Hi friends,
Let’s celebrate some baby steps in the right direction. Finally, the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths are coming down in the US and here in NYC, case numbers have dropped by more than 50 percent in the last two weeks. Thanks to vaccine mandates, tens of thousands of DOE employees and NYS health care workers have recently gotten their first shots.
Last week, the governor appointed Dr. Mary Bassett as the state’s new health commissioner, a move that progressives have championed. Bassett’s extensive public health experience and her commitment to tackling structural racism are what we need right now.
We have a long way to go, AND we are in motion. This our theme for today.
While we work to get legislators to invest in renewable energy and climate resiliency, Bill McKibben reports that divestment efforts are “starving the beast” and making it difficult to fund dirty energy projects. He notes that after Harvard recently divested its enormous endowment from fossil fuel, nine more of the richest colleges pulled their tens of billions of dollars — and their imprimatur — from fossil fuel projects.
And there’s more:
[A] single pension fund that you’ve probably never heard of unless you’re a Canadian retiree, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, announced that it too would divest from fossil fuels. And with that one announcement, it took $315 billion out of play for the fossil fuel industry. It’s Canada’s second-biggest pension fund and the world’s twelfth biggest (its other giants are under pressure to divest as well). It joins other massive pension funds—New York City and New York State, for instance, each of them over $200 billion. Others are following suit: the Maine legislature, for instance, recently instructed the state pension fund to divest—it’s “only” $17 billion, but that’s the biggest pool of capital in the state by far.
One of the formative moments in my own political awakening was the movement to divest from South Africa. I was a senior at Barnard when Columbia students chained the doors of Hamilton Hall to demand that the university divest from corporations that continued to do business in South Africa while Apartheid persisted.
The school immediately responded [to the blockade] by threatening to expel [Coalition for a Free South Africa’s] leaders and dozens more received disciplinary notices within the next few days. The University continued, despite a restraining order issued by a sympathetic judge preventing police action, to point out the various civil and criminal violations made by the student protesters. The blockade, however, continued unabated. Leaders made sure that there were many blockaders there at all times so that students were able to leave and return if necessary. The student grocery store donated food and supplies and an African-American alumni group assisted with publicity. The blockade was the predominant topic of discussion in classes, no matter the subject.
I was student-teaching at the time, and wasn’t willing to risk arrest and my chance to teach by participating in the blockade of Hamilton Hall. I cared about justice, but I was still a timid activist.
I knew that it mattered that people risked arrest and even their diplomas to stand up for justice. I heard Jesse Jackson speak in front of Hamilton Hall that spring, and I quietly resolved to educate myself and be more brave. Columbia’s decision to divest came in October 1985, five months after I graduated.
Recently, I learned that NYU, my employer since 2019, has not yet divested from fossil fuels. I found the petition from students and faculty and added my name. I am working on a letter to Barnard’s trustees.
Research universities with which you are or have been affiliated. Withhold your financial support from institutions that invest in fossil fuels. Sign petitions and write letters to the trustees.
On Thursday, having averted a government shutdown, the Senate confirmed Rohit Chopra as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In 2008, Elizabeth Warren hired Chopra to help launch the bureau, which recovered about $11.7 billion for tens of millions of consumers in its first five years. Under the last president, it was gutted by Mick Mulvaney, who was appointed for that very reason. Chopra is the person to rebuild the bureau to protect consumers from corporate abuses.
One of my favorite stories this week involves the return of property, taken by eminent domain, to the descendants of the Black family that owned it. California’s 1912 seizure of Bruce’s Beach in an LA suburb was racially-motivated and robbed the family of an economic stake. The California legislature unanimously approved the law returning the land to the Bruce family.
With a half-dozen descendants of the couple present, Newsom apologized for how the land was taken before signing the bill during a ceremony at the property.
“There are other families waiting for this very day, to have their land returned to them,” Patricia Bruce, a cousin of [the original owners].
Governor Hochul signed legislation yesterday to give people who are unhoused, elderly, and/or disabled greater flexibility to use their SNAP benefits to purchase prepared or hot food under the new Restaurant Meals Program. This reality-based policy is good news in the fight against food insecurity. Hot meals matter.
As of today, the three NYC library systems are waiving all late fees and replacement fees that are owed. The plan is to eliminate late fees, which often result in a loss of library access for young and lower-income patrons. I won’t wax poetic about the role of the library; I think you know how I feel.
Alex Jones, the bloviating host of InfoWars, spent years telling his audience that the 2012 massacre of children and school staff at Sandy Hook elementary school did not happen. A Texas court has ruled that Jones, having failed to produce evidence of his lie, is now liable for damages to families of the twenty children who were killed.
It is good to finally see that Jones will get his comeuppance for egregious cruelty.
Some other worthy legal action: The Legal Aid Society filed a class-action suit yesterday against NYC’s Department of Correction on behalf of four people detained at Rikers. The issue is the denial of proper medical care including medications and treatment. The details are pretty grisly, and include a story of detainees carrying a victim of a stabbing to the infirmary in the absence of correction officers.
Another 23-year-old man has been at Rikers since September 13,
recovering from a stabbing injury to his lung as well as an injury to his knee after he was allegedly hit by a cop car and stomped on by officers during an arrest, the court papers say.
However, the filing claims [he] endured harsh treatment since his arrival at Rikers when he was left on a bus in handcuffs for 14 hours without food, drink, access to a bathroom and was made to sleep on the floor and was pepper-sprayed daily for six days during his intake, the filing claims.
The young man has asthma, which worsened because of the pepper spray. Although he has asked each day to see a doctor and to get an inhaler, his requests have been disregarded for almost three weeks.
The only good news here is that the pressure is on to address the hellish conditions on Rikers Island.
Tell the mayor (again!) to use his authority to grant supervised release to eligible people.
I have mentioned an essay that I used to read with my students, “The Impossible Will Take a Little While.” The essay is about taking the long view when working for change. Thanks for staying with me for today’s long read and our perennial long view.
with love,
L