Daily Archives: May 7, 2021

President Dwight Eisenhower once implemented a bold idea a system of highways that brought America together. Six decades later, it's time to reimagine that idea and electrify our entire national highway system.

Simply put, the climate crisis is not waiting, and our vulnerable and disadvantaged communities that have been hardest hit by COVID-19 and environmental racism are suffering the most. As our country attempts to rebound from the pandemic and economic crisis, clean energy investments can power short- and long-term economic and environmental recovery, like creating family-supporting jobs to manufacture and install electric vehicle chargers and the cars that plug into them.

That's why I'm glad President Joe Biden has reiterated his pledge to deploy 500,000 new public electric vehicle charging outlets and called for a $15 billion investment from Congress. My EV Freedom Act, which I introduced with New York Congresswoman Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, is the comprehensive policy we need to make Biden's request a reality, creating a national network of publicly available, high-speed EV charging infrastructure along the whole U.S. highway system within five years.

The need for investment to allow for the mass adoption of EVs is dire: according to the Department of Energy, there are 45,517 charging stations and 116,298 outlets nationwide not nearly enough to crush range anxiety, the fear that you'll run out of juice on the open road, and build a future where every car on the road is an EV built in the U.S., with U.S. union labor.

Our challenge is clear. Chargers must be:

1. Available everywhere, allowing for the quintessential American road trip to see the beauty of our nation, move your kid into college or visit Grandma in Omaha.

2. Interoperable, so you don't need to worry about the shape of your car's charging outlet.

3. Capable of providing the fastest recharge currently possible to push us towards a future where you can charge your vehicle in the time it takes to fill up your gasoline tank.

From my experience as a union organizer and clean energy entrepreneur, I know we will not be able to tackle the climate crisis successfully unless we infuse workers' rights and racial and gender justice into every aspect of our clean energy policy. A unified coalition made up of labor, climate, environmental justice groups and energy companies endorsing the EV Freedom Act see both the urgency and potential of this transformative idea.

Thus, as we invest in EV chargers we must invest in the people and communities who build them. The EV Freedom Act includes strong labor provisions and focuses on providing local workers with high-quality training to ensure that the EV jobs of the future are good-paying, union jobs in the communities that need them most.

Eisenhower's idea was bold indeed, but in retrospect we can see its flaws highways that split and even destroyed communities of color, and sprawl that contributed mightily to our current carbon crisis. Today, we have an opportunity to create a more just future for workers and disadvantaged communities even as we revision the American ideal of the open road for a carbon-free world.

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EV Freedom Act can bring fast charging and a just future to all - Automotive News

Im perplexed by protests like those in Montreal that shut down a vaccine clinic in the name of freedom and liberty, or the Alberta rodeo that defied health rules because, someone said, Its better to die on your feet than live on your knees. I dont really get how wearing a mask is living on your knees, but I know many mean it sincerely. Humans are meaning-seeking missiles often willing to risk much or all for the sake of some highly symbolic issue.

Its freedom as their focus thats especially perplexing; its so amorphous.

Theres a homey adage that says your freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. Fair enough. More pompous renditions distinguish negative and positive freedoms, then try to maximize each individuals freedoms while preventing the state or someone from spiriting them away.

But what I find irritating about these approaches is they start from some pristine individual state where youve received your freedoms from the get-go and try to hang onto or expand them, while others try to strip them away. Its always about freedom, revolving around noble, self-serving heroic individuals.

I just dont think that kind of personalized, self-centred starting line is what most people experience. I think there are better frameworks for figuring out what your life challenges look like and how to meet them. One would be the German philosopher Heideggers notion of Geworfenheit (say the w as a v).

True, Heidegger was a despicable Nazi with other problematic traits. But he had some decent ideas. Geworfenheit means thrownness and refers to how none of us chose to be who or where we are. We arrive in the world, right from the start, as if we were tossed into a situation we never chose and then must figure out how to deal with it. Then that keeps reoccurring; were always already situated. Marx made that point when he said humans make their own history, but never in circumstances of their own choosing.

So instead of always starting at some pure point where Im at the centre along with my precious freedoms that Im trying to protect were often tossed into a situation, like a pandemic, that doesnt really fit the freedoms model. You can try responding in terms of your insatiable appetite for freedom, but that might be a stretch. Freedom might not be totally irrelevant then, but it mightnt be very relevant either, as you search for a way to handle the new situation.

Take Nomadland, which got this years Oscar for best picture. The book its based on was about Americans shortly after the 2008 financial crash, who lived in their vans or pickups because they were houseless and made the best of it. They helped each other and embodied the classic American move of lighting out for the territories, which evokes an archetypal U.S. sense of freedom. (Except for the main character in the movie, Fern, who had a personal safety net.)

By the time the movie was made, though, as reviewer Jack Hamilton noted, it was Trump time there, and things had shifted. The same people whod admirably asserted their personal freedom were now expected to chant build that wall and lock her up. The issue wasnt mainly their personal freedom any more it had swung to matters like racism, exclusion, democracy. Theyd been geworfed to another situation in which freedom as a focus wasnt as pertinent.

Freedom is just too fluid to be your political or ethical Swiss Army knife.

Long ago, in another era when freedom was a watchword, I worked at a summer camp and decided to introduce the concept of freedom from a famous British free school, Summerhill. The kids wouldnt even have to make their beds.

One evening I returned from a day off. Campers ran up saying, Hey Rick, did you hear about the new freedom- unlimited tuck! Theyd voted in my absence that anyone could spend their full summer allowance for candy at the tuck shop in one go. I guess they felt that having freedom handed them was less satisfying than seizing it. So there you have it, with apologies to Kris Kristofferson: freedoms just another word for unlimited tuck. Sometimes, anyway.

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Are the protests in Montreal and Alberta about freedom? Come on - Toronto Star

Moms from around the country gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza in downtown D.C. Thursday to demand action on police reform.

(CORRECTION May 6, 2021 7:15 p.m. An earlier version of this story stated the rally occurred at Black Lives Matter Plaza. It occurred at Freedom Plaza. This story has been updated.)

Just ahead of Mothers Day, moms from around the country gathered at Freedom Plaza in D.C. on Thursday to demand action on police reform.

Marion Gray-Hopkins, president of the Coalition of Concerned Mothers, which is locally based, said she hopes leaders hear our cries.

The crying of the mothers that are not only here, but across this nation, to say were sick and tired of (police) killing our loved ones. And that there is some federal legislation, along with legislation in each individual state, that will address the impunity that officers are now getting for killing our loved ones, Gray-Hopkins told WTOPs John Domen.

She said she lost her son when he was 19 to the hands of two Prince Georges County, Maryland, police officers, after attending a dance at a local fire station where he had actually been a peacemaker, breaking up an altercation between a friend and someone else in November 1999.

Gray-Hopkins said mothers are at the front line of the movement.

And I think that people have finally realized, after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and so many others across this nation, that something needs to be done, she said.

Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner a Black man from New York City who died after a white NYPD officer put him chokehold during his arrest for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes was also at the event.

Garners dying gasps of I cant breathe became a rallying cry among police reform activists.

Those words drew renewed attention last May, after George Floyd echoed them as Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pressed a knee into Floyds neck, leading to his death.

Carr said she hopes the rally will move the nation toward more accountability.

Because the police have that qualified immunity, which were trying to get rid of, she said. In New York City, where I come from we do have that in place. But we need a nationwide law, a federal law for this qualified immunity because the police, they get away with too much. And the bar is set so high that its almost impossible to indict or convict a police officer. So this has to stop.

She added, The law should be for all of us, not just for me, or not just for the Black and Brown community, but for the police officers also when they do wrong.

Catherine Young said her son was shot and killed by an off-duty D.C. police officer in May 2018.

Im heartbroken that he was murdered and dont have all the answers why, she said. I was told that my son had a gun and that my son shot at the police officer thats what the police officers say but the public says something different.

Young said she received some body-camera footage, but it was not the whole body-cam footage.

And because the police officer was off duty, he didnt have a camera on him, she said.

Young described video from a nearby recreation center as showing her son having a conversation with the officer, and my son looked like he was trying to get away from the police officer. And the police officer kept pursuing him, acting like he wanted to fight my son.

Sean Bell was killed in November 2006 in a 50-shot barrage by NYPD officers following his bachelor party in Queens. His mother, Valerie Bell, was also at Black Lives Matter Plaza on Thursday for the rally.

She wants everybody to hear our cry, thats the name of the rally, Hear My Cry, meaning to speak to people, to let them know that you are still hurting for what happened to your son or daughter that was killed by police officers who are here to protect us.

So if they hear us, maybe they will have a heart to do other things that need to be done to make a change in this world today.

She called for more legislation and more police accountability.

It says justice for all its not justice for all. Because we are killed while we walk. We are killed while we talk. We are killed while we drive a car. We are killed even when we hold our hands up, Bell said. That needs to be stopped.

Rev. George Gilbert, with The Center for Racial Equity and Justice in Northeast D.C., helped organize the event.

He said video cameras and recordings have put a face on this devil.

And its not necessarily each individual police officer. But I would ask how many of us would take a flight on American, Delta or Frontier if they told us that, Oh, we just have a few bad apples?' Gilbert said.

How many of us would would buy a burger from Burger King, McDonalds or Wendys if they said, Only a few burgers are bad? So now were dealing with a system thats telling us, Oh, we only have a few bad apples. But we need the whole system changed. Its time for America to change the system.

Among the changes Gilbert wants to see are nationwide standards for all police departments. That includes mandates on body cameras, doing away with no-knock warrants, community review boards that really have some powers and teeth as well as a bad cop registry.

We just want to see justice, he said. And quite frankly, we want our people to stop dying. We want our kids and our young men and our young women to stop being killed.

The D.C. Council voted late last year to make BLM Plaza a permanent part of the District.

WTOPs John Domen contributed to this report.

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Moms demand action on police reform at DCs Freedom Plaza - WTOP

Fans standing for the National Anthem at T-Mobile Park. (Getty Images)

Thats how I felt after my second dose: Free again. And were talking real freedom at this point (at least for those who are fully vaccinated).

Under the new rules, Ill be able to go to church and sit close to strangers, more restaurants can return to full service, and theaters that admit only-vaccinated audiences can go up to 50% capacity!

So where does that leave unvaccinated people?

Well, it leaves them free to choose. They dont have to get the vaccine or carry a vaccination card, and the state is not going to force businesses to check for vaccination cards.

But at the same time, the relaxed distancing rules for vaccinated people mean any business that involves having a lot of people indoors has a very strong incentive to require those cards. That will likely have unvaccinated people saying, well, thats discrimination.

To which I would say, no thats freedom. The shots are everywhere now. Heck, you can get them at Mariners games. And for businesses that want to keep their patrons safe, theres a much better chance of doing it by requiring the card even if some of them are fake.

Yes, there are fakes being sold online for $200. If that catches on, itll just force states to set up databases, which theyre allowed to do when public health is involved.

But as Americans, we hate the idea of forging documents, right? At least we do when it comes to undocumented immigrants, so why would we, as good Americans, buy phony documents? We wouldnt.

So, everybody gets what they want: The state will not force anyone to get the vaccine, it will not force you to carry a card, but at the same time it willalso not force businesses to endanger their customers by pretending COVID is no big deal.

Listen to Seattles Morning News weekday mornings from 5 9 a.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Ross: Relaxing rules for vaccinated people isnt discrimination thats just freedom - MyNorthwest.com

The restored vintage Greyhound bus that is to be unveiled at the Freedom Rides 60th Anniversary Event on Tuesday May 4 in Montgomery, Ala., is seen on Wednesday May 3, 2021.

Mickey Welsh / Advertiser (TNS)

Its hard to imagine today that only 60 years ago, boarding a Greyhound bus and taking a seat next to a passenger of another race was revolutionary; an act that could leave you flat out on the pavement or at risk of fatal harm.

But Montgomerys Freedom Rides Museum is in the business of remembering.

For a decade, the museum has told the stories of more than 400 young men and women, Black and white the youngest of them 13 and the oldest 22 who boarded interstate buses headed south in the summer of 1961 with a strict purpose: to compel authorities to enforce Supreme Court decisions banning segregation on buses and in transportation facilities throughout the U.S.

Bernard Lafayette Jr. suffered three cracked ribs in Montgomery at the hands of an enraged white mob for his effort. Then days later boarded a bus to Jackson, Mississippi, where he and other Freedom Riders were arrested. At 21, Lafayette said the experience taught him how to live with pain for the purpose of virtue.

If you went on the Freedom Rides you had to make out your will, said Lafayette. So grave were the risks.

That integrated travel on buses, trains and planes is now viewed as unremarkable points to the Freedom Riders triumph. But the Museum wants to ensure their efforts arent taken for granted.

On the 60th anniversary of the Riders sojourn from Washington D.C., the Freedom Rides Museum and Alabama Historical Commission unveiled a new mobile exhibit: a restored Greyhound bus of the same model that carried Riders south.

Dorothy Walker, director of the Montgomery museum, said their intention is to hit the road, taking the Freedom Riders stories to schools and cultural sites in Alabama and throughout the country when it isnt on display at the old Greyhound station where the Museum is now housed.

Were talking about 18 to 20-year-old students who decided they were going to challenge the system of segregation. To arrive in Montgomery on a bus just like this one and to get there and theres nobody there to protect them. They dont know that theres a mob waiting. Its taking people back to that moment. We hope that when people experience the bus, they experience that range of emotions these students must have gone through, said Walker.

The bus was gifted to the AHC in 2019 by the Greyhound Bus Museum and restored by ABC Companies in Faribault, Minnesota. Walker said it was essentially a shell without seating. It now features the original color scheme, historic seats, compartments and windows with some updated features such as air conditioning and power steering. The costs were covered by donors, while the city covered storage at its lot. Walker said the bus will feature a soundscape experience in the hopes of transporting visitors back to 1961, as well as informational banners and an interactive suitcase exhibit.

From this series: Could the Freedom Riders make a difference against todays racism?

The exact number of surviving Freedom Riders is hard to know. Two of the most prominent Freedom Riders, Congressman John Lewis and Reverend C.T. Vivian passed away last year on July 17. Even the youngest activist would be 73 years old today. Their mobility is a concern the Museum has also factored into the new mobile extension. Walker said she hopes to take the bus to the Riders themselves so that they can engage their communities with this history.

Valda Montgomery was 13 years old when her father Richard Harris sheltered Freedom Riders at their South Jackson Street home after their bus pulled into Montgomery on May 20, 1961. At the Museums 60th anniversary event, she remarked at the irony that she now leads an organization, Friends of the Freedom Rides Museum, that works to preserve their history-making activism.

The making of a movement: She was 13 when a bloodied John Lewis arrived at her home, looking for refuge

It just amazes me what in the world my mother and father were thinking when they said, you can come here. Now I understand what John Lewis meant when he said, they were so courageous to open their doors. Each day I get a greater appreciation as I delve deeper into the history of that event. It gives credence and validity to my memories. Im more inspired to keep the story going, said Montgomery.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: The story of how the Freedom Riders revolutionized American travel, transit 60 years ago

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(c)2021 the Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Ala.)

Visit the Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Ala.) at http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com

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AL: The story of how the Freedom Riders revolutionized American travel, transit 60 years ago - MassTransitMag.com

Media, Law & Policy

Roy Gutterman

Roy Gutterman, associate professor of newspaper and online journalism and director of the Tully Center for Free Speech in the Newhouse School, wrote an op-ed for Syracuse.com: Assaults on press freedom, here and abroad, endanger democracy. Gutterman is an expert on communications law and the First Amendment.

Gutterman writes that in 1991, a group of international journalists and press freedom activists joined together to write the Declaration of Windhoek on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press, which outlined principles of press freedom for media, governments and citizens across the globe. Gutterman says that the declaration came at a time where emerging democracies were in need of free press ideals, as America was setting the standard. The document is celebrated each year on UNESCOs World Press Freedom Day, May 3.

Now, 30 years later, Gutterman says that these issues regarding freedom of the press are now hitting much closer to home, not only in seemingly far-off places. As much as our First Amendment is a symbol and statement to the world about the constitutional and legal protection afforded to the press and speech,anti-press political rhetoric overthe past few years sought to minimize the protections and diminish the role of the institutional press, Gutterman writes.

Part of Guttermans mission in leading the Tully Center for Free Speech is to uphold the work of journalists who risk their lives in the name of free speech. Gutterman says that this week the Tully Center will give an award to Igor Rudnikov, a Russian journalist who survived an assassination attempt and was jailed for over a year for running a newspaper that was critical of Russian leadership. It is people like Rudnikov, Gutterman writes, that uphold the original principles of the Windhoek Declaration and are dedicated to telling the truth.

To read his essay in its entirety, visit Syracuse.com.

Syracuse University media relations team members work regularly with the campus community to secure placements of op-eds. Anyone interested in writing an op-ed should first review the Universitys op-ed guidelines and emailmedia@syr.edu.

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'Assaults on Press Freedom, Here and Abroad, Endanger Democracy' - Syracuse University News