A Critical Look at Last Week’s Posts and an Urgent Action Alert for Asylum Seeker Relief: Call ABQ City Council Today

By paulgibson51 on May 6, 2019 • ( 2 )

Last week’s post created, in effect, a sequenced series of related posts that points to how Retake Our Democracy might use its resources to create conditions to advance justice in NM. Today’s post also provides a critical action alert and three short videos from AOC, Naomi Klein & Valarie Kaur. This post should be shared as it exemplifies all that Retake is about.

Today’s Post Includes an Action Alert, the usual review of the past week’s posts and closes with three short videos to educate and inspire, all in one very important post. Once you have taken action on the URGENT Action Alert, I ask that you take a look at the posts for last week, but skip past the Biden article. There is plenty of time for that. But then, I’d ask that you read carefully last Thursday’s post and if you have time, the two that followed on Friday and Saturday. Together they serve as a kind of draft underscoring the role Retake could assume in 2019-21.

In our local Input & Strategy Session on Thursday and in our scheduled tour of southern NM, we will be sharing this concept, seeking input and involvement in the process. But it starts with understanding what is being considered, so if you haven’t read Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s posts, I ask you take a look. And please do come to our meeting on Thursday, May 9, 6:30-8:30pm and RSVP by writing to me at paul@RetakeOurDemocracy.org. Let’s talk and figure out some stuff and then, Let’s Do It.

This post closes with three video’s. The first video is from Naomi Klein outlining how the media has utterly failed to fairly and urgently report on the climate crisis. The second video was written by Naomi Klein but features Alexandria Ocasio Cortez offering a preview of what could happen in America if the Green New Deal is adopted fully. Finally, I offer up Valarie Kaur’s momentous six minute video that, to my mind, is the most inspiring and moving bully pulpit speech I have ever heard. If you’ve seen it, watch it again and if you’ve never seen it….you really need to.

Lastly, click here to find this week’s events and actions, including info on today’s Supreme Court hearing where New Energy Economy faces off with PNM yet again. It also provides a link to Saturday’s KSFR’s Retake interview with Hannah Laga Abram and Kim Smith, two amazing youth activists who don’t beat around the bush. Click here.

Asylum Seekers Need You to Call ABQ City Council Members. If You Don’t Live in ABQ, There Are Ways You Can Help. Read On

This is the kind of moment when we all have to step up and so today there is only one message. STEP UP NOW.

Just over half of all Retake readers live in Santa Fe, but all of us know individuals and grassroots groups in ABQ. Send them this post and ask them to take the action below. Ask them to share this post on social media and with friends they know.
- - Post a link to this post on your Facebook page and tag everyone you know in ABQ so that your post appears on their timeline;’
  - Ask them to email and call their City Councilor;
  - Ask them to attend the hearing on Monday and to speak up.

Monday, May 6, 5pm. Albuquerque City Council Will Vote on R-19-143 a resolution that calls for $250K in funding to support staff and facilities to support Asylum Seekers at Vincent E. Griego Council Chambers, basement level of the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Government Center, 1 Civic Plaza NW, Albuquerque, NM. There is significant concern that the City Council may not vote to approve this critically needed funding. There is only so much volunteers can do and they require city funding to ramp up their relief efforts to meet the demand. Over two-hundred asylum seekers are arriving in ABQ every week, with that number increasing each week. Most all refugees arrive with only the clothes on their back.

We want to pack the hearing room and make sure we take full advantage of public comment and then remain at the hearing until the vote. Any person wishing to address the Council during “General Public Comments” must register with Council Staff. Council Staff will begin accepting sign-ups promptly at 4:30 pm and sign-ups will close promptly at 5:30 pm. The first 30 persons to sign-up will be permitted to speak under General Public Comment. You can also sign up to speak on the specific resolution: R-19-143. It is very far down on the agenda, so bring a book.

You should also call and email your city councilor and let them know that you will be at the hearing or watching by webcast and that their support for this funding is very important to you. Making these calls and sending emails could make all the difference in whether this funding is approved or not. To find your Councilor and contact information, click here.

A Look Back At Last Week’s Post That Is Really a Look Forward Into Our Future

The posts for last week follow with the most important being those posted on Thursday through Saturday. After you’ve caught up, inspire yourself by viewing the trio of video that follow. See you at the Supreme Count at 1pm.

Biden: Champion for Labor and the Working Class or Centrist Apologist for Moderation?

Tuesday, April 30. Retake and New Energy Economy stop collection of used goods for asylum seekers. System in ABQ and Las Cruces overwhelmed by response and need to retool. Post includes things you CAN do now. Click here to read the full post which focused on the degree to which Biden is NOT the champion of labor and the working class. We have to be able to do better than this, if we want to inspire America and build a campaign to rid ourselves of Trump. If you want more on why not to like Biden, one of our supporters, Greg Corning, sent this list along:

Andrew Cockburn, Harper’s Magazine: “Joe Biden’s Disastrous Legislative Legacy”
Natasha Lennard, The Intercept: “What Joe Biden’s (Non-)Apology to Anita Hill Reveals About Him”
Norman Solomon, Common Dreams: “Joe Biden Reality Check: The Puffery vs. the Record”
Rebecca Traister, The Cut: “Joe Biden Isn’t the Answer”
Ryan Cooper, The Week: “Joe Biden Is About to Ruin His Reputation”
Libby Watson, Splinter News: “Will Anyone Call Joe Biden on His Bullshit?”
Jeff Zeleny, CNN: “Letters from Joe Biden Reveal How He Sought Support of Segregationists in Fight Against Busing”
Branko Marcetic, In These Times: “Joe Biden Says He’s the Workers’ Candidate, But He Has Worked to Cut Medicare and Social Security”
Data for Progress: “Joe Biden’s ‘Electability’”

What Have We Become? Trump’s Corporate Tax Policy Gives Us Some Answers, But This Post Goes Much Deeper into America in 2019 and Our Only Hope of Doing Something About It

Thursday, May 2. This is NOT just Trump, this is US tax policy for decades. We of the 99% pay taxes, can’t deduct medical expenses, or college tuition costs, but corporations benefit from tax policies that allow them to entirely escape paying any of the burden of funding our country. This is not a coincidence, this is how US policy operates on so many fronts and this post suggests a surprising solution. This post began as a straightforward analysis of US current corporate tax policy, but in the end, it went far deeper and broader in looking at what we have become as a society and a culture and how we fix it. The answer begins with you. Click here to read the full post. This is one of those really important posts…so if you didn’t have time on Thursday, please do so today. The reader comments at the end of the post are also worth review. And please share this post on social media.

A Critical Follow-Up to Yesterday’s Post: How to Penetrate Denial on Climate Change and Capitalism

Friday, May 3. Today’s post extends the theme from yesterday’s post: How can we move the needle? How can we move from frustrated and angry to productively engaged in a campaign that could foster the conditions, capacities, and commitment necessary to address social, economic and climate crises? Join the conversation. Click here to read the full post.

Local, Grassroots Organizing to Eradicate Poverty: A Lesson From Canada

Saturday, May 4. We continue our exploration of how Retake might develop a kind of community education and organizing tool kit that can support advocacy at the state level. Today examine how hundreds of Canadian townships and cities have organized locally to not just soften the impact of poverty, but to eradicate it. Their unique approach resulted in the transformation of stakeholders protecting their interests into shareholders seeking the common good. In the blog, we consider whether, working from Canada’s playbook, we might develop our own local planning and development tool kit might provide a framework for local advocacy focused on addressing poverty. Click here to read the full post.