Dear friends,
I hope you allowed yourself a weekend and that you are beginning to change your relationship to the news. To be sure, there is a lot happening, but it does not require our constant attention. If you have begun a deliberate change in your news consumption, I would love to hear about your approach.
Please sign this petition to the Senate, calling on Senators to convict the former president and disqualify him from future elected office.
Here’s some good news that can’t wait until tomorrow. Yesterday, work resumed at Hunts Point Produce Market after a victory for the Teamsters Union. The workers, were asking for $1/hour raise and no additional fees for their health insurance.
Under the terms, workers will be paid a minimum of 70 cents an hour more the first year, 50 cents more the second year, and 65 cents more the third year. They will also receive a one-time $1300 bonus in 2023. Workers will also receive the same health insurance coverage without having to pay an increase.
The strike lasted six days and on the seventh day, they took a victory lap and yelled, “¡Si se puede! AOC showed up for the striking workers on Inauguration Day.
The squad is energized and working for justice, everywhere you look. Ayanna Pressley and Cori Bush are behind a campaign to convince Biden to commute the sentences of the remaining federal prisoners on death row. On Friday, they sent a letter to the President:
“Commuting the death sentences of those on death row and ensuring that each person is provided with an adequate and unique re-sentencing process is a crucial first step in remedying this grave injustice,” they said.
“By exercising your clemency power, you can ensure that there would be no one left on death row to kill.”
Such a gesture, they said, would be “an unprecedented – but necessary – action to reverse systemic injustices and restore America’s moral standing.”
Call on Biden to commute the death sentences of federal prisoners.
The protection of life is bigger than ending the death penalty, and Biden has acknowledged that the climate catastrophe is an “existential crisis.” Rejoining the Paris Agreement was an important step. There is so much more to do.
Support 350.org and join “an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build community-led renewable energy for all.”
Sign this petition to tell Biden to stop Line 3, a massive pipeline already under construction in northern Minnesota, in violation of Indigenous rights.
Donate to the Lakota People’s Law Project Action Center to help secure treaty land and water rights, stop the tar sands pipelines, and defend native voting rights, health, and safety.
Of course, the corporations need to feel the pressure. Corporations continue to violate water rights, pollute with impunity, destroy habitat, and rely on exploitative labor practices.
Take the pledge to boycott Nestlé and Starbucks. Here’s a helpful list of alternative products.
And now, to a pressing educational issue. In the fall, the president of the National Education Association remarked that the schools need a new waiver for mandated tests:
Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that fiscal, equity and access gaps have been exacerbated by the pandemic; you don’t need more tests to tell you that hard truth.
We’re in the throes of a pandemic with no consistency to school attendance, WiFi reception, or access to computers. In this climate, not only would a fresh round of standardized tests lack any validity or reliability, they would be a tragic waste of resources and effort.
New York City Schools Chancellor Carranza recently acknowledged, “Schools right now have a good idea of where their students are...” Teachers, social workers, counselors, administrators and others have been the ones dropping off iPads and art supplies, food and clothing and staying in touch with their students.
Register now for a national town hall tomorrow evening about suspending high stakes student testing, moderated by Congressman Jamaal Bowman.
Please sign this petition, initiated by FairTest: the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, to call on the incoming Education Secretary, Miguel Cardona, to waive federal requirements that require states to administer standardized exams to students in the 2020-2021 academic year.
Thank you for your participation. Get on with your day! I hope it’s a good one.
with love,
L