Dear friends,
Remember two weeks ago? The number of new COVID cases in the US has increased by 111 percent since then.
Please get a vaccination if you haven’t got one yet AND have a loving conversation with someone you know who is still unvaccinated.
New York City is now offering residents home vaccination, including a choice of brands — Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J! See if you can get just one more neighbor to YES!
Here’s the link to sign up for home vaccination!
The positivity rate is around 2.5 percent on much of the island and some areas are approaching 5 percent. I’m issuing a new travel advisory for Staten Island because of the high transmission rate. I have no actual authority, of course, but if I had children too young to be vaccinated, I would not allow them to go to Staten Island.
It’s time to review some actions that need our attention (throwback Thursday!). On Monday, I linked to Emily Atkin’s call to climate action. I encourage you to
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Her post yesterday included this tweet with a simple action we can all take. It took me under 3.5 minutes to do the entire action!
Go to call4climate.com and make the two calls to your US Senators. Then tell at least three friends to do it.
For those of you who aren’t sure the US Senate can get anything done (all of you?!), you will also want to keep the pressure on to pass the Climate and Community Investment Act in NYS. As you may recall, the state legislative session that ‘ended’ in June is not really over. The same session will continue when the legislature reconvenes in January.
This is significant because bills will not have to be reintroduced nor will sponsors have to repeat the process of gathering co-sponsors; instead, they will pick up where they left off. This means that we can keep working to get important legislation, like the CCIA, over the line.
Call the Speaker & Majority Leader to tell them that we Need the Climate and Community Investment Act! A script is provided!
Climate criminal Jair Bolsonaro is apparently so full of shit that he requires surgery. If you’re praying, put your hands together for the well-being of the Brazilian people and every living thing in their country.
On Tuesday, I neglected to applaud the 51 Democrats from the Texas legislature who left the state to break the House’s quorum and prevent the passage of a bill to restrict voting.
The Texas legislators flew to DC, where they are angling to call attention to necessary federal legislation to provide voter protections. It’s a bold move, and I am visualizing their success. Our senators are on board, so I can’t think of what else we should do.
There’s nonsense on social media about letting Texas secede, but good people live everywhere and we cannot abandon them.
Sign this petition to stop the execution of Rodney Reed, for a crime he did not commit. His execution is scheduled for July 19 in Texas.
Then, if you haven’t already, read this extraordinary story about successful efforts to free Yutico Briley, who was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit.
The problem is much bigger than any one person’s story, of course.
Biden faces a backlog of 15,000 clemency petitions, and the current approach for processing them, not to mention the time, labor, and expense of exonerating folks like Briley, one by one, is not equal to the scale of the problem.
In conversations with activists, the administration has, at most, expressed some desire to use the pardon power before the 2022 midterm elections. That tells us two things, both dispiriting: that this is a low priority for the president, and that the administration does not yet have a handle on how this all could work. That’s far too long for reforms that don’t need congressional approval and when there is a backlog of petitioners who have waited too long for justice.
Tell the President that justice can’t wait. Here’s a ready-made action.
Support JLUSA, which “is dedicated to decarcerating the United States by educating, elevating and empowering the people and communities most impacted by systemic racism to drive meaningful and lasting policy reform.”
Systems change tends to be slow. In the meantime, let’s send some light to incarcerated folks. The NYC Books Through Bars program delivers books to people in prison. It operates from the basement of Freebird Books. They’re having a sale on books that have been requested by incarcerated readers. You can order the books from them and they’ll ship them out.
Send some good books to people. Free minds make free people.
Have a good day!
with love,
L