Dear friends,
Thich Nhat Hanh died this weekend. I can’t be sad about the passing of a 95-year-old person who believed in reincarnation and lived without fear. This is a life we can celebrate and, if we’re lucky, emulate. Thirty years ago, in a dharma talk about protecting the environment, he said:
Life is made of death, and death is made of life. We have to welcome death, because it makes life possible. The cells in our body are dying every day, but we don't organize funerals for them. The death of one cell allows for the birth of another. Life and death are two aspects of the same reality. We must learn to die peacefully so that others may live. This deep meditation brings forth non-fear, non-anger, and non-despair, the strengths we need for our work.
One of the reasons I turn to meditation is that my sense of the urgency and enormity of the work ahead overwhelms me. So, when I came across the following story, in the same dharma talk, it seemed important:
One student asked me, "There are so many urgent problems, what should I do?" I said, "Take one thing and do it very deeply and carefully, and you will be doing everything at the same time."
This aligns with my own belief in the interconnectedness of all things. And it affirms Kimberlé Crenshaw’s idea of intersectionality. It helps me understand how an email I sent in June 2020 about working for racial justice became the sprawling-yet-unitary wiffij.
I love the idea of doing one thing very deeply and carefully. I am not a multi-tasker, which used to pain me, as I have always wanted to do more. What I am is a person who rushes around.
If you have young children at home (or you love someone who does), I recommend this excellent article about ‘less anxious parenting,’ which emphasizes slowing down and sounds a lot like Thich Nhat Hanh’s advice.
When my child was small, I loved the feeling that no one could expect me to be anywhere else right now because I AM HERE: on the playground OR reading a story OR doing bath time. (Cell phones were not yet ordinary and I was one of the longest holdouts; I got my first cell phone four years ago.)
At work, I was a more of a runaway train, whooshing by and unwittingly leaving others with dust in their eyes.
I would like to live without fear and do one thing at a time, preferably without rushing.
In the spirit of gentleness, I’m going to take baby steps and discuss just two things today. They are connected, so they’re really one thing.
Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, recently wrote to remind me that we need to fight voter suppression in blue states as well as red states.
New York has a long history of practices that leave people unable to access the ballot, discriminating against voters based on their race, ethnicity, and or spoken language. New Yorkers regularly face barriers to voter registration and ballot access, racial gerrymandering and other forms of vote dilution, voter purges, moving and closing poll sites, and limited access to language assistance.
The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act would address these problems – and more – by providing nation-leading protections against vote dilution and suppression. The bill also increases language assistance, beefs up laws against voter intimidation, and enhances transparency into critical voting data.
Sign the NYCLU’s petition to NYS lawmakers to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York.
In response, MoveOn is launching a multimillion-dollar effort to defeat Trump-backed secretaries of state across the country and elect individuals who will count every vote and ensure fair elections.
Support MoveOn’s campaign to protect elections from extremists.
Voting rights are the means by which we assert and protect our other democratic rights. Among these are the rights enshrined in New York State’s newest amendment.
Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.
Mayor Adams collected his first paycheck as NYC’s mayor on Friday and then, he converted it to Bitcoin and Ethereum, two digital currencies. Even leaving aside the influence of Brock Pierce, Bitcoin billionaire, this is a problem.
In addition to those wary of cryptocurrency because of its newness, volatility and lack of backing, environmental advocates are aggressively campaigning against a common method in which coins are created. Digital currencies like Bitcoin are released into circulation by a complicated process. This method of Bitcoin mining is referred to as “proof-of-work,” and it takes a massive amount of energy to power those specialized computers working to verify transactions. (An analysis by The New York Times found that Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity annually than Finland.) Bitcoin mining sites can be warehouses filled with these super-powered computers – or as is the case in New York, converted power plants housing the computers.
Call on your state legislators to support a legislative moratorium on crypto mining and to require a comprehensive environmental impact statement review. This action is ready-made!
Contact the mayor to educate him on the problems with promoting the use of crypto currency. This action is also ready-made!
Take your time and have a great day!
with love,
L