Update

It has been two years since Jamal Khashoggi fatefully walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey and was brutally murdered.

American Indians and Alaska Natives face some of the highest rates of domestic violence and often go without supportive services for safety, justice, and healing. As we observe Domestic Violence Awareness Month, FCNL is joining the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, survivors of violence, Tribal governments and communities, programs, and advocates in raising awareness of this critical issue impacting Native communities across the country.

It’s difficult to overstate the severity of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

I am alive today because my grandmother grew up in Shiga, Japan instead of her mother’s home of Hiroshima. I am alive today because my grandfather happened to be away from his Nagasaki school visiting family in Kyoto on Aug. 9, 1945. My family—those who were not killed by the U.S. atomic bombings—collectively survived not one but two nuclear weapon attacks, the only ones in history.

Nearly one million acres of Oregon’s forests have burned since wildfires intensified on Labor Day.

Another year, another anniversary of the blank check for endless war.

The news the past few weeks has been hard, as we learn about climate-exacerbated disaster after disaster – from Hurricane Laura, one of the strongest storms to ever hit the United States, to the massive wildfires raging across the West, to record breaking temperatures across the Southwest. The impacts of these events are worsened by historic and ongoing racism, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Negotiations for another round of COVID relief have stalled. Members of Congress have just a couple weeks remaining before leaving for the elections. Now is the time to pull out all the stops and press for robust and immediate COVID-19 relief.

The current administration has cut refugee admissions by more than 80%, from the historic norm of 95,000 to just 18,000 admissions in FY 2020. This is the lowest level in the last three decades. Our nation can and must safely resettle more refugees and reunite more refugee families.

These times call for love with an edge. Working for change today requires a ferocity and tenacity that colors the idea of love with the full range of its meanings. It is not passive, not necessarily nice or pretty. It is fierce.