Dear friends,
Spring is here! Or autumn, if you’re in the southern hemisphere. (I am aware of at least one regular reader who lives in Brazil). These have always been my two favorite seasons.
Earth's poles are undergoing simultaneous freakish extreme heat with parts of Antarctica more than 70 degrees (40 degrees Celsius) warmer than average and areas of the Arctic more than 50 degrees (30 degrees Celsius) warmer than average.
Inaction in the face of these dangers is not acceptable. We want comprehensive planning and drastic action to address the scope and urgency of the problem. Meanwhile, we whack the moles as fast as we can.
A few weeks ago, while war was breaking out in Europe, Postmaster Louis DeJoy decided to purchase $6 billion worth of new gas-powered mail trucks. House Democrats want to investigate DeJoy’s decision because
the multibillion-dollar contract would undermine the nation’s climate goals. The contract would be the Postal Service’s first large-scale vehicle purchase in three decades.
Tell Congress: Block DeJoy’s Bad Deal! The USPS contract must require at least 75% electric trucks. This ready-made action from the National Campaign for Transit Justice will take less than a minute!
Here in NYS, the Climate Action Council has released a draft of the plan intended to guide our state’s transition off fossil fuels and toward climate justice.
As members of the public, we have the opportunity to submit comments on the proposed scoping plan. NY Renews has created a new comment on transportation issues for this week. Here are two repeat actions for New Yorkers to raise our voices for climate action.
Use this 15-second (!) action from NY Renews to let our state legislators know that we want to expanded, electrified, and improved public transportation.
Use this 15-second (!) action from NY Renews to let our state legislators know that we want to phase out fossil fuel combustion technologies and protect low-income New Yorkers from high utility rates.
I don’t usually repeat Friday actions on Mondays, but this local mole needs a proper, urgent whacking. A few months ago, NRG was denied a permit to build a new peaker power plant. Now they have appealed, and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is again considering their application to build a power plant we do not need that will poison Black and Brown people who live in neighborhoods that are already poisoned by emissions.
Wringing our hands about the melting glaciers while allowing fossil fuel companies to pollute our own city with heat-trapping emissions doesn’t make sense. This action is more of a time commitment (1-2 minutes!), as I have taken the talking points provided and composed the body of the comment for you, which you can personalize.
Use this action from No Astoria NRG Fracked Gas Plant to tell the governor and the DEC to uphold the Astoria decision!
Some of my students are preparing a presentation to challenge a school dress code rule that prohibits students from wearing the hoods on their heads; the students have concluded that dress code enforcement intersects with racial oppression because
Black people are more likely to get called out because they are seen as threatening.
people think hoodies are ‘gang attire’ even though it’s not and that rule only tends to go to Black boys/men.
I am forced to take my hood off and other races don’t have to.
Last week, I asked the seventh graders to write about why they like to wear hoodies. Many of the responses were predictable: students like hoodies because they’re stylish, warm, and good for concealing ‘bad hair’ days. I appreciated this remark:
They’re comfortable. It doesn’t bother anyone, so I don’t know why they want to be against it.
My favorite response was
It makes you feel mysterious.
I did not fully expect how often students associated hoodie wearing with calm, safe feelings. The word calm was used repeatedly. About half of the group wrote about the psychological effects of hoodie wearing, before we had an open discussion.
A few talked specifically about hiding:
Some people are insecure. [Hoodies] are easy and comfy.
Sometimes I am really cold. I also don’t like my body all that much so I wear hoodies to cover it.
Hoodies are warm and cozy. It’s also a way to be myself. If I am feeling more shy, I can put my hood on and feel safer.
It’s big and comfy, but it also makes me feel sleepy. I like wearing hoodies because I can hide my face.
It was hard not to notice that they even tried to hide their inclination to hide by saying something ordinary before or after.
We know the pandemic has taken a toll on young people.
School is a major cause of stress for kids with anxiety. Kids are about twice as likely to die of suicide in the United States on school days versus non-school days.
“People naively say things like ‘if we send kids back to school, we’ll restore their mental health.’ And I keep wanting to remind everybody that prior to the pandemic, we had a lot of concerns about school and kids’ mental health,” Tyler Black [a child and adolescent psychiatrist] said.
Among the concerns he mentioned were bullying and racism.
The House of Representatives has passed legislation to fund partnerships between public schools and mental health professionals to provide services in schools. The Senate must act.
Petition your Senators to support the Mental Health Services for Students Act. This 15-second action comes from the NEA.
Two more people died on Rikers Island last week. Both men had been incarcerated for less than a month. The Medical Examiner is looking into the causes of their deaths.
People in jails and prisons continue to go without necessary medical care.
Councilwoman Carlina Rivera has introduced a bill to
require the Department of Correction (“DOC”) to develop and implement a plan, in consultation with Correction Health Services (“CHS”) to address medical appointments during and after a lock-in. . . DOC [must] continue to escort patients to medical appointments, whenever practicable. This bill would also require DOC to report when mental health units are locked down and how services were supplemented during that time, and CHS to report on the number of missed appointments due to a lock-in.
Ask your councilmember to support the bill to ensure medical care to people who are incarcerated! This 1-minute action is ready-made.
Have a good day!
with love,
L