Tag Archives: black people

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Twice the impact

04/22/2014 Nativegrl77


	$997,923 and $372,315. That’s how much the gun lobby spent on state and federal candidates in Washington in 2012 — and that’s not even counting their lobbying in Olympia, communicating directly with their members about legislation, or any other political work. It’s a lot of money — but it’s nothing compared to what they’re prepared to spend to defeat anything that would help reduce gun violence in Washington, which is exactly what I-594 will do. So, we’re going to need a lot of money to fight the gun lobby this fall — and one very special supporter, who wishes to remain anonymous, has offered to help us close that gap by matching every dollar we raise online from now until the end of April, up to $20,000. Click here to contribute $3 before our deadline, and your gift will be DOUBLED! The gun lobby has a lot of powerful friends, and they have nearly limitless piles of cash to both swing elections and lobby in Olympia and Washington. That can be a very powerful combination — it’s kept a lot of commonsense reforms from becoming law. But what they don’t have is you, Carmen. And they don’t have our thousands of supporters, or nearly 80% of voters who think that it’s long past time to apply our already existing background checks to all gun purchases in Washington. Unfortunately, that won’t matter if our simple message is drowned out by the confusing and misleading ads, phone calls, and mailings that we KNOW are coming as it gets closer to November. Contribute $3 before our A‌pril 3‌0 deadline, and your gift will go TWICE AS FAR towards making Washington safer from gun violence. Together, we can make sure that Washington voters will know the truth about I-594, and come November, we’ll finally make progress toward reducing gun violence. Thanks so much, Tracy Newman Finance Director WA Alliance for Gun Responsibility

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Pepsico and Deforestation

04/22/2014 Nativegrl77

With massive reach and absolutely no attention to where its palm oil is sourced from, PepsiCo is driving breakneck deforestation around the globe to supply the world with chips, cookies, and granola bars.

PepsiCo is the largest globally distributed snack food company in the world. PepsiCo products such as Cheetos, Doritos, and Lay’s potato chips are sold in over 200 countries in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Africa. If we can change PepsiCo, it will have a ripple effect on the global palm oil industry.

Join RAN, Harrison Ford, and Showtime’s “Years of Living Dangerously” to tell PepsiCo to break the link between its products and deforestation.

Note: If action link doesn’t work in your browser, use this instead.

When we launched our Snack Food 20 campaign over a year ago, PepsiCo was one of the companies that RAN called on to clean up its palm oil supply chain. In the year since, its peers like Mars, Kellogg’s, Unilever, and General Mills have made new commitments to cut Conflict Palm Oil. Meanwhile, PepsiCo has lagged behind and is now the largest and most influential of the companies yet to adopt a policy to eliminate deforestation and human rights violations from its products.

PepsiCo’s irresponsible practice of allowing large-scale deforestation in pursuit of a few extra pennies has huge impacts. With a whopping 457,200 metric tons of palm oil used every year, PepsiCo is one of the largest consumers of Conflict Palm Oil in the snack food sector. That’s why we at RAN have pushed hard for the company to adopt a global palm oil procurement policy — and we’re not alone.

PepsiCo’s culpability in forest destruction has also made it a target for Showtime’s new series with Harrison Ford, “Years of Living Dangerously.” Last night the show’s deforestation episode showcased the devastation caused by Conflict Palm Oil and other exploitation, helping to bring this issue to millions of viewers. Now the YEARS project is calling on PepsiCo CEO Ms. Indra Nooyi to answer questions about PepsiCo’s role in deforestation.

With this kind of exposure, it’s time for us to raise our voice together and make sure that PepsiCo hears from every one of us. Now is the time, so please add your name here to join RAN, Years of Living Dangerously, and thousands of people around the world demanding change at PepsiCo.

We are on the verge of a tipping point – both within the palm oil sector, and for the planet as a whole. It’s time to take action. Together, we can send the message that PepsiCo must end forest destruction and eliminate Conflict Palm Oil.

Take action now.

		For the future,
		Ginger Cassady Forest Program Director

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Thoughts and prayers

04/07/2014 Nativegrl77

After yet another horrific tragedy in Fort Hood this week, we here at the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility would like to offer our thoughts and prayers for all of those affected by this terrible event.

But we know all too well that our thoughts and prayers aren’t enough — we have to offer something more. It is times like this that we are reminded that only together can we address gun violence in our communities, here in our state and across the nation.

We in Washington State are standing together and taking the first step in addressing this problem: We’re going to bring I-594, which would apply existing background checks to all firearm sales in Washington, to the ballot in November.

Take a stand. Join us. Become part of the solution at our Ju‌ne 2‌n‌d event — just click here to RSVP.

In the face of these tragedies, we need to join hands and work together to make our state safer — and we can’t do it without you.

Thank you,

Zach Silk
Campaign Manager
Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility

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Oncologist had discussions with Merck this week, and they rejected our request

04/07/2014 Nativegrl77

Greetings from Mikaela & I, especially to the 200,000+ who’ve joined our team since our previous email update! At 405,000, we now outnumber our old hometown of Oakland, CA!

For both new and established #WeGotThis members, it’s essential that you join us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/savemikaela), our blog (http://shegotthis.wordpress.com/), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/keithknappjr). We post regular updates and requests for help on these pages, and you’ll miss great shareable content like the #WeGotThis video (http://bit.ly/QMzfPB) if you don’t join us!

You’ll find an update on Mikaela’s health & campaign progress later in this email, but we urgently need your help:

1. Mikaela’s Million — We are working with the change.org folks on planning a day for us to deliver your petitions directly to Merck. Because doing this will require me to leave Mikaela, I want to maximize the impact by having 1,000,000 petitions to hand over. If each of you can get 1-2 of your friends or family to sign the petition, we’ll be able to hit this number easily. Please do it today; Mikaela does not have time to wait.

2. #WeGotThis shirts — Inspired by successful campaigns of the past, we are selling #WeGotThis t-shirts to help fund our campaign. They were designed by Mikaela herself and are available for $15 at http://teespring.com/mikaelaknapp. They are only available until Tuesday (April 8), so buy yours today! The petition URL is on the back of the shirt, so these will be a great way to spread the word with your local community.

3. Social Media Crew: We want to start engaging directly with Merck through their social channels, but we need your help to amplify our noise. If you’re interested in getting involved with this effort, please shoot me an email (keithknappjr@gmail.com) and I’ll add you to our #WeGotThis social media email list. You’ll be prompted to share things like ready-made tweets, so it won’t be a huge time commitment. Before you sign up, please understand that Mikaela & I value the positive tone of the campaign, and will in no way be asking you to attack these companies through their social channels; in fact, we wholeheartedly discourage it.

On to the updates:

First, Mikaela’s health — SHE’S BACK HOME! It always takes her several days to recover from a hospital stay, so she ought to be fully settled by the end of the weekend. We posted a picture of her triumphant return on the #WeGotThis Facebook page, which you should definitely be following for more regular updates than these emails — visit https://www.facebook.com/savemikaela and hit that “LIKE” button right now!

Our fundraiser (http://gfwd.at/1hTL25D) has been a success and we should have our genetic test results within 2 weeks! Thanks to all who donated and those who continue to do so!

Next, an update on our campaign: We’ve had a productive, yet unsuccessful, week of seeking entry into more clinical trials, and we now feel comfortable saying that we have lost all hope on that front. We are shifting the entirety of our efforts to arranging compassionate use with Merck.

Just to be clear, Mikaela’s return home does NOT mean that we have won access to the treatment she needs. Our oncologist had discussions with Merck this week, and they rejected our request for compassionate use. We are not giving up, and our Congressman’s office is working with Merck & the FDA to find ways to assuage their concerns.

Thanks for your continued love and support. Mikaela & I are overcome by the personal level of interest many of you have shown in our cause. Your stories of not giving up and beating cancer fuel our fight, and you’re all playing an essential part in helping us to craft a similar story of our own someday.

With hope for a great week.

#WeGotThis,
Keith