March 8, 2022
Dear friends,
The international outcry against the Russian war on Ukraine and its people includes Russian feminists. In their anti-war manifesto, they explain their ability to organize under Putin’s regime:
Today feminists are one of the few active political forces in Russia. For a long time, Russian authorities did not perceive us as a dangerous political movement, and therefore we were temporarily less affected by state repression than other political groups. Currently more than forty-five different feminist organizations are operating throughout the country. We call on Russian feminist groups and individual feminists to join the Feminist Anti-War Resistance and unite forces to actively oppose the war and the government that started it.
Sometimes, being underestimated has its advantages.
Youth climate activists around the world are calling for a rejection of fossil fuels in response to the Russian onslaught. Their efforts are gaining traction with academics and officials.
Climate scientists and diplomats have reiterated perspectives in line with activists’ calls for building massive renewable energy capacity as a conflict intervention. “Heat pumps for peace!” tweeted Leah Stokes, climate and energy professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, referring to the fossil fuel-free alternative to a furnace for heating and cooling buildings. Stokes’s comment was in direct response to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s post calling for even more rapid decarbonization in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on the heels of the latest, extremely dire, but still hopeful, comprehensive climate report.
As the ban gained momentum in Washington, senior White House officials have over the last few days explored a range of measures to fill the gap left by a potential prohibition on Russian energy from the United States and other countries. These measures have included the massive scaling up of production of “heat pumps” for Europe, an additional release of U.S. oil reserves, and a gas tax holiday to protect American consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.
It’s a good day to give the president a little nudge.
Contact the president and ask him to use the Defense Production Act to produce “Heat Pumps for Peace and Freedom.” This ready-made action has been updated!
Fridays for the Future is calling for a global strike on Friday, March 25. Learn more.
And now, a good climate initiative: In southwest Virginia, the Nature Conservancy is converting abandoned coal mines into solar farms.
Sixty-seven years after the heinous killing of Emmett Till in Mississippi, the US Senate finally approved HR 55, the bill to amend the US code to specify lynching as a federal hate crime. This is very late AND still very right. There is no doubt that the President will sign it.
A coalition of voting rights groups, Democratic voters and the state's board of elections urged the US Supreme Court to stay out of the dispute. They said that if the justices were to intervene now it would cause confusion and delay as well as "severe administrative difficulties."
In both states, the state supreme courts had ordered maps that had been passed by their legislatures to be remade. The maps created by the state courts will remain in effect, averting (additional) chaos in the 2022 elections. Yay for less electoral chaos.
Yesterday was the first day that students and teachers in NYC schools were permitted to unmask. The reporting on the advent of the optional mask phase is like all reporting; it depends where you look. The NY Post highlighted criticisms of teachers asking students to continue to mask; the Times article focused on the idea that not everyone is ready to stop masking.
A friend sent a cheerful report from her school yesterday:
Very few adults or students unmasked, but there was a lightness and excitement about the possibility to do so. No conflicts so far.
Definitely will be some coming down the pike, I'm sure. But so far, so good. Even if you want to stay masked, it's hard not to be excited about seeing kids’ faces!
Today, more than half of my first class was fully masked, while some of the others were sometimes-masked. My second class, returning from PE, was closer to 50 percent fully unmasked; at least one student was newly double-masked. I have not witnessed any mask-related drama yet either.
Some great teachers I know prepared themselves and their students with humor and heart. Last week, one showed her advisory the clip of Ron DeSantis ridiculing some Florida students for choosing to wear masks in a lesson about ‘what not to do’ when the rules change. This week, she and a colleague led a ‘norms conversation’ in every class.
Using Peardeck, an interactive technology they mastered during the all-remote phase of the pandemic, they asked their students how they could make everyone comfortable and safe.
Here’s what happened, according to a series of texts I got:
Everyone brought up sneezing and coughing into their elbows and having hand sanitizer in the room as well as open windows
And communicating our needs and boundaries
And CONSENT
The friend who described the lesson felt proud, as she should, of seeing to students’ needs as we plunge forward into the next phase (wave?) of the pandemic. We are in agreement, however, that dropping the mask rule before mandating the vaccine seems an unnecessary risk, which is why we are still wearing masks in school.
Call on the mayor to mandate COVID vaccines for children 5 and up as a condition of school enrollment in the fall.
Some of the bills clarify or close loopholes in already existing sexual harassment laws in New York, strengthening state supports for those bringing complaints against state officials or employers.
Some of the bills have already passed in the Assembly, while others await an Assembly vote. The all-too-fresh memory of the former governor’s behavior helped to propel this legislation forward.
Have a good evening!
with love,
L