Dear friends,
Our individual experiences as part of a pluralistic society give us many entry points to consider what it means to live in a democracy. I’ve been thinking about this as I work with young people, who bring their concerns into the classroom (and then home again and back).
I can’t wait to tell my students that the House passed
the CROWN Act, legislation that would ban discrimination against individuals based on how they choose to wear their hair. . . and prohibits discrimination “based on the individual’s hair texture or hairstyle, if that hair texture or that hairstyle is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin.”
The acronym stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act. This might not seem like a big deal to you, but when teenage athletes are offered a choice between cutting off their dreadlocks or forfeiting a wrestling match, it becomes clear that there is a need for this law.
On the floor of the House, Congressman Jerrold Nadler spoke in support of the bill and spelled out some of the things at stake:
Students have been sent home from school or told they could not walk at graduation. Employees have been told to change their hair because it violated their employer’s dress code. Some people have even been denied jobs altogether because of their hairstyles.
If you’re lodging a mental protest, pay attention to your thoughts. What does it mean to be presentable? professional? serious? Whose standards are those? Where did they come from.
Watch Amber Ruffin explain hair (and hair-covering) history and respectability politics.
It’s a baby step forward for democracy, which remains in peril, both here and abroad. That good news is that, in the face of danger, defenders of democracy get creative.
I used to delude myself that I could perform a tracheotomy with a knife and a ballpoint pen because I saw it on M*A*S*H, but I can’t even watch a tracheotomy on TV.
I have doubted the efficacy of video tutorials, but last week a nine-year-old friend taught me how to make an excellent paper airplane. I was impressed by his clear instructions and he told me that he was repeating what he heard in a video tutorial. The doctors are getting a lot of traffic on their videos. There are probably Ukrainian children memorizing their instructions.
Stacey Abrams, president of United Earth AND second-time candidate for governor of Georgia, knows more than a little about the nefarious means that democracy’s enemies will go to in order to squash electoral competition. Yesterday, she filed a legal challenge to a Georgia law that enables ‘leadership committees’ to accept contributions without limits on behalf of nominees of the major political parties.
The law is designed to benefit incumbents, since the party out of power cannot take advantage of it until they select a nominee.
The beauty of this legal challenge is that Governor Kemp is facing a primary challenge from David Perdue, and a federal court has already ruled that Kemp cannot tap the money raised through his leadership committee until he wins the primary. Meanwhile,
Abrams argues that because no one filed to run against her in the May 24 Democratic primary and because write-in votes are not allowed, she became the Democratic nominee when qualifying closed.
Abrams’s own One Georgia committee has raised an undisclosed pile of money. It seems that even if she loses her challenge, she can turn the tables on Kemp and start spending the One Georgia money.
Stacey is super-smart, and she remains on the side of democracy, justice and a viable future.
You can support Stacey Abrams for Governor of Georgia AND abide campaign donation limits.
It is heartening that Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson would bring her background as a public defender to the highest court. If anyone can help promote the expansion of democracy, it is someone who has defended people who are poor.
Corporate lawyers are overrepresented in the appellate courts. Some Republicans are wary of Brown Jackson’s work as a public defender, but their objection
demeans some of the most important work that lawyers do, [and] demeans the US Constitution senators swear to uphold. The Sixth Amendment assures the right to counsel in a criminal case, not just to the affluent.
There are so many institutions that must be protected from the enemies of democracy. Almost two hundred years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that the postal service
bound the fledgling nation together by getting information crucial to maintaining a democracy to the tiniest hamlets.
The importance of getting ballots through the mail was paramount during the 2020 election, and you will recall our fears that obstructing the mail was but one of the many gambits for manipulating the electoral results.
The Postal Service Reform Act has cleared both houses of Congress and is awaiting the President’s signature. This bill ends the ridiculous requirement that the USPS “pre-fund” health benefits for its workers. This correction, among others will prevent the Postal Service from running out of money in 2024.
We’ve got a planet to save, too.
As members of the public, we have the opportunity to submit comments on the proposed scoping plan from New York State’s Climate Action Plan. NY Renews has created a new comment on energy efficiency and renewable energy, and this is an area where the plan needs considerable revision.
Submit a comment calling for bolder action on power generation and electricity This 15-second (!) action is from NY Renews.
This Friday, March 25, is a big Fridays For the Future Climate Strike, here and around the nation and the world.
Check out the press release from FFF (NYC) and come out this Friday! Use the map to find actions outside NYC.
Have a good evening!
with love,
L