Dear friends,
Tomorrow is Juneteenth. Somewhat surprisingly, Congress passed legislation to make Juneteenth the 12th federal holiday on the calendar. While I am generally anti-holiday, I can think of nothing more significant to celebrate than the emancipation of enslaved people.
Four years ago, Texan Opal Lee, a teacher and community activist, walked from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington DC to promote the importance of Juneteenth. She was present at the signing.
From the archives: read last year’s little history lesson about Juneteenth.
There are lots of ways to celebrate Juneteenth. For those of us who are white, the most important might be to work for reparations.
Call on your Congressional representative to support HR 40, a bill to “establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations.”
The National African American Reparations Commission has a 10-point plan for reparations. It’s a good read. In March, I signed on for a monthly reparations contribution; it is an easy thing stop noticing after a while — like white privilege — and that means it’s time to increase the amount.
Make your reparations contribution.
A thirteenth federal holiday — Election Day — is under consideration in Joe Manchin’s draft of voting rights legislation. Stacey Abrams has endorsed the revised bill (“a positive building block”), and McConnell has derided it. The legislation will come up for a vote next week and will surely be blocked by the Republicans. And then we’ll see if Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema can be persuaded to do something about the filibuster.
People aren’t really free if they cannot vote.
Let Senators Schumer and Gillibrand know that you support the passage of the For the People Act.
I promised some follow-up on the state legislative frenzy. The good people at VOCAL-NY reported some legislative successes from the end of the session:
House Our Neighbors with Dignity Act (HONDA) which will convert economically distressed hotels into permanent housing for homeless and extremely poor New Yorkers.
Syringe decriminalization, an 11 year fight to end the criminalization of syringes and expand access to this public health tool.
A guarantee to provide Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) to anyone with an opioid use disorder inside jails or prisons in New York State.
A bill previously vetoed by Governor Cuomo to ensure people enrolled in Medicaid are not denied access to the MAT drug prescribed by the doctor.
Affordable Housing for Black communities is point #7 in the 10-point plan for reparations. “Resources for the health, wellness, and healing of Black families and communities” is point #5. We have to think like Stacey and work for every building block of justice.
Call on Governor Cuomo to sign all four bills. Here’s a ready-made message.
Have a great weekend!
with love,
L