Dear friends,
Celebrate the launch of 988, the first national mental health crisis line. In a nation where almost one-fourth of fatal police shootings involve people with mental illness, an alternative to 911 is a big deal.
People who call or text the number will be connected to a trained counselor at a crisis center closest to them. If a local crisis center is too busy to respond right away, the call gets routed to one of 16 backup centers around the country.
States and localities, in response to demand for services, have started to build their capacity to provide urgent mental health care. The Biden Administration has invested an unprecedented amount in community mental health services.
On one hand, the service must be adopted with the effort to build trust with the Black community by service providers understanding the community they serve. On the other hand…Black people need to be willing to seek these services.
Nonetheless, the need for services is great, and the launch of 988 is a vast improvement over the the often-disastrous results when folks dial 911 because someone is in crisis.
Back when this publication was just ten days of emails, I sent out a message asking for folks to support CARA — College Access: Research & Action — an extraordinary program that is housed at the CUNY Graduate Center.
CARA’s mission is to ensure that first-generation college students, low-income students, and students of color have the knowledge and support necessary to enroll in and persist through college.
This is not a request for support; it is a joyous report: MacKenzie Scott, the nation’s leading philanthropist, has given $2 million dollars to support CARA’s postsecondary access and success work. It doesn’t happen often enough that great work gets the support and recognition it deserves.
Education equity has been in the news here in NYC. We are keeping an eye on the lawsuit to try to halt the DOE budget cuts and the apparent movement to restore funding to the schools.
Under the Reconnecting Communities program, cities and states can now apply for the federal aid over five years to rectify harm caused by roadways that were built primarily through lower-income, Black communities after the 1950s creation of the interstate highway system.
New projects could include rapid bus transit lines to link disadvantaged neighborhoods to jobs; caps built on top of highways featuring green spaces, bike lanes and pedestrian walkways to allow for safe crossings over the roadways; repurposing former rail lines; and partial removal of highways.
The dollar amount is too little AND the initiative is still important.
Last week, the House passed two bills to protect abortion rights.
The first bill guarantees a right to travel across state lines for abortion services and includes legal protections for those who provide services to those who travel across state lines.
The second bill would enshrine abortion rights in federal law, which would undermine existing state restrictions. While nobody believes that these bills will reach a vote in the Senate (which is appalling), I applaud Nancy Pelosi for forcing House members to go on the record before the upcoming midterm elections.
Today, the House passed The Right to Contraception Act.
Representative Angie Craig, Democrat of Minnesota. . .before the vote that “quite frankly, I’m appalled that we have to vote on this damn bill at all. This is not an extremist issue. This is an extremist GOP.”
It is horrifying that only eight Republicans could get behind contraception in 2022.
Help turn the outrage into votes: write postcards with Reclaim Our Vote.
Some legislators did more than vote. On Tuesday, the squad — AOC, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Cori Bush — along with a dozen other representatives including Jackie Speier (CA), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ), Katherine Clark (MA), Alma Adams (NC), Veronica Escobar (TX), and Carolyn Maloney (NY) were arrested at a march for abortion rights that ended at the Supreme Court.
Support Congresswoman Cori Bush for reelection. She’s in a brutal primary fight and she needs us. We need her. (Today’s her birthday!)
Fani Willis, the Fulton County DA, is on the job. You can tell she’s closing in on the rogues behind the effort to reverse Georgia’s 2020 electoral results because she is facing a lawsuit to disqualify her from prosecuting the 16 false electors.
The return of the bison is a victory not only for the sake of biodiversity but for the entire ecosystem in which they live. As a keystone species, the bison sustain their environment from the top down.
“They move through, graze everything down. It’s a type of disturbance — like fire would be,” said Dan McDonald, lead wildlife biologist at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. “The fresh green [draws] other animals that would feed on it: elk and deer and whatever other type of grazers that would consume some of that new forage.”
Large herds can create what scientists call a ‘green wave’ when their grazing stimulates the growth of new vegetation. The Oklahoma herd is over 600 bison.
We can’t put this all on the bison. I know the president has Covid, and I want him to rest. At the same time, we cannot wait.
Urge President Biden to Declare a Climate Emergency. This 15-second action is from Th!rd Act.
with love,
L