Dear friends,
Whenever the world leaves me feeling kind of raw and exhausted, I return to what I think of as the most comforting kinds of action — checking in on loved ones and uplifting a care agenda.
My long association with NY Caring Majority often helps me feel connected to people in a way that nourishes my spirit. On Wednesday, I attended a meeting at which I got to hear from Claire Cousin, a candidate for NY Assembly District 106, which covers most of Columbia and Dutchess Counties.
As the parent of a candidate for public office, I was moved by Claire’s lack of pretense. She is a social justice organizer, a former home care worker, a local official, and someone passionately motivated to unseat an incumbent who has failed to address the economic, climate, and health issues that shape peoples’ lives.
Claire is endorsed by the NY Working Families Party, TenantsPAC, and other progressive groups. Because her opponent in the primary has been in office for 12 years, she needs our support.
Support Claire Cousin, a NY Assembly candidate who will work on housing and health care and other critical issues for all New Yorkers.
To phone bank for Claire Cousin, sign up here.
The NY Caring Majority is advancing its Fair Pay for Home Care campaign by working to pass the Home Care Savings & Reinvestment Act. The legislation would end the wasteful practice that diverts billions of tax dollars — that should pay caregivers — to private insurance companies.
The home care transition from a traditional fee-for-service model to a Medicaid managed care program has meant that, since 2011, NYS has been unable to ensure that the dollars they have budgeted for improvements to care have actually been paid to providers and workers. The Home Care Savings & Reinvestment Act will fix that.
I know. It’s a bit complicated, which is why people throw up their hands. We can’t, though. We need all hands pulling together to care for one another.
Call your state legislators to urge them to support the The Home Care Savings & Reinvestment Act. There’s a script and it’s so quick!
While I’m thinking about care and all of the political insanity that derails good policy, it seems like a good time to offer the Republicans in the Senate a way to indicate that they wish to solve problems. I want to believe that alleviating child poverty is a goal we can all get behind.
Tell your Senators to pass the expanded Child Tax Credit!
As I was writing today, my springling sent me this poem by Eve L . Ewing:
eschatology
i’m confident that the absolute dregs of possibility for this society,
the sugary coffee mound at the bottom of this cup,
our last best hope that when our little bit of assigned plasma implodes
it won’t go down as a green mark in the cosmic ledger,
lies in the moment when you say hello to a bus driver
and they say it back—
when someone holds the door open for you
and you do a little jog to meet them where they are—
walking my dog, i used to see this older man
and whenever I said good morning,
he replied ‘GREAT morning’—
in fact, all the creative ways our people greet each other
may be the icing on this flaming trash cake hurtling through the ether.
when the clerk says how are you
and i say ‘i’m blessed and highly favored’
i mean my toes have met sand, and wiggled in it, a lot.
i mean i have laughed until i choked and a friend slapped my back.
i mean my niece wrote me a note: ‘you are so smart + intellajet’
i mean when we do go careening into the sun,
i’ll miss crossing guards ushering the grown folks too, like ducklings
and the lifeguards at the community pool and
men who yelled out the window that they’d fix the dent in my car,
right now! it’d just take a second—
and actually everyone who tried to keep me alive, keep me afloat,
and if not unblemished, suitably repaired.
but I won’t feel too sad about it,
becoming a star
with love,
L