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Showing posts with label #NativeLivesMatter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #NativeLivesMatter. Show all posts
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
--H.L. Mencken
Make History—Don’t Repeat It!
by C.A. Matthews
I
have to stifle my giggles whenever an acquaintance goes on about how
“Trump is the worse president ever! He’s supporting a genocide in Gaza!
He’s taking away our freedom of speech! He’s trying to steal Greenland!
No other president has ever done such horrible things!”
(Yes,
I know that Biden also supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza among other
horrendous things, but to these poor dears, Joe Biden is a kindly old
man who likes licking ice cream cones and playing with little girls’
hair. He’s some sort of saint apparently in Dem circles. No kidding.)
The
reason I want to giggle—actually I want to laugh out loud in their
faces—is because it’s just too obvious how well our government’s
propaganda works. These people are clueless! Any US history classes they
may have taken in high school or college were woefully inadequate.
Their instructors obviously never went into depth on certain topics, and
the textbooks used in those classes didn’t waste much print on those
topics, either.
It’s
as if American powers-that-be don’t want to air our dirty laundry to
the working masses. If American workers really learned about their
country’s actual history, they might get ideas. Bad ideas. Ideas and
examples of how Americans stood up against oppression, intolerance,
bigotry, and outright theft of land, labor, and resources in the past.
InA People’s History of the United States,
historian Howard Zinn doesn’t beat around the bush. He tells things
straightforwardly, without the narrative spin that always seems to make
the wealthy, white, occasionally slave-owning male elites the heroes in
your average US history book. From now on, whenever somebody says a
silly thing like Trump is the “only president to support a genocide,” I
will point them to Zinn’s classic tome.
Here’s what Zinn has to say in the seventh chapter of A People’s History
about one particular incident of genocide that was not only supported
by the United States government, it was actually committed by the US
government against several groups of indigenous people...
To learn more about US history that doesn't bear repeating,please
continue reading the rest of this article by copying or clicking on this
Substack link:
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This
article is the 513th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began
in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading,
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Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. —Martin Luther
What Are You Thankful For?
words and holiday parade photos by C.A. Matthews
About
this time of the year in the good ol’ USA there comes a national
holiday that pretty much is celebrated by all Americans (except for
Jehovah Witnesses, of course). It seems a benign enough harvest-time
holiday with no overtly religious overtones, but with some covertly
religious ones for those who partake. Americans of all persuasions and
socio-economic backgrounds celebrate this holiday, with or without help
from their local food pantry or soup kitchen.
This
national holiday is called “Thanksgiving.” It was supposedly the brain
child of English colonists who invited the local Native Americans over
for a grand meal in thanks for the Native’s assistance they unwittingly
gave their white invaders. If it hadn’t been for the kindness of the
Native Americans, the English colonists would have completely died off
their first winter at the Massachusetts Bay colony. Later, the Natives
would come to regret their good manners when the Europeans stole their
land and passed small pox on to them, but white historians conveniently
leave out all those unpleasant details.
Instead,
historians have chosen to emphasize the happier aspects of the
Thanksgiving feast—good food, togetherness, neighborliness, and sharing
leftovers with anyone who’ll take them off your hands so you’re not
stuck eating turkey for the next three weeks. These aspects make it a
pretty nifty national holiday to celebrate in the short, dark, and damp
days of late autumn in North America—as others called “Canucks” also
celebrate this harvest festival about a month earlier. (Apparently they
forget the calendar includes months after October.) Thus, border
families of mix American-Canadian heritage have the chance to eat two
Thanksgiving dinners, with the added bonus of putting on enough blubber
to survive the arctic onslaught of the coming winter.
While
everyone sits around the dinner table feasting on the traditional meal
of roast turkey and stuffing—which is no where close to the supposed
original Thanksgiving feast of venison and seafood—guests are supposed
to share what they are thankful for in their lives. This is when the
problems begin.
In
presidential election years, Americans with big mouths not filled with
mashed potatoes and gravy might make mention of how thankful they are
their favorite presidential candidate won the recent contest. Others,
who are not feeling quite so happy about this outcome, will then attack
the sanity of the first party and call them some rather nasty names. The
atmosphere of Thanksgiving thankfulness will immediately evaporate.
Thrown bread rolls and tossed turkey drumsticks can be turned into
semi-lethal weapons if calmer heads don’t quickly prevail.
This
is why on pain of having a pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream thrown
in their face that most Americans do their best not to bring up
politics at Thanksgiving. No one is more thankful than the hosts of the
traditional meal that politics have been left where they belong—in the
trash can out back—before entering their home. With dinner table small
talk limited to sports, the latest Hollywood blockbuster, and how
everyone will go about losing all the weight they’ll gain from gorging
on turkey and several desserts, the day proceeds much more smoothly than
things did ultimately between the Native Americans and the English
colonists.
So,
here it is another US presidential election year and Thanksgiving
approaches. This begs the question for Americans and Non-Americans
alike: What are you thankful for?
To discover more you can be thankful for, please read the rest of this article by clicking on this Substack link: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com There
you'll also see related article and video links, all the parade photos,
and be able to leave comments. You can subscribe to receive the
weekly blog post in your email box as well.
It’s
amazing how fast your mind can go back in time when you hear a name
or see a face that you haven’t seen in almost 50 years.
This week
I’m taking the wise advice of Vegematic (subscribe to his YouTube
channel and watch his latest here) and taking a break from the stress of the current
headlines. I’m tripping down Memory Lane and writing about something
that greatly interested me when I was younger, namely film-making and
Hollywood.
I
wanted to be a movie director/documentary maker when I was fresh out
of high school. My dream never materialized, but I’ve followed some
film creatives over the years. One face
that
I saw on television at the Academy Awards Show almost fifty years ago flashed in front of me
this past week.
It made me think of how “important”
I thought the Hollywood elite were back then. Now
I know better—they are simply puppets, repeating what the oligarchs
want repeating so the struggling masses don’t rise up and overthrow
the oligarchy. As puppets, what they say and do isn't all that important to me anymore, but I still find their actions and non-actions fascinating.
Sacheen Littlefeather dominated headlines this week after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a formal apology to her for the mistreatment she faced at the 1973 Oscars.
Littlefeather, who was 26 years old at the ceremony, took to the stage
on behalf of Marlon Brando, who was named best actor for “The
Godfather,” and declined the award for him. Brando cited Hollywood’s
problematic portrayal of “Native American Indian people in film and
television” as his reason for rejecting the Oscar.
(...)“[John Wayne] did not like what I was saying up at the podium,”
Littlefeather said. “So, he came forth in a rage to physically assault
and take me off the stage. And he had to be restrained by six security
men in order for that not to happen.”
“It was interesting because some people were giving me the tomahawk
chop. I thought, ‘This is very racist. Very racist indeed.’ And I just
gracefully walked and ignored them,” Littlefeather continued.
Samantha Ibrahim of The NY Post tells
us what all the apology entails:
Littlefeather was sent a formal apology from the Academy earlier
this summer regarding the incident and is set to be gifted a longer one
during an event titled “An Evening With Sacheen Littlefeather” come
September.
“The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and
unjustified,” wrote former Academy President David Rubin in the note.
“The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own
career in our industry are irreparable.
“For
too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged,” he
continued. “For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our
sincere admiration.”
Here's a clip of what actually happened that night:
Almost
fifty years later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
wants to make a formal apology to Sacheen
Littlefeather.
They
want to say they’re sorry for allowing a bunch of racist assholes
to taunt and boo her statement, a political statement she made on
behalf of her friend Marlon Brando. They
want to say they didn’t agree with John Wayne’s drunken threats,
but they don’t want to come out and simply say that Hollywood's most beloved
Western actor (and
huge money-maker to this day)
John Wayne was wrong, either.
But
come
on! Fifty
freakin’ years? What
was the big hold up admitting
your sins,
Hollywood elitists?
Sacheen Littlefeather’s
budding
career
in film was destroyed that night. She was
instantly blacklisted (or is that red-listed?) and never
appeared in a movie or TV show again. Walking
onto that television stage was
a big sacrifice to make for a young
actress with
a
promising career,
but Sacheen did so because she believed in the nobility of the cause she
represented. She
admired Brando’s gumption for turning down his Best Actor "Oscar" for
The
Godfather on
the first world-wide live television broadcast of the awards
ceremony in order to share a most important message.
Viewers
around the world heard the name “Wounded Knee” for the first time and were motivated
to find out more about the injustices that happened there.
Littlefeather’s
life hadn’t been a bed of roses before the
incident at
the Academy Awards. She was sent at a very young age to live with her maternal grandparents. They forced her to attend an all-white Catholic school where she felt like she didn't fit in. But
she started to reconnect with her Apache roots as she matured and became an activist in the 1960s.
Sacheen received a degree in holistic health and nutrition after she suffered from collapsed lungs, a consequence of her childhood tuberculosis, at the age of 29. Using her healing knowledge, she joined with Mother Teresa to take care of AIDS
sufferers in hospices. As a mentor, she has become an admirable role model for many young Native Americans.
No
one will ever convince me that the Academy is just about the arts and
sciences of motion pictures. Hollywood
is
just as political (perhaps
even
more so) as Washington, DC. Obscenely wealthy, powerful white males
can
never
be seen as “weak” to
the lower classes, so
they couldn’t be
seen making
an
apology to a Native American activist concerning
their racist conduct in
1973...or 1983...or 1993… or 2003...or 2013...
That
it took almost
five decades,
a documentary about Sacheen’s life, and the public acknowledgment
that she is battling breast cancer, only proves how little their
apology really means to them.
So
why
are they doing it now? There
could be some genuine contrition on some of their parts. But I
think it’s more likely because the internet has made it far easier for folks
to see the horrors of racism up close and personal.
White elites, like
the oligarchs of Hollywood, know that they are making big business off of
people of color worldwide
and
that market is growing. It’s better for their profit margins
for them not to be confused with your garden variety, right-winger,
white-robe-wearing yahoo type of racist. They want to clean up their image in order to make more money.
If
there’s anything that neoliberals have learned over the last six
years, it’s this: Make a big production out of looking like a
humble servant of the people while you
simultaneously
screw over the public by spewing tons of propaganda to sell your
sick and twisted version of reality.
You know the reality I speak of
all too well. It’s the neoliberal reality where $800+ billion goes to a
proxy war (with
nuclear war overtones) to fatten the military industrial complex billionaires. It's the reality where nothing
much ever
goes to feed, house, or provide medical care for struggling
working class Americans. In neoliberal reality, there's no such thing as "discrimination" or "racism" because what neoliberals themselves don't experience cannot possibly be happening elsewhere in their country or anywhere on the planet.
You might have been taught from an early age to think that the “good guys” in the movies where the white cowboys
like John Wayne and the “bad guys” were the red-skinned “savages” native to North America. Sacheen Littlefeather’s brave
sacrifice in front of the cameras in 1973 proves that narrative
wrong on oh-so-many levels. Her courage in real life is a billion times more heroic than any silly stunt openly racist John Wayne might have performed on the silver screen.
May many more activists follow Sacheen Littlefeather's example both now and in the future.
The LGBTQIA+ community, another discriminated group, is also due a "50 year apology" from the elite establishment. Some cities celebrate Pride Month in June, but Toledo does things a little differently--it's celebrated all summer long here. This past weekend was the annual Pride Parade, and the turnout was wonderful after the COVID hiatus. Happy Pride everyone!
Seen on Twitter:
The Academy has finally apologized to Sacheen Littlefeather, after she was booed and heckled and almost violently assaulted by a drunken John Wayne in 1973 — and it only them 50 years. pic.twitter.com/pSnYlQ3uAe
I wrote the following essay a couple of weeks before the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict came in. These were the contest specs:
Every year for Thanksgiving, the Wall Street Journal features a passage from a pilgrim detailing what colonists perceived when they arrived in the “New World.” The passage is full of disdain and racism towards indigenous people, and petition starter Randy, an indigenous activist, thinks it’s time to stop publishing this story.
But what should one of the nation’s most widely-read newspapers publish on Thanksgiving? How can we as a nation stop telling the false story behind the holiday and instead tell a story of our nation that honors indigenous people? We want to read something which positions the descendants of the U.S.’ original inhabitants and settlers as modern day accomplices in the fight for a more just nation...
So, in spite of the fight for a fair and just nation taking a bit of a blow from the Kenosha, Wisconsin trial, here's what I came up from the contest prompt. I really hope channels of communication stay open wide enough so we can continue to work through our conflicts and truly become thankful for each other.
Let Us Be Thankful For Each Other
by C.A. Matthews
If
lockdowns and self-isolation have taught us anything, it's this: People need
people. Real flesh and blood people,
not just online people. We need a variety of people in our lives actually,
because it can get awfully tiresome seeing the same four walls and the same few
faces for weeks on end. Variety is the
spice of life is how the old saying goes. So, let us enjoy meeting a variety
of folks this holiday season along with hanging out with those most familiar to
us.
One thing that Americans should be thankful for is
that we have each other--and we're definitely not lacking in variety. We have a
lovely diversity of Native peoples whose ancestors gifted those peoples who
came to this continent later with their extensive knowledge of the flora and
fauna. In return, these latecomers deprived the Native gift-givers of their
lands, languages, and cultures. To make things even worse, the latecomers have
up until recently made spurious claims that they are somehow the heroes of the story of how our peoples
came together.
These outrageous wrongs should be addressed. Reparations
should be made to the children of both our Native peoples as well as the
children of those whose ancestors were brought to America in chains and forced
to labor as slaves. Americans should make amends to all we have denied civil
rights to because of their race, creed, or country of origin.
Let's not kid ourselves. Americans are not perfect. Those
Americans who don't appreciate our diversity of peoples are to be pitied, not
lauded. They should be thankful that the majority have shown tolerance of their
intolerance. We've been far too tolerant of this evil for far too long. On a
holiday dedicated to thankfulness, let us practice forgiveness as well. First,
we must beg forgiveness from all peoples we have wronged. Second, we must
forgive ourselves for not acting sooner to end the harms of systemic racism.
As we gather around the Thanksgiving table to enjoy
time-honored favorite dishes and conversation with friend and stranger alike,
let us give thanks for each other. Sure, things could be better--much better--between us and our
neighbors, but all is not lost. We still have each other. It's the one thing
that in spite of our checkered past and our uncertain future we can count
on--each other. And while there are open channels of communication, there is a
possibility of healing.
Combining the strength of our different viewpoints,
we can learn how to help each other and save our hurting world. There's no need
to rely on only one viewpoint, only on one people's culture, overlooking all others'.
Diversity is our strength. Variety is
the spice that makes our homemade pumpkin pie recipes sing!
Americans, let us remember our past and vow not to
repeat the worst parts of it. Let's put our self-centered ways behind us. Let
us be there for our fellow Americans today and every day. This and every
Thanksgiving, let us truly be thankful for each other.
Travyon Martin was an unarmed 17-year-old kid. He was killed carrying a bag of skittles. The right-wing called him a threat.
Kyle Rittenhouse was 17 years old and armed. He shot and killed 2 people with an AR-15. The right-wing calls him a hero. pic.twitter.com/JursSJFT7j
Most of our Afghan neighbors are arriving with humanitarian parole, which only temporarily allows
people fleeing danger to remain in the U.S. These Afghans will need to
find another pathway to safety once their parole expires.
To
ensure that Afghans find real, lasting safety in the U.S., Congress
must pass the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would allow Afghan
humanitarian parolees to seek legal permanent residence in the United
States.
Call on your Senators and Representative to urge them to pass the Afghan
Adjustment Act! This is one of the most important things you can do to
ensure Afghans have an opportunity to build a life in the United States.
We are asking for broad, bipartisan support—please ask your friends, family, congregations, and communities to join us!
Thank you for all you’ve done to build our movement for people, planet,
and peace over profit! Our work together has set the progressive agenda
on issue after issue, from an emergency Green New Deal and Medicare for
All to free public higher education, democracy reforms like
Ranked-Choice Voting and much more.
Now, in the face of accelerating climate collapse, crushing inequality,
endless war and the epic failure of public health — we need independent
politics more than ever to advance these transformative solutions our
lives depend on.
Currently, we are fighting a decision by the Federal Election Commission
(FEC) that strikes another blow against open, fair elections by
seriously limiting our ability to use federal public matching funds to
gain ballot access. Specifically, the FEC is demanding that our
2016 campaign repay over $175,000 in funds we earned under the federal
matching funds program over five years ago.
The FEC’s demand grows out of their refusal, after the fact, to
recognize our use of matching funds to complete ballot drives during the
2016 primary campaign. Since our 2016 campaign account is all but
closed, the FEC is attempting to hold me, as the candidate, personally liable for repaying this massive, unjust bill from my personal funds.
If
the FEC ruling is allowed to stand, grassroots candidates running
independently of the big money corporate parties will simply run out of
money before overcoming onerous ballot access hurdles around the
country.
To make matters worse, the precedent of receiving a ruinous bill from
the government years after the election would be an obvious deterrent to
future grassroots candidates who rely on matching funds to challenge
power without selling out to corporate political machines. In many
states this would also make it far more difficult to run in local
“down-ballot” races where Greens and other independents have had the
most success.
After fighting for over a year within the FEC bureaucracy, we and our
legal team are eager to challenge this injustice in court. But to move
forward, we must urgently raise at least $20,000 to cover the latest
round of legal costs and our barebones operating expenses. And, in case
justice does not prevail, we must prepare to pay down the penalties.
Incredibly, the FEC’s rules prohibit me from contributing critically
needed funds to my own defense because it would exceed the maximum I’m
allowed to donate to my own campaign! That means I am essentially
dependent on your generosity for defending myself and the matching funds
program.
To make this fight winnable, please donate by visiting jillstein.net or
make out a check to “Jill Stein for President (2016)”. Every donation,
no matter the size, is greatly appreciated! (Maximum donation is $2,700
for the primary election period, which is how the FEC classifies our
current expenses.) Send checks to James Lane, Treasurer, 269 12th
Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215. For FEC compliance, please write in the
memo: "2016, debt". Include address, occupation, and employer.
(Additional details below.)
Polls show unprecedented hunger for a new party, disgust with the
political establishment, and strong support for our visionary proposals.
That’s why this battle for public funding is so critical — to protect
our right to a politics that’s independent of the corporate money
machine and to advance the solutions we so urgently need.
Thank you so much for your support at this critical moment, as
the future of humanity and the planet are truly in our hands!
All my best,
Jill Stein
Green Party nominee for president 2012, 2016
Surprise! Nearly 100 years since it was first
introduced, the Equal Rights Amendment, which reads, “Equality of
rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any state on account of sex,” was finally ratified by a
quorum of states. Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment
in January 2020.
The House of Representatives had recently
passed a law removing the time limitation on ratification of the
amendment, and the bill is still pending in the Senate. But during the
Trump administration, former Attorney General Bill Barr improperly
weighed in on the process. The Constitution gives absolutely no
authority to the Executive Branch when it comes to the Amendment process
— but the Trump Administration was determined to pull out all the stops
to stop equality under the law.
The Equal Rights Amendment has satisfied all
Constitutional requirements, but that has not stopped the enemies of
equality to prevent it from moving forward. The Trump administration
purposely used questions about the timing of ratification to kill the
amendment. But the current Justice Department under President Joe Biden
has the power to remove these roadblocks.
The ERA will help people of all genders
achieve equality under the law, and women in particular, have waited
long enough for the highest legal protections against discrimination in
the land. It’s time for Attorney General Merrick Garland to act to
protect this process.
It's
a tricky tightrope walk the oligarchs have to do, making sure they
don't steal too much of our wealth and freedom all at once so we don't
rise up and take it back. It's easy to forget that we're actually the
ones with all the power here. Only problem is we don't yet know it.
Some days it doesn't feel
that way, but we are aiding all of creation to change for the better.
The victories seem small, but
they're still victories.
It doesn't mean we won't
continue to see our comrades teargassed, maced, and arrested for simply trying to protect
something as basic as our right to clean water.
But each act of resistance
builds momentum--momentum we need to keep taking the fight to where it can do
the most good.
We've come a long way and
don't realize how much we've influenced society and its outlook on many things--such
as universal health care and UBI--which are mentioned even in the most conservative of media outlets nowadays.
Who would have thought ten
years ago folks would have expressed a favorable opinion on taxing billionaires
and laugh at the absurdity of the phrase "job creators"?
Who would have thought
indigenous activists could have shut down an oil pipeline?
Who would have thought
Confederate statues could be toppled from their pedestals?
Who would have thought that
some small bit of justice would be granted in the case of the police murder of Elijah McClain?
Who would have thought that a federal court would overturn the Border Patrol's racist interpretation of asylum laws and consider them unconstitutional?
Yes, there's still much to be
done, but we are moving forward, step by step, inch by inch.
But we
don't always act like we believe in ourselves.
It's time to put our fears to
rest and to step out boldly into a changing world.
Because we don't have any
time to waste in this the hottest summer in recorded history.
Because we don't have any time to waste when the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex is salivating over the next country to drone bomb.
We've got the power... and it's time for us to exercise it before it's too late.
No one ever said it was going to be easy, but the alternatives aren't worth contemplating.
The best things in life are worth fighting for--life itself is worth fighting for.
Bayer-Monsanto’s
Roundup is still on store shelves at Lowe’s and Home Depot -- but it’s
not just killing weeds -- it’s also wiping out pollinators. Take action now.
Glyphosate
-- the active ingredient in Roundup -- wipes out milkweed, the only
food source for monarch caterpillars. The monarch population in North
America has declined by 90% in the past 20 years alone -- as the use of
Roundup has skyrocketed. And researchers have found that glyphosate can
impede the growth of bee larvae and impact bees’ ability to navigate and
find food.
If you’re concerned about monarchs, bees, and other pollinators, demand Home Depot and Lowe’s get Roundup off store shelves!
Help save bees and butterflies. Tell Home Depot and Lowe’s to stop selling Roundup now.
Glyphosate
harms bees, monarchs and many other species. The EPA found that there
are few endangered species that can evade its toxic impacts. 93% of endangered species are at risk of being harmed or killed by this toxic chemical!
This
toxic weedkiller is also putting our health at risk -- it’s been linked
to cancer, hormone disruption, fatty liver disease, shortened
pregnancy, decreased sperm function, and disruption of the gut
microbiome.
But Lowe’s and Home Depot are ignoring science -- all for profit.
Endangered species need your help. Send a message to Lowe’s and Home Depot. Protect our planet from glyphosate.
Demand Home Depot and Lowe’s protect endangered species from toxic pesticides!
If
these garden retail giants remove Roundup from their store shelves and
online, it would send a powerful message to Bayer-Monsanto.
Lowe’s
and Home Depot could be leaders in protecting pollinators from toxic
pesticides. But we need your help, C.A., to push these companies to stop
selling Roundup!
We
know these companies listen to people power -- they committed to stop
selling plants grown with bee-killing neonic pesticides in response to
activists like you. Now, we need your help once more to demand they stop the sale of Roundup.
For the sake of pollinators, urge Lowe’s and Home Depot to stop selling Roundup!
***
From Center for Biological Diversity:
The climate emergency is here. It's in the wrath of Hurricane Ida in
Louisiana and New York, more destructive wildfires in California, and a
devastating cold snap in Texas. Rising temperatures and extreme weather
events are hitting low-income communities hardest and devastating
wildlife and ecosystems. The time for bold action is now.
We
can't avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change unless we
rapidly transition from fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal to clean,
renewable energy.
Despite decades of advocacy, our elected
leaders have failed to stop the fossil fuel projects that are causing
the climate emergency. The course of history won't change unless we
change it.
Community leaders are calling people to take action at
the White House this October — and consider joining in nonviolent civil
disobedience. Together, we'll demand President Biden reject fossil fuel
projects and declare a climate emergency to launch a just, renewable
energy revolution.
My family
crossed the border on my brother’s 14th birthday, May 24, 1999. I could
list the many reasons why my parents felt the only option to give us a
safe future was to migrate to the United States with their four small
children, but it would be a very long list. What I can tell you is this:
After 22 years, I can say with certainty that this country is my home.
It’s the only home for many ‘DREAMERS’ who are now young adults trying
to give back and build a permanent home without fear of losing it. We have a real chance at passing citizenship this year. Will you join me in supporting it?
At four years old, I did not know the difference between myself and my
new neighbors. My family, and millions of families like mine, have been
members of our communities in every way but on paper. But we haven’t
given up because along the way I have met compassionate people, like
you, who care about doing what’s right and who value our humanity.
Citizenship for many means not having to fear being separated from their
families. It means that children can expect their parents to come home
after work without fear of them being detained on the way home. The
majority of Americans support a pathway to citizenship for people who
came here as children and for families who have been here for decades,
like mine. Will you send a message to your congress member to support a pathway to citizenship?
I remain hopeful, despite the many failed attempts to create a path to
citizenship that I’ve witnessed over the years, not because of who is in
office, but because I’ve been surrounded by people who give me hope
there is a better future ahead, a kinder one.
Next week, we expect Congress to move a little closer to creating a
pathway to citizenship in the reconciliation process. For some, it will
come down to the numbers. But for millions of us, it will mean our
stories, our struggles, will be worth it.
I hope you will join me in this fight. We need your voice now more than ever.
Thanks for taking action,
Citlaly Mora, Communications Manager
Families Belong Together
***
From Freedom Forward:
When most people think about a brutal king in the Middle East, we think about Saudi Arabia's monarchy.
But there's another US-backed dictatorship that is just as bad: the United Arab Emirates (UAE), home of Dubai.
The rulers of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates use their brand of luxury to hide their vast human rights crimes.
While the world focuses on Dubai's giant skyscrapers, the UAE monarchy has:
Bombed and killed thousands in Yemen.
Intervened to support dictators across the Middle East.
Kidnapped and disappeared their own adult princesses when they tried to flee.
Imprisoned critics at home and violated women’s rights.
Now the UAE dictatorship is hosting its latest propaganda event -- the UAE Dubai Expo. Or as we call it -- the Dictator Expo.
From
October 2021 to March 2022, the UAE monarchy will host its Dictator
Expo and promote itself to the world with a flood of propaganda.
Meanwhile, the UAE's human rights violations continue. Indeed, the UAE’s
human rights record is so bad that even the head of the UAE Dubai Expo
himself -- Sheikh Nahyan -- has been accused of sexual assault.
Sign
this petition and urge politicians, diplomats, corporate executives,
and celebrities to boycott the #DictatorExpo and stop supporting the UAE
dictatorship:
