Jacob Blake. Another name in the long list of Black men and women shot by police. This time a father, security guard, and a sibling. He was shot multiple times while his children watched from the car. Just imagine being a small child and witnessing your father being gunned down by police. Thankfully, they did not take his life.
We are still becoming a full democracy. Not until August 26, 1920, when Congress adopted the nineteenth amendment prohibiting states from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex, could women cast a ballot.
This has been a challenging season, but rather than let the ongoing health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19 demobilize our advocacy, FCNL’s network of volunteer lobbyists around the country have expanded their efforts to shape government policy in large and small ways.
When it became clear that this year’s cohort of Advocacy Corps organizers would have to be trained online, I was nervous. The Washington Summer Intensive training is usually 10 full days of learning and growing as a group. How was this going to translate in a virtual setting?
FCNL’s Domestic Policy Legislative Director Amelia Kegan preached these words two weeks ago to a Zoom room of North Pacific Yearly Meeting Friends during their virtual Annual Sessions:
Today marks 100 days of stonewalling by the Secretary of Defense. On May 6, more than one hundred members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary Esper seeking clarification on the new U.S. landmine policy. Secretary Esper has not answered a single question.
Each year the administration must tell Congress how it plans to prevent and respond to atrocities around the world.
President Trump tried to bypass congressional negotiators over the weekend by announcing several executive orders on unemployment insurance, housing, student loans, and payroll tax deferment. Billed as relief for people suffering the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pronouncements failed to address the scope of the crisis and are an inadequate replacement for Congressional action.
Fifty years after she survived the American nuclear attack on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, Sachiko Yasui recalled what happened when the bomb went off as she played with four other children in the road near her house:
The militarization of police is a key factor in the policing crisis we face today. Congress has opportunities to reform the 1033 program this year and limit the Department of Defense’s practice of transferring surplus military grade equipment to local police departments.
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