racism

Solidarity with the people of Gaza

/ Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

Once again, I’m pivoting from my usual Climate Movement Monday posts because of the ongoing and worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza (although, technically speaking, it’s important to remember that militaries use vast amounts of fossil fuels and greatly accelerate global warming) in order to offer some resources in the face of the U.S.-supported genocide of the Palestinian people.

Al-Rimal, a neighborhood in the heart of Gaza City, has been repeatedly targeted by Israel over recent days. Atia Darwish APA images

More than 1,000 Palestinian children have been killed since October 7 which equals one child killed every 15 minutes by Israeli forces. As I write this, American Jews and allies of IfNotNow.org and Jewish Voice for Peace are blocking all entrances to the White House as they demand a ceasefire now.

Those folks in D.C. are incredibly courageous and, in solidarity with them, here are some actions we can all take at home:

Make phone calls/send emails via the Stop Gaza Genocide Action Toolkit
(Click HERE to access the Jewish Voice for Peace link which makes it VERY easy to call your 2 Senators & 1 Rep . . . and we can call over and over!)
** a Ceasefire NOW resolution has just been introduced in the House so please ask your reps to sign on to this resolution!** (If your member of Congress is Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Summer Lee, Delia Ramirez, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Jonathan Jackson, Chuy Garcia, Nydia Velazquez, or Bonnie Watson-Coleman — then please call to thank them!)

Donate to humanitarian aid organizations:

Educate yourself
Click HERE to access three free Haymarket Books ebooks about Palestine
Click HERE to read “Gaza Is a Prison Under Siege. This Is My Letter to the World Outside.” by Ahmed Abu Artema, a founder of the Great March of Return
Click HERE to read “Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine” written/published by Peter Beinart in 2020

These are incredibly difficult days and it’s easy to be overcome by grief and exhaustion. Please, if you can, find opportunities to experience joy each day. I spent a chunk of time this morning watching a squirrel sitting on the deck railing as it devoured a sunflower seed-head, and it felt very good to laugh.

Thank you for reading and taking action on behalf of an oppressed people. Until next time, Solidarity! ✊🏽

Climate Movement Monday: MVP update + Cop City testimony

/ Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which I highlight a frontline community facing the worst of the effects of climate change and then typically offer an action you can take in solidarity with that community. Today, though, I’m just here with an update on the debt ceiling “negotiations” and Mountain Valley Pipeline plus a link to the live public comments in Atlanta as the city council hears from many, many people (again) about the proposed Cop City before voting on funding the project. This follows on the heels of SWAT teams raiding the house from which the Atlanta Solidarity Fund operates, arresting and charging the three people there with charity fraud and money laundering. Those are felony charges! Fortunately, they were released days later on $15,000 bond.)

Image by Tuna Ölger from Pixabay

Confession? I’m exhausted by the horrible decisions and actions taken by those in power. Last week was hard and today I’m watching and listening to the people of Atlanta speak out. It’s powerful testimony from many perspectives and balm for my soul, and I encourage you to check it out. Here’s a tally of those for and against Cop City.

UPDATE: So quickly, in case you didn’t hear, despite the overwhelming pushback on making Appalachia a sacrifice zone, Biden and the Democrats refused to vote for Senator Kaine’s amendment to remove all text related to Mountain Valley Pipeline from the Fiscal Responsibility Act. According to that legislation, ALL permits must be passed without judicial review within 21 days. (Unfortunately, that’s not the only horrific pieces of the so-called negotiations, but I don’t have the heart to list all of it here or even find an article that lays it all out. PLEASE leave a link if you have one!) The good news? People will continue to fight for environmental justice for the Appalachian region and for every other frontline community.)

Now I’m off to continue watching the people of Atlanta. Solidarity! ✊🏽

Climate Movement Monday: supporting Jackson, Mississippi

/ Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

Jackson is the capital city of Mississippi. The population is 82% Black and, for decades, politicians have kicked the “water” can down the road in terms of financial investment to upgrade the crumbling infrastructure. On August 28, heavy rainfall caused the Pearl River to overflow its banks. The water treatment facility failed and 150,000 people are now without water.

No drinking water.
No cooking water.
No bathing water.
No water to flush toilets.
No water to put out fires.

Flooding on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Canton. wjtv.com

This is a classic example of environmental racism. This type of precarious water situation is happening around the country and will continue to happen to frontline communities in the climate crisis. We need an immediate energy transition that is just and equitable!

Right now, we can all pitch in to help the people of Jackson.

CooperationJackson.org: Donate here.
Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity: Donate here.
Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition–Water Fund: Donate here.

Thank you in advance for standing in solidarity with the people of Jackson. ✊🏽

Defund the Police

/ Tracy Abell

The growing movement that calls for defunding the police, instead putting that money into community programs, is getting push-back from the pundits, elites, consultants, establishment politicians . . .aka the comfortable/powerful. Why?

The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishment’s hand. They make the racist secure in his racism. ~Huey Newton

Photo credit: Ira L. Black – Corbis – Getty Images

We dump obscene amounts of money into police departments around the country, departments that harass, oppress, and murder Black people.

The NYPD’s budget is $6,000,000,000. That’s more than the city spends on health, homelessness, youth development and workforce development COMBINED.

That NYPD budget is higher than the entire military budget of Ukraine, a country with a population 5x that of NYC.

NYC spent $229.8 million on police misconduct lawsuits in a single year.

But it’s not just NYC. Austin’s police department budget is $440,000,000. That’s more than the city spends on public health, housing, libraries, city planning, parks & recreation and EMS combined.

Minneapolis spent more than 11 percent of its budget on policing. For comparison, just 1.5 percent went to the Health Department.

LAPD budget: $3.14 billion

CDC budget: $11 billion
+ EPA budget: $9 billion
+ FEMA budget: $3 billion
+ OSHA budget: $558 million
_____________________________
= TOTAL: $23.6 billion
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US police budget: $115 billion

I could go on and on, but it’s pretty clear: this insanity must end.
#DefundPolice