Dear ones,
I have thinking about how to be constructive in the face of the awfulness.
As so often happens, Roxane Gay writes something that clarifies my thinking and explains the unbidden rage I feel:
The United States has become ungovernable not because of political differences or protest or a lack of civility but because this is a country unwilling to protect and care for its citizens — its women, its racial minorities and especially its children.
When politicians talk about civility and public discourse, what they’re really saying is that they would prefer for people to remain silent in the face of injustice. They want marginalized people to accept that the conditions of oppression are unalterable facts of life.
I promised some good news, so I’m going to share some inspiring actions that people have taken.
Zander Moricz, a high school valedictorian in Florida, gave a powerful speech about coming out. He posted on Twitter last week that his principal called him
into his office and informed me that if my graduation speech referenced my activism or role as a plaintiff in the lawsuit [against Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law], school administration had a signal to cut off my microphone.
Zander found a way to use his platform, deliver his message, and celebrate his achievements and those of his classmates.
Watch Zander talk about his curly hair.
People like to say that when one door closes, another one opens. This is not exactly how it works, in my experience. Here’s a story about a person who faced a closed door and made a new door, which they have opened for themself and others.
Camp was a formative experience for me, both as a camper and a counselor, and I can imagine what it meant to Shira Berkowitz to hear other staff and parents questioning whether it was appropriate for a queer adult to supervise and sleep in a cabin of young people.
Berkowitz is now part of the four-person leadership team of Camp Indigo Point, a summer camp for LGBTQ youth. The one-week session filled up quickly, as it turns out there is a huge demand for a camp of this type. No one is turned away for lack of funds.
Support Camp Indigo Point with pride.
When people of conscience refuse to be silenced, shamed, denied their rights or compelled to do evil, we can begin to get things done.
But over the past decade, the spinmasters behind these campaigns and the executives in industries that prop up fossil fuels have woken up to the role their work plays in contributing to climate breakdown.
Waves of employees have co-signed letters and quit en masse in response to their firms’ complicity in obfuscating climate crimes and rolling out aggressive greenwashing schemes. And the resignations are picking up pace. Just this week in a bombshell public resignation, Caroline Dennett, a consultant for Shell, parted ways with the company, citing its “double talk on climate”. She urged others to do the same.
It may seem that calling out lies is old-fashioned and insufficient. It is, however, an essential act of resistance.
Even our disgraceful judicial system sometimes moves in the right direction.
Exxon knew that they were destroying the planet. And now they have to defend their lies.
The Massachusetts high court on Tuesday ruled that the US’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil, must face a trial over accusations that it lied about the climate crisis and covered up the fossil fuel industry’s role in worsening environmental devastation.
We have to turn the ship, and right now, it seems so daunting and impossible. Here’s some resolve from Australia’s new foreign minister:
Penny Wong said Australia wanted to show it was a reliable and trustworthy partner, and was also “determined to make up for” what she described as “a lost decade on climate action”.
The NYS legislative session is drawing to a close in less than a week. Food & Water Watch has made it easy to contact legislators to push for passage of three important climate initiatives that we have been working on for many months.
You can sign all three in under a minute. Please do this today!
Tell lawmakers to Pass the All Electric Buildings Act, Pass the Cryptomining Moratorium, and Pass the Build Public Renewables Act!
The folks at NY Renews have packed all their top recommendations into one comment for the state’s Climate Action Council.
Submit another comment to the Climate Action Council in just 15-seconds!
I am inspired by other people’s relentless determination.
Watch this excellent interview with Ted Cruz, in which a British journalist demands to know why mass shootings only happen in the US.
Sometimes the liars accidentally call attention to their own duplicity:
No guns will be permitted at today’s NRA Leadership Forum in Houston and there is “no storage available for firearms” for those traveling to the event. I can’t wait to hear the spin on this. The former president is the featured speaker.
An appeals court ruled that the former president and Junior and Ivanka will have to give depositions in NYS Attorney General Letitia James’s civil investigation of his business dealings. The allegation is that
Trump misstated the values of assets in financial statements.
It is well-known that the man can scarcely open his mouth without lying, so the fact that he must be deposed, in person and under oath, seems to promise some consequences. At the same time, we will not celebrate prematurely.
The argument was over section three of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress. . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
A representative from Free Speech For People declared a major victory:
This ruling cements the growing judicial consensus that the 1872 Amnesty Act does not shield the insurrectionists of 6 January 2021 – including Donald Trump – from the consequences of their actions.
We would be foolish to entrust the fight for justice to the courts. Nonetheless, we must celebrate all the good people working to use every tool available to hold leaders accountable.
In this spirit of collective relentlessness, I applaud our city council, which held an emergency meeting yesterday. Among their votes was the formal request to state legislators to authorize the state legislature to pass S5602B/A10438, which extends the speed camera program and repeals time limits on the operational hours of speed cameras. The goal is to catch and ticket those who speed around the clock.
Call or write your legislators to demand they support S5602B/A10438 to address the traffic violence in NYC.
In the likely event that Roe v Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court, NYC Health + Hospitals are planning to scale up abortion services.
It is hard to count all the way that lives are on the line, which is why we are all under so much stress.
We’re in our 75th wave of COVID in NYC (jk: it’s only the fifth) and the threat level is burnt orange after spiking to red. Undercounting is likely because of unreported home tests.
Rest, take care of yourself and the folks around you, and work from home for justice.
with love,
L