Tag Archives: black people

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When veterans like me come home from war

12/02/2014 Nativegrl77

VoteVets.org

After returning from Iraq, transitioning back to civilian life was a real challenge.

I struggled with anxiety, depression and an aversion to crowded areas. And while I have always found peace in the outdoors, it was never more evident than when I returned home. My road to recovery was not just spent in VA offices, but also on hiking trails and the cold water streams in some of our country’s national parks.

That’s why I eagerly testified before Congress last week in support of a bill that would allow all veterans with any disability rating FREE access to national parks for life.

For many veterans, the financial cost of accessing these parks is a prohibitive barrier to spending time alone, or with friends and family, hiking, rock climbing, rafting, camping, or just decompressing. But Congress is considering legislation to change that.

Can I count on you to send a message to your Representative telling them to support the bill granting free access to our national parks for veterans with any disability rating?

Sending a message using our tool will deliver it straight to your reps office, and it would mean a lot to the many veterans — including thousands of VoteVets members — who are counting on passage of this bill.

There’s also science to support why this legislation is important.

Last year, a University of Michigan study found that “Veterans participating in extended outdoor group recreation show signs of improved mental health, suggesting a link between the activities and long-term psychological well-being.”

This issue has bipartisan support in the notoriously partisan House of Representatives, and taking a moment to write your Representative today can push it across the finish line.

http://action.votevets.org/national-parks

Thanks for making your voice heard on this issue.

All the best,

Garett Reppenhagen
Iraq War Veteran
VoteVets.org

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

It’s On Us: A Week of Action

11/21/2014 Nativegrl77

The White House

Since its launch in September, the It’s On Us campaign has rapidly expanded to reach hundreds of thousands of students on college campuses across the country. It’s On Us is a cultural movement aimed at fundamentally shifting the way we think about sexual assault. In addition to a celebrity PSA with almost 4 million views, the campaign has generated more than 100,000 pledge signatures from people committing to be a part of the solution.

On Monday, It’s On Us launched its first Week of Action to engage thousands of students in the conversation about how to end campus sexual assault. Partner organizations and hundreds of school leaders joined together to hold over 200 events in 38 states across the country.

Here’s what we’ve been up to:

The week kicked off with the release of a new PSA encouraging bystander intervention. Snapchat sent a special PSA to more than 250,000 student users via the app, and offered special It’s On Us picture filters to help spread awareness. Xbox also featured the PSA on the game console’s dashboard, and SB Nation not only released two original PSAs with athlete spokespeople, but also created custom content for each of their individual partner sites.

Student leaders across hundreds of college campuses held events ranging from pledge drives at athletic events to panel discussions with college administrators and experts in the field. At the University of Texas at Dallas, the student government, sororities and fraternities, and other student stakeholders came together to launch their Week of Action. The It’s On Us logo and branding were incorporated into their homecoming festivities, and student leaders were featured in “We Are UT Dallas,” a one-minute video highlighting UT Dallas’s participation in the campaign.

On Monday, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosted an “It’s On The Quad” pledge drive and photo booth. Throughout the week, they will distribute 500 It’s On Us t-shirts to students who take the pledge.

More than 50 colleges and universities have also created their own PSAs, including MIT, University of Arizona, Ohio State University, and even the staff and faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Throughout the Week of Action, thousands of young people have stepped up and turned their pledge into action — and there will be more opportunities to engage with the It’s On Us campaign beyond this week. Over the coming months, we will work with our partners on college campuses and in communities to continue to engage students across the country.

It’s on us to realize we all have a role to play in preventing sexual assault, and we must challenge each other to do everything we can to make our college campuses safer.

Kyle Lierman
Office of Public Engagement
The White House

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Oye Como Va

11/21/2014 Nativegrl77

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Paid Sick Time Ballot Initiatives Win Big in Tuesday’s Election

11/20/2014 Nativegrl77

A Better Balance the work and family legal center.

Paid Sick Time Ballot Initiatives Win Big in Tuesday’s Election

On Tuesday, paid sick time was on the ballot in 4 elections, and we won all of them! Massachusetts is now the 3rd state to guarantee paid sick time statewide, which is wonderful news for the nearly 1 million workers in the state who currently lack paid sick time. Two cities in NJ, Montclair and Trenton, passed paid sick time laws, bringing the total number of cities in NJ with such laws to 8 (all passed in the last year!). And in California, voters in Oakland passed an expansive paid sick time ballot measure. We’re especially thrilled with the huge margins of support for each ballot initiative: approximately 60% of the vote in Massachusetts, 85% in Montclair, 75% in Trenton, and 81% in Oakland.

A Better Balance has provided legal research, bill drafting, and other technical support to all of these campaigns and can’t wait to build on the incredible momentum from these wins. But we couldn’t do it without such incredible supporters and campaign partners! For background and to learn more about these 4 paid sick time ballot initiatives, check out our recent blog post.

The Pregnancy Penalty: How Motherhood Drives Inequality & Poverty in New York City

In Case You Missed It

October was also an exciting and busy month for ABB’s efforts on behalf of pregnant workers. The New York Times’ Rachel Swarns featured our client, Angelica Valencia, in “The Working Life Column,” which garnered over 800 reader comments and an offer from Angelica’s employer to reinstate her. Our latest report—The Pregnancy Penalty: How Motherhood Drives Inequality and Poverty in New York City—was featured, along with ABB Co-President Dina Bakst and ABB Community Advocate Award recipient, Armanda Legros, on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC. And our new website resource for pregnant and parenting workers was highlighted in the New York Times and Washington Post. We’re thrilled to see the media focusing on this issue and expect the coverage to continue next month as the Supreme Court hears arguments in the case of Peggy Young v. UPS. Stay tuned!

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a list of some bills Republicans filibustered to try and make Obama look bad

11/20/2014 Nativegrl77

Here is a partial list of the bills
that the Republicans filibustered to try and make Obama look bad while hurting
Americans and the economic recovery of our country:

Correct me if this list is wrong

H.R. 12 – Paycheck Fairness Act

H.R. 448 — Elder Abuse Victims Act

H.R. 466 – Wounded Veteran Job Security Act

H.R. 515 – Radioactive Import Deterrence Act

H.R. 549 — National Bombing Prevention Act

H.R. 577 – Vision Care for Kids Act

H.R. 626 – Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act

H.R. 1029 – Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act

H.R. 1168 — Veterans Retraining Act

H.R. 1171 – Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization

H.R. 1293 — Disabled Veterans Home Improvement and Structural Alteration Grant
Increase Act