Dear friends,
Tuesdays are the day for good news, and today’s post, in honor of the holiday, is a special edition devoted to gratitude.
I am grateful to the many organizers and activists whose hard work we build on. Work from home shares many ready-made actions produced by others. For example, the NRDC is fighting the good fight against disposable plastics. They’ve been organizing for the passage of the Skip the Stuff bill,
which would require NYC restaurants and food service establishments to only provide condiments, napkins, and plastic utensils, plates, and cups if a customer asks for them.
Call on council speaker Corey Johnson to bring the Skip the Stuff bill (Intro 1775-B) to a vote! This is a ready-made action!
I am not a journalist, and except for occasional dispatches from classrooms where I teach and protests that I attend, I rely entirely on the reporting of a wide range of writers from many news outlets to bring you the context for our justice efforts.
There are also some professional journalists, photographers, and media people among our merry band, and they have also helped to make the ‘wiffij’ a little different from the other things that pile up in your inbox.
Work from home for justice has a household nickname, wiffij, which came from Lena Greenberg, aka Zealous Observer. They have also contributed some original reporting and commentary on climate issues and frequently bring me up to speed on issues I am learning about.
Student journalists at Townsend Harris HS in Queens did some great reporting that led to the removal of a teacher/coach for sexual misconduct. Read about it.
Two Fox commentators quit their jobs, outraged by the release of “Patriot Purge,” Tucker Carlson’s series about the January 6 attack. They called it “the most egregious example of a longstanding trend” at Fox.
[Steve] Hayes and [Jonah] Goldberg, formerly writers with the Weekly Standard and the National Review, said the series was “presented in the style of an exposé, a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism. In reality, it is a collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering, riddled with factual inaccuracies, half-truths, deceptive imagery and damning omissions.”
In the current climate, this act looks a lot like courage.
On a personal/professional/activist note: I am wrapping up a six-week residency as a teaching artist with the 92nd Street Y. My last class with the sixth-graders is tomorrow, and my work is technically complete (I like to leave the door open!) with the seventh- and eighth-graders. It has been an incredibly exciting experience. The writing I do here was preparation for this amazing job, which feels like it was made for me.
I’ve talked about the climate activists in one of the eighth grade classes I worked with. They’re working on an action I will share back with you. While we wait, let’s revisit:
New York’s Climate Action Council is finalizing their recommendations. Urge them to go with their most aggressive proposal, which would retire existing fossil fuel infrastructure and save hundreds of billions of dollars because of improved human health!
Contact NYS’s Climate Action Council to let them know that we are depending on them to deliver on the promises of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
Now, I need to tell you about the seventh graders, who regularly blew my mind.
Weeks ago, when they were generating possible issues to work on, a few of the girls wrote “gender bias in the dress code.” I compiled a list of 24 issues from student responses; the list included Black Lives Matter, classism, and global warming, as well a few other school-based issues, too: nice teachers, better school food, and stairs. Seriously, the school is on the fifth floor, and there’s no elevator.
Anyway, I asked each student to choose two issues from the compiled list and to explain why it’s a problem and the changes they would like to see. That activity yielded the top three issues, which included COVID, global warming, and gender bias in the dress code.
The following week, I presented back to the class what students had written about each issue. One student had told a story:
A teacher stopped me and made me turn to the side to measure my shorts and pull them down [to cover more leg], but they never do that to the boys.
When the students voted to choose the issue they would take on as a class, gender bias in the dress code won. Fun fact: we used ranked-choice voting, and the dress code had half the votes before we eliminated the third choice and redistributed the votes to second choices.
Last week, in their final session, having learned more about the issue and more about how activists work to make change, I asked them to create wearable messages.
My longest friend volunteered her brother to help me present the work back to the class; S2 is the artist behind dept8.com. He designed these for my students.
Check out all of the seventh-graders’ t-shirt messages with S2’s designs.
So, here is some gratitude for all of the relationships, that flow and wind like a wild river through our lives. I’ve known S2 since I was eight years old, but haven’t seen him in around ten years. This weekend, he made something for my students, because he’s a kid-person and a maker and a generous soul.
Our relationship (yours and mine) has kept me going through these pandemic years and the existential crises of hate and climate disaster that we face together. I love when you send actions, ask questions, and bring my attention to issues might not otherwise be on my radar. As the readership has gotten bigger, I have mostly stopped shouting out personal friends. I have not stopped appreciating you.
Two friends — one old and one new — have pushed me on the question of increasing the reach of the wiffij. The goal is not to sell subscriptions; these posts will remain free of charge. The goal is to educate and activate a broader swath of people.
Here’s what I’d like: please think about your friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, especially the ones who bemoan the state of politics and the pace of change. This is for people possessed by Lordean rage. Maybe they go out to protest or maybe they don’t do street activism but want to do something or something more.
Share the wiffij with others and invite them to work from home for justice with us.
Before we go, let’s revisit a few actions. Puerto Rico would be leading the US as the most vaccinated state, if it were a state..
Contact your congressional representative and urge them to support the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act.
DC statehood has already passed in the House. Statehood would address the critical matter of democratic representation for DC’s 714 million residents, in addition to redressing some of the gross imbalance in the US Senate, where the vast majority of American people are represented by the slimmest majority of senators.
It is conventional wisdom that the legislation will never come to a vote in the Senate as long as the filibuster remains in place. But is the admission of a state a legislative matter?
In recent years both Democrats and Republicans, by ending the filibuster for confirming presidential appointments (a power outlined in Article II, Section 2), have in effect agreed the filibuster shouldn't apply to certain constitutional matters that aren't covered by Article I of the Constitution, which lays out the design of Congress and its legislative powers. The admission of a new state is also not included in Article I. The drafters set it apart as something distinct, not a change to law but a change to the structure of government.
Contact your US Senators and demand that they move on DC statehood. I made it easy! Pass this action along to friends in other states.
More than 1000 people have been arrested and face charges for demonstrating against Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota. Join more than 50,000 voices to
Tell Attorney General Ellison & Gov. Walz: Drop the Charges against Indigenous Water Protectors!
a record sell-off that will lock in years, and potentially decades, of planet-heating emissions.
Contact the President to let him know that this auction must be cancelled. A sample message is provided.
I’m taking Thursday off to spend with loved ones. I hope you’ll do the same. Back on Monday!
with gratitude and love,
L