting the burden of medical debt from their shoulders!
with love,
L