“[T]hat’s what FCNL has been bringing: a clear moral voice for change to live up to our highest ideals. It’s admirable; it’s necessary; and it’s the time for it right now in the season of optimism, of hope … for the next few years in our country.” — Julián Castro, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, during the 2020 Quaker Public Policy Institute.
For many, 2020 has been a year of anger, despair, and uncertainty as we try to make meaning of this devastating pandemic and polarization in the United States. It has been a year when national political leadership was sorely needed and, too often, was absent or malicious.
We are so ready for leadership that puts people first; leaders who speak truth to confront the global challenges we face—from COVID-19 to climate change to economic and racial injustice to war and the threat of war. We are ready for a time of optimism and hope.
Over 300,000 people have died from COVID-19, and tens of thousands more will die. Yet there is hope: in science and in the vaccines that have been rapidly developed and are already in use. There is hope in the certain knowledge that our lives are connected to the lives of people across the globe. This has a bearing on all the challenges we confront.
We saw Congress respond quickly on a bipartisan basis in March with the CARES Act, pouring billions of dollars into the economy and into the hands of our neighbors who needed help.
You were part of the lobbying for that relief bill.
You continue to participate in our persistent lobbying for the U.S. Senate to act on another desperately needed pandemic relief bill. This will provide unemployment benefits, food assistance, rent relief, and much greater stimulus to local, state, and tribal governments as they respond.
You can find the rest of the November/December Washington Newsletter, including the rest of this article, in the sidebar to the right.
