COMING EVENTS + ONLINE OPPORTUNITIES — Late April 2021 and beyond
See the attached document for many events and opportunities. Live links can connect you with more information. CALENDAR — Late April 2021 and beyond
Race
Click to urge President Biden to take these actions …
Many non-profit organizations are urging President Biden to take smart actions. I have collected some recent ones here. You might want to provide your own name and contact information and click to send. For a few of these you may remove my name and contact information and substitute your own. Also, you can contact President Biden through the White House website — www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ — or through the White House phone switchboard — (202) 456-1414 Grassroots pressure has produced positive governmental actions on some issues. Let’s keep it going! Human rights, democracy, and peace for Myanmar (traditionally known as Burma): On […]
Virginia is the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty
In the U.S., the South has been executing more people than any other part of the nation. But the big news now is that in early February 2021 Virginia became the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty. Here are two articles about this: Both chambers of the Virginia state legislature voted to abolish the state’s death penalty in early February 2021. Virginia has committed the most executions of any state other than Texas – a total of 113 since 1976, and hundreds more in the centuries prior. The links here were written shortly before Gov. Ralph Northam […]
President Biden plans to stop federal executions
For many decades Abe Bonowitz has been working to abolish the death penalty. I’m forwarding to you the good news he sent out a few days ago to his organization’s list. https://deathpenaltyaction.medium.com/urge-biden-demolish-the-death-house-abolish-the-death-penalty-e025b4359d5e ALSO see these news articles about this good news: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/17/biden-executive-actions-day-one-460146 US, Joe Biden will sign a stop to federal executions on his first day at the White House | Italy24 News English
Click LINKS to urge removing Trump by impeachment and/or the 25th Amendment
Please share this powerful resource with your friends, family members, e-mail lists, etc. Time is short! We must immediately demand Congress and others take strong actions now! Basic Information: Like other presidents, Trump took this Oath of Office in January 2017: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Many, many times throughout the past four years, Trump has violated it. The worst violations occurred a few days ago when […]
It’s time to stop federal executions and repeal the death penalty
This came from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker-based non-profit organization that works for peace and social justice: https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/its-time-to-stop-federal-executions-and-repeal-death-penalty?utm_source=weekendreading120520&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekendreading&emci=bf56e1d8-7635-eb11-9fb4-00155d43b2cd&emdi=515495f6-fd36-eb11-9fb4-00155d43b2cd&ceid=882844
Short videos: Innocent people speak about having been released from death row.
From 1973 through 2020, a total of 173 INNOCENT PERSONS were released from death row! See the data compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center at https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence-database See the link below in which SIX of these exonerees tell their stories in very brief videos. FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCES are very compelling. Death row exonerees are living proof that innocent people are sentenced to death. They are living proof that WE MUST ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY. These videos were created and distributed by Witness to Innocence (www.witnesstoinnocence.org). WATCH THEM AT THIS LINK: https://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/imlivingproof?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4faf9825-e61a-45f8-b4b1-bfbd8bd56c94
Trump plans more executions before Jan. 20. Sign petition to STOP THIS EXECUTION scheduled for TUES JAN 12!
A few months ago Trump and his Attorney General William Barr scheduled MANY executions to occur before Trump’s scheduled end of office on January 20, 2021. The federal death penalty is every bit as cruel and unjust as the death penalty that is allowed by various states’ laws. A growing number of states have abolished the death penalty, some other states have moratoriums on actually conducting executions, and some other states have retained their death penalty law but never use it. Executions do occur in several states. For information about the federal death penalty, state-by-state information, methods of execution, problems, etc., […]
Now We Empower Ourselves to Achieve Bold Goals
The January 2021 interview on “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” TV program will help YOU make progress on the issues YOU care about. Many of our nation’s problems had existed for a very long time. These include racial injustice, economic inequality, environmental problems, a foreign policy that is both cruel and violent, and some dysfunctional aspects of our electoral systems. From 2017 through 2020, Trump made these and other problems even worse. Really, this goes beyond partisanship. Many of our nation’s problems are long-standing and bi-partisan. The American people have values that are better, wiser, more compassionate, and more progressive than either of […]
Besides Protesting What We Oppose, Let’s Organize Even More Vigorously to Accomplish Positive Goals
We need to keep protesting against the cruelty, corruption, injustice and violence that continually assault us. But if we spend most of our time and efforts fighting the bad stuff, the oppressors will continue to have the upper hand because they can keep throwing bad stuff at us and we will always be on the defensive. We need to spend most of our time and efforts taking the initiative to organize for the positive goals that we want instead. We need to be proactive, envision the future we want instead of the current mess, and organize to achieve the positive […]
Powerfully informative resources prove Trump’s horrible corruption, incompetence, etc.
We keep seeing various articles documenting various ways in which Trump is cruel, corrupt, incompetent, etc. Recently two reputable national magazines focused entire issues on compiling such articles. They are powerful resources. I recommend them highly. The July-August 2020 issue of Mother Jones focused especially on Trump’s extreme mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. The front cover says: “PLAGUED: Grift, Greed, Gaslighting: A Special Report on Trump’s COVID Corruption.” Read it here: https://www.motherjones.com/mag/2020/07/toc/ The October-November 2020 issue of The Progressive contains many articles on a wide variety of Trump’s terrible public policies and other actions. It documents his cruelty, corruption, and […]
“How to Deal With the U.S.’s Current Crises”
“How to Deal With the U.S.’s Current Crises” October 2020 Our nation is suffering from several extremely serious problems all at once. The crises are deeply rooted and actually go beyond individual elected officials and political parties. Problems include the COVID-19 pandemic, economic injustices, homelessness, excessive military spending, racial injustices, the criminal justice system, unfairness to immigration, right-wing extremism, the climate crisis, nuclear weapons, and Trumpism. Instead of merely lamenting “ain’t-it-awful,” three guests (Jean Gant Delastrada, Liz Moore, and Glen Gersmehl) provide smart insights into those problems and lift up some positive values that can help us solve them. We […]
Trump’s Atty. Gen. William Barr is on a “killing spree.”
This article explains and denounces Barr’s mania for cruelty: https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/66616-rsn-barrs-killing-spree
International Declaration of Human Rights passed the U.N. General Assembly December 10, 1948
I’m posting this to my blog a few days before International Human Rights Day, December 10. This day celebrates when the U.N. General Assembly passed the International Declaration on Human Rights on December 10, 1948. It’s good to re-read the International Declaration on Human Rights every few years. Information and the text are at this link: https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ A .pdf with a simple, readable font is at this link: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf Thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt who had worked skillfully to create and pass this landmark document. Bonus questions: (1) How many of these internationally recognized human rights has the U.S. (and/or states […]
This clever diagram can help us strategize how to change to a peaceful foreign policy.
For a very long time the U.S. had a “War Department,” but we conducted very few foreign wars. In 1947 Congress changed it to the “Department of Defense,” and we have conducted many, many wars since then, including our 2-decades-long Endless War against “terrorism.” Sensible people want to replace the U.S.’s chronically aggressive and violently militaristic foreign policy. The diagram linked here can help us figure out strategies for doing that. It is fun to bring a few friends together to work through this exercise together. Also, it can be useful for you to work with it alone. Creative insights […]