Dear friends,
In the last several weeks, I have participated in the extraordinary coming together of a typically fractious family. Since I come from such a family myself, I know that challenging times do not necessarily have this effect. This solidarity in one family is potentially something to build on.
It is hard for me not to think about the prospects for our fractured society. Call me crazy…I remain hopeful.
This weekend, I read a cool essay about solidarity. The big idea is that we need to foster human connections and reshape public sensibilities so that people will recognize the value of investing in the essential systems that we all require
to guarantee each of us a dignified life.
The authors of the essay, Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix, offer a concise and beautiful explanation of the power of solidarity:
Solidarity is simultaneously a bond that holds society together and a force that propels it forward. After all, when people feel connected, they are more willing to work together, to share resources and to have one another’s backs. Solidarity weaves us into a larger and more resilient “we” through the precious and powerful sense that even though we are different, our lives and our fates are connected.
[Note: Taylor and Hunt-Hendrix have also written a book: Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. I have already reserved a copy at the library, the institution that comes closest to offering us a lived experience of solidarity.]
Read “The One Idea That Could Save American Democracy.”
Back in the 1990s, my teaching partner and I crafted a humanities course around the idea of interdependence, and we worked hard to get our ninth graders to wrestle with and embrace this idea, which is so antithetical to the individualism that Americans are steeped in.
The climate movement calls upon us to adopt a solidarity mindset so that all of us can have a dignified life on the planet we share.
Last week, the NYS Senate passed the NY HEAT Act. The NY HEAT Act would protect low- and middle-income households, which spend a much larger share of their income on energy bills than other families. It eliminates subsidies for natural gas and makes phasing out fossil fuels affordable
by capping utility costs at 6% of income for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers.
I’m not sure that this conforms completely to the idea of a solidarity economy, which aims to eliminate means-testing in order to create universal systems (like the library!). Right now, however, the goal of making sure everyone can adequately heat and cool their home seems like an important goal.
The folks at NY Renews have organized a call relay, a simple tool for ensuring that Governor Hochul hears all day, every day this week, that New Yorkers want her to budget for NY HEAT!
Sign up to call the Governor about NY HEAT this week at a time that’s convenient for you. There’s a script and the call takes 1-2 minutes!
I’m keeping it short today, since I assigned some reading.
with love,
L