Dear friends,
It is the first day of the month and the beginning of the lunar new year — an auspicious day! Xīn xiǎng shì chéng: may all of your wishes come true.
A friend sent me this story about Dillon, an eight-year-old who wrote and illustrated an original Christmas story and surreptitiously shelved it in his local public library.
When he told his mom what he’d done, she contacted the library to see if they could find his book. It turned out that they had already found it, read it, and loved it. Now there’s a waitlist of patrons to read the book. Dillon is already at work on additional titles.
Here’s another piece of library news that made some wishes come true. A Virginia public library included a new feature in its redesign of its children’s library:
a second computer lab in the children’s section, and this one had adult desks with a playpen attached.
The idea came from a library administrator, who had observed parents juggling babies while attempting to get some work done at the computers.
The Farm Laborers Wage Board agreed to lower the threshold for overtime pay for NYS farmworkers from 60 hours to 40 hours, to be phased in beginning in 2024. By 2032, farmworkers will get overtime whenever their workweek exceeds forty hours, just like most workers paid an hourly wage.
Home care workers are not making a living wage in New York, AND that could change if we pass Fair Pay for Home Care. NY Caring Majority’s monthly organizing call will be devoted to preparation for lobby visits to solidify support for Fair Pay in the legislature. The goal is to find our way into the so-called ‘one house budget’ that legislative leaders use in negotiations with the governor.
Get more involved in the campaign for Fair Pay for Home Care.
At least one teacher in Virginia took to Twitter to thank the brilliant response to Governor Youngkin’s tip line to get members of the public to alert the state about violations of his executive order
prohibiting Virginia schools from teaching "inherently divisive concepts, like critical race theory and its progeny, instruct students to only view life through the lens of race and presumes that some students are consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist, or oppressive, and that other students are victims."
A human rights lawyer, Qasim Rashid, made sure to share the tip line info on Twitter, amplified by comedian Patton Oswalt, who has millions of followers. Rashid wrote:
Whatever you do, don’t make a mockery of this with fake tips. That would be a terrible thing to do.
It turns out that some of the mockery was educational (because you can mock bad ideas as a teaching tool). I liked this one:
My son came home and told me that Confederate soldiers have statues not to honor them, but to remember what they did. He wants to know when Osama Bin Laden will be getting a statue. So, what’s your answer?
My favorite post, by far, was this pro-kid message:
We can only make things right by acknowledging the wrongs.
The Save the Redwoods League is transferring ownership to the Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a group of 10 Native tribes whose ancestors were “forcibly removed” from the land by European American settlers, according to a statement from the league.
For the first time in 175 years, the tribes will again have access to the small parcel of land. In partnership with Save the Redwoods League, they will protect the coho salmon and steelhead trout that live there, along with other species like the northern spotted owls. It’s a small piece of land AND a big deal.
US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, has praised New York for picking up the slack when the last administration reversed course on clean energy and climate initiatives. Additionally, she credited the state as an inspiration to the Biden Administration.
The Biden Administration needs more inspiration, to be sure. In the meanwhile, the US District Court in DC has stepped up to prevent offshore drilling.
A federal judge on Thursday canceled oil and gas leases of more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, ruling that the Biden administration did not sufficiently take climate change into account when it auctioned the leases late last year.
The decision requires the US Department of the Interior to analyze how development and production of the leases would affect emissions. This is the long-term view that is required to make sound environmental decisions.
Now, if we are to be a proper inspiration, let’s give the federal government more to aspire to.
Tell members of the Assembly and Senate Environmental Conservation Committees to invest in climate resilience! This one-click action is from NY Renews.
I’ve written a bit recently about my efforts not to rush (so much) and not to try to do too many things. The natural result of these efforts is to do less. Beginning tomorrow, I will be back in classrooms on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
Good news will come, most likely on Tuesday afternoons. Wednesday is always a wiffij rest day. It’s likely that all posts will be a bit shorter, which seems like a good thing for all of us.
to be brave, strong-willed, pioneering, outspoken, playful, enthusiastic, impulsive, impatient and fearless, with a strong sense of justice.
I will be teaching 6th- and 7th-graders — including many Tigers (b. 2010) — about civics and grassroots activism.
May your wishes come true, too!
with love,
L