Dear friends,
Like many of you, I have developed routines for recycling — paper, plastics, electronics, textile — and composting. And I’m thinking that Thursdays might be the day for upcycling some of my previous recommended actions. Substack lets me see which things you click on, and sometimes I feel that I haven’t gotten some actions the attention from you that they deserve.
Yesterday, I got very excited about a new bill that could be a very effective way of making corporations pay for the costs of recycling their products. This is a powerful idea — that folks should clean up their own messes. I am reminded of the day that my mom stopped cleaning up my brother’s vomit and handed him a rag. (True story. It turned out that he was manipulative, and not actually sick, and he didn’t vomit again for years.) Anyway, for too long, we have been asked to clean up corporate messes, and we are drowning in plastics that are too costly or difficult to recycle. If that weren’t bad enough, we have been made to feel that this disastrous situation is our fault. It’s time to hand the rag over to the folks who are making the mess. They might stop making such a mess (best case scenario), but if not, they’ll have to pay for the clean up.
Contact your NYS Senator and ask them to support the Extended Producer Responsibility Act.
Criminal justice reforms remain essential to our justice work. The median amount the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund (BCBF) paid for a bond rose 40% between 2019 and 2020 — with some bonds as high as $50,000. BCBF is calling on the new Administration to cap bail amounts, establish transparent guidelines for judges setting bail in immigration courts, simplify the processes to pay bonds, and to ban unregulated private immigration bond companies.
Support Brooklyn Community Bail Fund.
You might have read about Kyle Rittenhouse’s visit to a bar (with his mom!?). Why was bail an option after he murdered two people and wounded a third person at a protest in Kenosha? Turns out he went to the bar with his mom because Wisconsin law permits him to drink legally at age 18 if one of his parents is there. (I assure you that my mom would not have let him out of his room.) She must have been proud when he flashed the white power symbol to admirers who asked for his picture. The judge’s response was not to remand Rittenhouse to custody, but to stipulate that he cannot drink (not even with his ma), own firearms, or consort with white supremacists while out on bail. Of course, he was able to raise the $2 million in bail with the help of white supremacists.
My own child just sent me the Against Punishment curriculum from Project NIA. The four-part apology on pages 8 and 9 is required reading for all humans, including young Mr. Rittenhouse. Members of Congress who perpetuated the lies about the 2020 Election and voted against the Electoral College certification also need to read it.
Read the Against Punishment curriculum and learn more about restorative justice.
The president has shown a great sense of urgency about pursuing his agenda without distraction, and it is heartening to see his focus and resolve in the face of so many pressing problems. Last week, Ayanna Pressley and Cori Bush wrote to President Biden asking him to commute the sentences of the remaining federal prisoners on death row:
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.
While there is satisfaction in watching the great un-doing of the mean, dumb, and dangerous deeds of the last administration, there are limits on the unilateral powers of presidents (thank goodness). Many of the important moves the President has made since taking office will need to be legislated by Congress if they are to take root.
And so it is troubling that the President’s seems committed to preserving the procedural traditions of the Senate that allow a minority of Senators to block legislation. In order for Congress to act on behalf of the people and pursue an agenda that works for the masses of Americans who are calling for economic, racial, and climate justice, the undemocratic filibuster has to go and the Republicans must be made to support voting rights and pandemic relief and so much more, or go on the record against them and see if they can survive another election cycle.
Sign the People’s Charter to call for bold action and send a postcard to President Biden to remind him that we can’t wait on bipartisanship.
Have a good day!
with love,
L