Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

We want to know what you think!

02/26/2015 Nativegrl77

Excitement is mounting as the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s building takes shape on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

And with the Museum’s 2016 opening quickly approaching, I’m asking for guidance from supporters like you to help us make important decisions about our exhibitions, performances, special events, educational programs, and more.

Carmen, please share your insights and opinions by taking a few moments now to complete our brief Supporter Survey.

Your responses will let the Museum’s staff of curators, educators and historians know what YOU want to see in the Museum you’re helping to build:

The periods and areas of African American history that interest you most;

The kinds of exhibitions and other programming that will bring you to the Museum;

Your suggestions about how to make the Museum a place for dialogue and healing; and

Your thoughts on how to generate public interest in the Museum and enlist more Americans to support its mission.

Once you’ve completed the survey, please consider making a special gift to put your ideas into action — because we’re still working to achieve our goal of $250 million that we must raise from private sources to match the $250 million in funds Congress has approved to build the Museum.

Together, we’ve come a long way toward realizing our dream of a living, breathing museum that will bring the ENTIRE African American experience to life — from the painful history of slavery and the Jim Crow era, to the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement and the election of our first black president.

Now I hope you’ll help to ensure a successful launch for the National Museum of African American History and Culture by completing your Supporter Survey.

Thank you for your opinions, your insights and your continued personal commitment as a supporter.

All the best,

Lonnie Bunch
Founding Director

P.S. As someone who has played a key role in bringing the Museum this far, your ideas and suggestions are critical to ensuring our successful opening in 2016. Take advantage of this important opportunity to make your voice heard by completing the Supporter Survey now!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

50 Most Innovative Companies

02/24/2015 Nativegrl77

Last week ColorOfChange was named one of the world’s most innovative organizations by Fast Company Magazine “for creating a civil rights group for the 21st century.” Here’s the write-up. We’re #6 on the list between Instagram and HBO.

I’m floored and humbled by this honor, and frankly a bit embarrassed because so much of our work is done in coalition, with incredible partners across the country — we don’t stand alone.

This honor belongs to you: our members. Without you ColorOfChange wouldn’t exist and we certainly wouldn’t be able to innovate in the civil rights space.

ColorOfChange started in 2005 when we realized that no organization was equipped to quickly and creatively lift up the voices of Black folks in moments of crisis. We saw this play out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when whole Black communities were abandoned by our government.

The invisibility of Black people in our media and political system was a matter of life-and-death then. And we’ve seen this play out many times in the ten years since. From the endemic police violence that our communities face to the lack of access to a living wage.

In the early days ColorOfChange consisted of a few people with their laptops, guided by the vision of our founders: James Rucker, Heidi Hess, and Van Jones. We didn’t have much except for a passion to act and a model of organizing we knew could help lift up Black voices.

Today ColorOfChange is over 1 million members strong. We’ve come a long way. When we reach out to corporations or politicians with our concerns, they pay attention. And if they don’t, we know what levers to pull to force their hand. And if still that doesn’t work, then we innovate and escalate with new tactics and strategies.

The work we do is in service of you – our community – and in service of Black folks from coast-to-coast. Thank you for being part of our journey.

Fast Company’s “Most Innovative” issue hits newsstands this week. Check it out and share it with your friends and family. And if you’re able to, chip in to our innovation fund.

We recently hired a Director of Product who’s going to help overhaul ColorOfChange’s website and online tools. If we can raise $50,000 this month, we’ll have the resources we need to make important updates to our campaigning platform, which is how you – our members – engage in our civil rights campaigns. Will you contribute?

Yes, I’ll chip in $1 to ColorOfChange’s 2015 Innovation Fund.

In 2014, a movement spread across the country using both technology and direct action to lift up that #BlackLivesMatter. This movement has shown us that we not only need to agitate harder, but also faster and smarter to achieve the victories that our communities deserve.

This Fast Company honor isn’t just a recognition of one organization. It’s a recognition of what we’ve been able to accomplish together. It’s a recognition of how we came together to fight for justice for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and too many others; and how we refused to back down in the face of grave injustice.

In 2015 we continue these and many other fights.

Onwards,

Rashad

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

love …

02/20/2015 Nativegrl77

“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. That’s what I hope to give you forever.”

— The Notebook

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Here Come The Nativists

02/20/2015 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

Bush-Appointed Judge, Hand-Picked By Anti-Immigrant Activists, Rules Against President Obama’s Immigration Actions

Late last night, Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security from implementing President Obama’s deferred action immigration directives. The ruling did not come as a surprise to most observers; Hanen has a history of extremist anti-immigrant decisions.

The bad news is that the judge’s deeply flawed ruling will delay implementation of common-sense measures designed to focus limited enforcement resources on felons, not families (bear in mind this does not affect the existing DACA). The good news, however, is that the decision is only a temporary setback; the judicial process will move beyond Judge Hanen to higher courts. And with extensive jurisprudence pointing toward the fact that the President has the legal authority to act, we are confident that his directives will be deemed constitutional and will be fully implemented.

Here are three key points to know and remember in this case:

1. This is a partisan political attack disguised as a lawsuit. In December, governors and attorneys general from 26 states sued the government to block the DHS directives from going in to effect. Every single governor that signed onto the lawsuit, and all but one of the attorneys general, were Republicans.

What’s more, it is no accident that Judge Haren was the judge selected to rule on the lawsuit. The plaintiffs, led by now-Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX), shopped around for a judge they knew to be sympathetic to their anti-immigrant cause.

2. Judge Hanen’s ruling is not the final decision in the case. The Department of Justice will immediately appeal the judge’s decision and apply for a stay of the ruling to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. At this point, that can go in two possible directions.

The 5th Circuit grants the requested stay, and implementation of the directives will continue while the court considers the merits of the plaintiffs’ case.
The 5th Circuit denies the stay request and the temporary injunction remains in effect, further delaying the implementation of the DACA expansion and DAPA programs.

In either situation, a decision on the requested stay should take place within a couple of weeks, while the ruling on the underlying legality of the directives will likely take several months. In the meantime, immigrants who would have been eligible to request deferred action under these directives will not be agency enforcement priorities and should not be removed.

3. We are confident that President Obama’s directives are legal, and that they will proceed. Lawsuits against similar executive action have failed in the past, including a 2012 Mississippi challenge of the DACA program, and an effort by an anti-immigrant Sheriff challenging executive action that was struck down in court in December of last year. More than 130 legal scholars from across the political spectrum wrote a letter to the president urging him to take executive action, and laying out the broad legal authority for taking executive action on immigration. These scholars reaffirmed the legality of the DHS directives after they were announced in late-November.

BOTTOM LINE: Last night’s anti-immigrant ruling by an anti-immigrant federal judge in southern Texas is temporary and an aberration. This judge’s ruling is just another piece of a cynical, partisan strategy to break families apart and oppose the President’s policies at all costs. Legal precedent from Supreme Court rulings and similar lawsuits in the past — not to mention the views of more than one hundred legal experts — demonstrates that ultimately, President Obama’s immigration action and the directives from the Department of Homeland Security will be upheld as constitutional.