Mr. President & Madam Vice President, come to these states. Meet w/ poor & low-wealth Black, white, brown, native, Asian people in the streets & hear from them, activists, & moral leaders. We will work w/ you to pull that meeting together.
The people directly impacted by extremism are the heartbeat of the resistance & moral courage. These struggles are our Selma!
I must say to Democrats & the White House, respectfully but seriously: It’s time to go to Texas, West Virginia, & Arizona and call for the breaking of this filibuster. We must nationalize these state movements!
We cannot fight this attack on voting rights & economic justice for poor & low-wealth Americans with a state-by-state pushback.
We need this political infrastructure secured now & every effort must be used to break the filibuster & pass the full #S1 (For The People Act), the full Voting Rights Advancement Act, & $15/hr minimum wage by Aug. 6, the anniversary of the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
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In case you hadn't heard ... This is so ineffably sad.
Darnella Frazier, the extraordinary young woman who filmed the entire 9 minutes & 29 seconds of George Floyd's murder, now has to face the killing of her uncle by another police officer.
This is just too much. My young sister, you are the real Shero of the entire movement. There would have been no trial, no George Floyd Bill, without your courageous video. God used you. I’m so sorry to hear about your uncle. If we can help in anyway, please let me know.
I’m writing letters to all three of my alma maters, telling each of them to offer you a full scholarship from undergraduate all the way through to your PhD or law degree, if it is your desire. I hope this small act will in some way speak to the great concern we have for you.
Donald Rumsfeld died, but did you know he was appointed by Nixon to defund and dismantle the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO)? His office was created in August 1964 by the Economic Opportunity Act.
The OEO was part of Pres. Johnson's social & economic initiatives known as the "Great Society" & the "War on Poverty." The OEO was part of the exec office of the Johnson admin & its first director was R. Sargent Shriver, who was involved in drafting the Economic Opportunity Act.
When it was created, the OEO coordinated the Job Corps; Neighborhood Youth Corps; work training & study programs; community action agencies incl Head Start; adult education; loans for the rural poor & small businesses; work experience programs; & Volunteers in Service to America.
Often in America, extremists in the majority of the Supreme Court have been the source of the nation sliding backwards rather than moving forward. Dred Scott. Plessy vs. Ferguson.
On June 25, 2013 and July 1, 2021, we saw them gut Section 5 of the VRA and weaken Section 2, allowing retrogression and sliding backwards.
We must remember the faith of Frederick Douglass in the face of Dred Scott:
"Such a decision cannot stand. God will be true though every man be a liar. We can appeal from this hell black judgment of the Supreme Court, to the court of common sense and common humanity. We can appeal from man to God.
Democracy vs autocracy is the battle of our time. The longer Manchin, Sinema & McConnell’s obstructionists refuse to break a nonconstitutional filibuster to pass the full For the People Act, they undercut America’s moral authority in the face of autocracies around the world.
The majority of Americans want these things, yet three people can block even a debate & a vote. Which side are you on, Manchin & Sinema?
Americans of moral conscience, we need a season of nonviolent civil disobedience. Plans to be announced at #MoralMonday, July 5. It’s time. Wherever you are, if you have a group committed to nonviolence, you can join.
8 years ago today, 5 members of the Supreme Court gutted section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, technically ending preclearance & unleashing an onslaught of voter suppression in states.
For the past 8 years (2,920 days), Congress could have fixed it. But McConnell nor Manchin did a thing for 8 years, and now they both want to hold onto a filibuster & block the For The People Act & VRA, block living wages, block full infrastructure.
No, no, no! It’s time for organized nonviolent direct action across the nation, and it’s time for Dems to go to 50 plus 1. It’s time for Manchin to answer the question asked by the miners in the 1920s: Which side are you on?
Before anyone says they support what Manchin has put forth, his changes must be reviewed by a panel of our best voting rights lawyers. We must assess if it weakens the bills, and we must be sure he will release the filibuster to guarantee passage of both bills.
And we must look at bad precedent. Remember our history: It was a compromise on the 1964 Civil Rights Act that made it necessary to come back & pass a Voting Rights Act, which almost didn’t get support.
And it was compromises on the Voting Rights Act that allowed, for instance in my state, 60 counties to be exempt from pre-clearance despite racist past practices.