Category Archives: Intentional Communities

Trent Hargrove| Your Turn

Working in several different roles directly responsible for or impacting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the community and organizational levels as the Chief Counsel at the Department of General Services, a Pennsylvania Chief Deputy Attorney, the first Chief Diversity Officer of the commonwealth, and now the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for the Pennsylvania Bar Association I have seen DEI practices in development and in application. Regardless of each role, the one apparent commonality that ties my experiences together is that time and time again I witness how DEI programs and initiatives have the power to drive communities forward or when ignored, how it will pull them down.

In 2017, Erie was named the worst place to live for Black Americans, and while it has made progress, still today that defining distinction remains in its Google search. The pandemic laid bare the disparities facing BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) living in Erie and the Erie County Council made the right move and formed the Erie County Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission.

The commission, now called Diverse Erie, is actively developing initiatives and programs that apply equity and inclusion measures to attract a more diverse population. Erie has something to be proud of. Pennsylvania's oft overlooked rural, urban, suburban community on the Lake Erie took an issue that plagued the county and invested in a solution and that should be applauded. But now is not the time to cower away. Diverse Erie must continue to be a top priority for the sake of the residents, businesses, and health of the whole county.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are often discussed as social issues or as buzzwords you hear in the workplace, but the power of these practices goes far beyond the workplace. Cities, counties, and businesses that apply equity across every aspect of their communities lead to inclusive environments a welcome and common thread that can hold up a county when businesses are looking for a place to grow or locate their employees. From a social and community tool to business growth and economic development, DEI plays a big role, and when properly nourished, it will help a community flourish. Just as enriching as this approach can become, an anti-DEI approach can put a community in a decidedly negative light, discouraging site selectors and thriving entrepreneurs from investing in the community.

DEI creates an environment that is engaging and welcoming for all working to lift people up, foster inclusivity, and make a vibrant, lively culture that helps to retain and attract residents and draw in new businesses. When I hear today that places continue to struggle to bring in people and business, I wonder what the community's climate is like. Are there any DEI investments happening? What story does the city or county tell from the outside looking in? The broader the business and community culture is, the more residents can thrive, and business can be facilitated. DEI initiatives cannot be marginalized it's a community and business imperative that everyone engages in the process. If leaders are trying to establish Erie as the place business gets done on the up-and-coming list then these are the key practices that will continue moving the county in a positive direction, and they cannot be neglected.

Diverse Erie has the key to open the door for Erie to be the hub for economic development. DEI is as important to the local economy as it is to the broader corporate and business world, as evidenced by the DEI initiatives being touted by Erie's largest employers, including Erie Insurance.

Erie Insurance along with most of its Fortune 500 peers touts its commitment through the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge and appointment of an employee to the CEO Action for Racial Equity Fellowship Program, which works to address systemic racism and social injustice through public policy. When the richest companies in the world invest in DEI, it is usually a sign this is a mandatory investment.

Forming the commission Diverse Erie was a bold step that moved the needle forward. But realistically, Erie isn't as far ahead as many might think. Having a DEI commission puts Erie in line with similar initiatives in other cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, which have been doing this work for years. Erie is now catching up and to keep up and not fall behind again, Diverse Erie cannot be lost. Erie cannot abandon this critical effort.

The first year of the commission being formed is as important as ever to use these funds wisely and leverage them. Having an intentional approach will work to make sure the greatest number of people will benefit ultimately, helping the whole community. For Erie to continue to progress and build a strong future, DEI is essential, required, and should be embraced as a key economic development tool to help continue to lift one of Pennsylvania's communities on the rise.

Trent Hargrove, Esq., is the chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer for the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

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Diversity, equity, inclusion initiatives no longer optional - eyes are on Erie - GoErie.com

Amanda LeClaire, Sophia Jozwiak

Detroit has long been a destination for immigrant communities, dating to before Henry Ford began the first automotive assembly line factory. But life within these diverse communities can be isolating, and in response to that, the Concert of Colors came into being.

This event began because of a need for communication between different communities in Detroit in the wake of the 1967 uprisings, and it has evolved into so much more. The festival now includes multiple events across multiple venues with dozens of artists performing every year, and its all happening now through July 24.

Journalist Martina Guzmn recently wrote a feature for Detroit Metro Times about the deep roots of the Concert of Colors as it celebrates its 30th anniversary.

I was blown away, surprised at the conscious effort by community leaders to take communities of color and bring them together, Guzmn shares about her research process.

She says the first inspiration for the festival began in the 1960s with the founding of a racial justice organization called New Detroit, which is still active today. The groups organizers invited community leaders from different ethnic groups in the city to meet monthly, discuss social and economic issues and break bread together.

They would share and build relationships and get to know one another in a way that didnt exist before.

She says that while these practices may not seem out of the ordinary now, that kind of intentional inclusion was radical for the 60s and 70s. These community efforts eventually lead to the development of Concert of Colors as we know it today.

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Amanda LeClaire is Host of CultureShift and is a founding producer of both of WDET's locally-produced daily shows. She's been involved in radio and the arts in Detroit for over a decade.

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Sophia Jozwiak is the Digital Content and Communities Assistant for 101.9 WDET.

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Reflecting on the inclusive beginnings of the Concert of Colors - WDET

Live United by Erin Haag

As I walked by a booth at Wind Down Wednesday, I waved hello to an acquaintance. She immediately started to get up from her chair and called something out to me. With the hustle and bustle of the street, I couldnt hear, so I stopped and stepped to the side of the tent. She came up to me, took my hands and paused, looking at me intently with her blue eyes, making sure she had my full attention. She said, Im proud of you. Im proud of the articles you write and the work youre doing. She told me that I was made for this job. Well. That got me right in the feels. We talked for a few minutes about our personal beliefs, my kids and their friends, and then I had to hustle to go pick up said kids.

Erin Haag

What she doesnt know is that I had a rough day the day before the kind of day thats hard to shake off and tends to follow you until things get resolved. I was overwhelmed with a variety of things all happening at once. Alongside the frustrations of no copier/printer at work, learning new software and needing the world to freeze so we can organize our work environment, Im also hip-deep in the murky waters of parenting and working through new challenges. Because I know my readers will call and ask: Both kids are absolutely OK. Last year, my little family built a chicken coop and raised four chickens. We lost two of our much loved chickens to a predator last weekend, another is injured and recovering in our makeshift hospital. That has evolved into the biggest life questions about life and death and reconciling that. Its hard when our babies have to grow up and find their place in the world, and its hard as parents to walk that fine line between supporting and knowing its something that everyone goes through for themselves.

Throughout the day, I kept thinking of how that sweet lady made me feel. Her words grounded me. It was a moment of true authenticity, and I know itll stay with me. Everyone deserves to feel that grounding and pride in their work. Im going to challenge myself and others to bring that grounding and pride to others that might not hear it. Its more than a random text or comment. Even a handwritten note can seem like a note of obligation if youre not careful with the intention behind it. What can we do to be intentional about the praise we give? What recognition provides value to the person receiving the praise?

This isnt the first time that someone has shared something complimentary. What made this different? The timing of it, coming on the heels of a rotten day? I thought about other times weve received praise or been made to feel good. I know for me I have a board member who will send me cards. Christmas cards, get well cards. Shell also send me a text on Mothers Day and celebrate all the days in between. Another board member sent our office a Christmas card, and goodness, we got excited about that! We admired the Christmas photo of his dogs, and hung it right up in the front reception room. In our little office, we have a tendency to give each other presents. A sticker, grabbing lunch for each other, a graphic T-shirt. We pick up little things along our journeys to leave for the others. Last week, we walked into the conference room for a team meeting. The conference room is shared by other groups. Written on the whiteboard was, The ladies of United Way are an asset to our community. Heidi, Nikolle and I were so touched by that note left for us to find.

Heres my Live United challenge of the week. You know a nonprofit worker who might not be seen. We are tired. We are burned out. We are stretched to capacity and struggling to take a deep breath. It might be an executive director, a board member, a program worker. It might be a pastor, leading our faith-based communities while dealing with their own emotional whirlwinds. Think about who that is, and intentionally share something to lift them up. Think about what might work best. Often for our executive directors or program managers it might be a note that gets written to their board of directors, letting them know that youre seeing the good work theyre doing, a letter to the editor at the Albert Lea Tribune or drop off some sweet treats.

Heres my one little caveat though. This column is written to the general public. If youre in a position to do something about what makes their life challenging, make sure youre not choosing a token thing to compensate real change, otherwise your gesture will backfire. If youre reading this as a member of a board, or an employer or any other position of authority, take the time to ask what would make a difference in the day-to-day lives. For example, if my boss told me I would have to make do without a copier because of budget cuts, and then tried to celebrate staff with a pizza lunch, there would be some raised eyebrows. Initiate real change and that takes consideration of what would make a difference. It might still be that recognition. Or it might be buying a new office chair because your program manager has one that is breaking down. Now go forth and make a difference and tell the community youre proud of them, and help them do the work, so they feel renewed and inspired. As always, Im happy to brainstorm and give specific ideas. If you have someone in mind, and need my help to make it happen, such as an address or helping pass it on and make sure it gets to the right place give me a call, and I will make it happen. 507-373-8670.

Erin Haag is the executive director of the United Way of Freeborn County.

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Live United: Go forth and tell community members you're proud of them - Albert Lea Tribune - Albert Lea Tribune

Representatives from the Atlanta Hawks celebrate as the organization, in collaboration with State Farm, hit the 1,000,000 mark on Saturday (photo courtesy of Kat Goduco/Atlanta Hawks).

The Atlanta Hawks, in partnership with State Farm, took on an ambitious goal of packing one million meals in an effort to fight food insecurity throughout the Greater Atlanta area.

The organizations not only reached that lofty goal; they surpassed it.

On Saturday, more than 5,000 volunteers gathered at State Farm Arena in support of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farms Million Meal Pack initiative. Divided into six 90-minute shifts, this group of volunteers packed 1,019,232 meals in nine hours.

We are very grateful for all of todays volunteers and extremely proud of the results from todays Million Meal Pack in partnership with State Farm, said Steve Koonin, CEO of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. We understand that it is a huge undertaking to tackle food insecurity throughout Atlanta, and we believe that this one-day community service initiative will make an incredible impact and also inspire our communities throughout metro Atlanta.

Supporting this effort were State Farm Senior Vice President Dan Krause, City of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, NBA Hall of Famer and Hawks Legend Dikembe Mutombo and Congresswoman Nikema Williams, who all welcomed and thanked the volunteers for donating their time in support of the Hawks largest single-day community service initiative. Individuals, families, community groups, schools, churches and businesses gathered alongside volunteers from U.S. Hunger and executives from the Hawks and State Farm to meet the goal of packing over one million meals.

Andrea Carter, the Hawks Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, said that planning for this event was a collaborative event, and she is excited about the opportunity to have an immediate positive impact on Atlantas food insecure communities.

The one million meals are going to help fight food insecurity right here in the city of Atlanta, said Carter. While the event is going on, the meals are actually being deployed, so the non-profits are picking them up, and then [the meals] will go out to the community. Next steps are about getting the food into the hands of the people who need it most.

The more-than-one million meals packed will be distributed throughout the metro Atlanta area with the operational support of U.S. Hunger, a hunger relief organization with innovative programs designed to help feed people struggling with food insecurity. Additionally, other local organizations will help distribute the meals: Atlanta Community Food Bank, CHRIS 180, City of Refuge, Fountain of Hope, Georgia State University Panthers Pantry, Goodr, Meals On Wheels Atlanta, Mimis Pantry and Second Helpings Atlanta.

The Million Meal Pack event makes a real difference in the lives of Atlanta residents facing food insecurity, said Dan Krause, Southeastern Market Area Senior Vice President at State Farm. Our local State Farm agents and employees were proud to be part of this effort, as State Farm is dedicated to giving back and strengthening communities. Were grateful to all the volunteers and thank State Farm Arena and the Atlanta Hawks for our partnership.

Statistics provided by the Atlanta Community Food Bank show that nearly one in eight Georgians are living with food insecurity, including one in six children.

There is nothing like the energy from 5,000 Atlantans coming together to take care of their community, taking a bold stand in the fight against hunger. After three years of being apart, were honored to be invited back by the Hawks and State Farm to help pack one million meals for families in need! said Rick Whitted, CEO of U.S. Hunger.

The atmosphere in State Farm Arena on Saturday was energetic and celebratory. DJ Chika Takai blasted hip hop music throughout the 21,000-seat arena, while volunteers and Hawks staff simultaneously danced and packed meals. Harry the Hawk also bought his unique energy to the event, as he danced and interacted with the younger volunteers.

Casey Baker, a local realtor, joined the initiative with her fellow workout partners from Kennesaws tRUCKFIT, because she is an advocate for community service. But she did not expect an event like this one.

Its been so much fun. Its lit in here, Baker said. Weve been dancing up and down the aisles. Ive done a lot of community service before, but this is really fun. Its one thing to know youre giving back to people; its another to be in an environment where you got a DJ, you got [Dikembe] Mutombo in the room. Its awesome. This is great.

Continuing to operate as the worlds first TRUE Platinum certified sports and entertainment venue, this event is also marked as the first zero waste Million Meal Pack. As part of this event, State Farm Arena diverted more than 90 percent from landfills that includes all materials generated from load-in to load-out. In an intentional effort, the packaging also uses messaging to encourage recycling within the recipients communities.

The Hawks and State Farm hosted their first Million Meal Pack in 2019, where more than 5,000 volunteers filled State Farm Arena and prepared more than one million meals. The meals were then distributed to local Atlantans through seven community food bank organizations. Additionally, both organizations have led efforts in multiple community-focused initiatives to better serve metro Atlanta. In addition to Million Meal Pack, the two organizations have collaborated on high-impact endeavors such as providing free pop-up grocery stores in partnership with Goodr Inc., for elderly and underserved citizens in metro Atlanta and enhancing the Snack Pack Program, which gave over 24,000 snack packs to youth throughout the school year and during summer break. As part of the 2021-22 regular season, the Hawks Foundation and State Farm presented a check of $122,000 to the Atlanta Community Food Bank as an effort to help combat childhood hunger and fight against food insecurity throughout metro Atlanta. The Good Neighbor Giveback campaign raised $100 for every point the Hawks scored over 100 in each game during the 2021-22 regular season (originally up to $100,000) and was generously extended from State Farm.

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The Hawks and State Farm combat hunger by packing one million meals in nine hours - The Atlanta Voice

Snow days, once full of sledding and punctuated with abundant hot chocolate, are melting away. Trees bloom before last frost and flowers freeze on their branches. Heavy rains overwhelm city sewers and flood until you can smell climate change, says Lucy Corlett.

These stories live on the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities Storybank, where the changing climate in Philadelphia and around the world is painted in a multitude of brief vignettes. Each post shares a climate storya personal account of how climate change has altered the lives of everyday people.

On a globally changing planet, everyone has a climate story, says Bethany Wiggin, professor of German and founder of the My Climate Story project, which collects climate stories and teaches people how to share their own.

Now Wiggin has banded together with 10 high school teachers from across Philadelphia to bring the program directly to students in their classrooms. Together, the teachers will work with the projects curriculum and continue its development to help their students research, document, and share the climate stories of Philadelphians, collecting stories from across the city and creating a model for how climate education can be incorporated into classrooms around the world.

The project was born of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, which Wiggin founded in 2014 seeking to work towards a more sustainable world by building bridges between people of different disciplines. In 2020, she realized that part of achieving that goal meant building climate literacy across education levels, so she began the My Climate Story project. Along with students from the environmental humanities program, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, and the Graduate School of Education, Wiggin began developing a series of workshops to help people tell the story of how climate change had affected their communities and wrote a freely available, illustrated climate storytelling workbook that forms the basis of the projects curriculum. Full of recipes for aspiring climate storytellers, the team calls it their cookbook.

The workshops were built on the understanding that climate literacy is a matter not only of big data and knowing how much global average temperatures have already risen, says Wiggin. Climate literacy may be more effectively taught as we recognize emotionally and personally how climate change is impacting our own lives and our communities.

Wiggin says this local understanding of climate changes effects is central to sparking the work required to avoid climate disaster. Without climate literacy, you have no climate action.

The My Climate Story team presented the workshops first online and then in person around the city and Philadelphia region, collecting dozens of climate stories from school groups and climate advocacy organizations, such as Interfaith Power and Light, and building partnerships with members of the City Council and the citys Office of Sustainability in the process.

The success of the program heartened Wiggin, and she believed that through these partnerships, Philadelphia could become a hub for climate literacy. But she knew that to do that, she had to seek out those who were already experts at educating: teachers.

Wiggin received support to create 10 climate classrooms through a Making a Difference grant, a School of Arts & Sciences program that encourages faculty to explore innovative ways of applying their expertise and working with students to address societal challenges at the local, national, and international level.

A call to area schools was answered by a crush of applications. The team chose teachers representing magnet, neighborhood, and special-admit public schools from across the city, teaching everything from algebra and biology to history and English. The diversity is intentional: Wiggin sought to capture the experiences of as broad a set of Philadelphians as possible, reflecting the different climate impacts faced by members of each community.

Together, the teacher cohort will develop a climate curriculum and begin incorporating it into their regular instruction over the course of the 2022-23 academic year. As part of this instruction, their students will collect climate stories from around their communities and attend storytelling workshops held by Cosmic Writers, a group founded at Penn that offers free creative writing education to school-aged children. In October, the roughly 300 students involved in the project will meet each other for the first time, at Listen Up! Philadelphia Youths Climate Stories, a two-day program on Penns campus, Oct.12 and 13.

The year-long program will culminate in a storytelling festival during Earth Week in April 2023, where students will present their communities stories through writing, photography, and video to the other participating classrooms, community members, and local leaders.

For some of the teachers, this public platform is not just a capstone, but an essential part of the project. School District of Philadelphia students often dont feel listened to, says Rebecca Yacker, who teaches 10th and 11th grade English at Walter B. Saul High School, located in the citys Roxborough neighborhood. That fact that the project puts so much focus on publishing students stories and giving them this broad audience, thats what really excited me, because it feels like real change.

Late in June, the project kicked off with its first workshop for teachers, and the teachers came face-to-face with each other and the small team Wiggin has recruited to facilitate the project.

Over the course of the day, the group began to get to know the program and each other, forming connections over their shared concern for the planet. As educators, we often feel really isolated, says Yacker. Having a program where you are working together and have leadership to guide those visions was really exciting.

A small group of Penn undergraduate and graduate student fellows also took part in the meeting and will aid the educators throughout the program as well as conduct their own research: collecting photographic stories of climate-related events throughout Philadelphia and exploring the connection between climate storytelling and empathy. The individual research projects are designed to dovetail with the project as a whole, and the teachers and Penn students have already begun shaping collaborations that will last throughout the program.

As the teachers began to decide on goals for their curriculum, their commitment to helping their students became clear: Teaching their students civic engagement and climate literacy were top priority when Wiggin polled the group. And while she initially envisioned each teacher adopting the climate curriculum for a single classroom, many of the teachers sought to expand the program to every class that they taught, multiplying their workload in order to reach more students. We are seeing that there is a hunger for climate curriculum across the high schools, says Wiggin.

This dedication reflects the urgency felt by the teachers, as well as the anxiety of their students. The kids are coming into my class already really upset about the climate. Once youre in that mindset of extreme anxiety mixed with powerlessness, theres no movement, says Frankie Anderson, who teaches history at the Academy at Palumbo. My job is trying to move that needle to feeling like there is hope in action.

Even as the nascent program builds out its curriculum, Wiggin is already planning for growth beyond Philadelphia. We are hoping that this incredibly talented group of 10 high school teachers will create a curriculum that will become a model that other cities and schools can use, she says. We have been in early-stage conversation with potential collaborators in other cities around the world to think about expanding the project in future years.

These conversations have included workshops with teachers and students in Portugal and Iceland, as well as talks with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural arm, which will help distribute the climate curricula and stories created by the project.

For now, the teachers will focus on building their climate curriculum for the coming fall, and the program will support the 10 educators as they teach climate literacy in their history, English, environmental science, and biology classroomsand harness the power of storytelling.

Paul Robeson High School history teacher Mariaeloisa Carambo is highly attuned to the power of stories. In the early stages of the program, she was invited by the citys Sustainability Office to present her climate story to Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and others gathered for the Cherry Street Pier Earth Day Festival, and introduce the My Climate Story project to a milling crowd of spectators near the banks of the Delaware River.

Carambo told of how she, the daughter of immigrants, found solace in the U.S.s shrinking forests and grew up to become a teacher and an activist, one who would eventually band together with a small group of fellow educators to inspire students to fight for an ailing planet. Towards the end of her speech, she lingered on the importance of using story to build movements: Storytelling was here before there was civilization, before there was a printing press, before the internet, before TikTok, said Carambo. Story sharing and story circles deepen our understanding of experiences, but more importantly, unleash power, unleash community.

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Partnering with Philadelphia teachers to inspire climate action | Penn Today - Penn Today

What the hell is ordered liberty? Most people in the United States are not familiar with this archaic legal term, but it reveals the direction that the current attacks on our freedoms and civil rights are headed.

Right-wing members of the Supreme Court used the term ordered liberty defined as freedom limited by the need for order in society 16 times throughout their recent Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The same legal term was also at the core of U.S. efforts to defend the state repression legalized through the creation of the USA PATRIOT Act. For example, former President George W. Bushs attorney general, John Ashcroft, discussed ordered liberty in depth at the Eighth Circuit Judges Conference in Duluth, Minnesota, in 2002 to justify the overreaching powers of the PATRIOT Act. The act exploited Islamophobia to develop new law enforcement agencies, new legal departments and increased surveillance. Those laws and policies were then leveraged to increase police powers against Black people protesting violence and immigrants going about their daily lives.

Both Bush administrations relied heavily on the legal playbooks, reports and staffing recommendations generated by the Federalist Society, a right-wing organization established in 1982. Made up of tens of thousands of conservative law students, faculty and scholars, including Ashcroft, the Federalist Society has strategically advanced the legal concept of ordered liberty. Leonard Leo, a former president and current board chair of the Federalist Society, has been identified as a major force behind this Supreme Courts judicial nominations.

The idea that freedoms could be limited by the need for order in society is dangerous because it enables right-wing forces that are in power to determine what order means and what freedoms should be limited.

In the authoritarian world of ordered liberty, a pregnant person can have a miscarriage and be charged with murder. In their world, religious freedom applies only to Christians and allows Muslims to be registered and surveilled. In their world, the police act on behalf of the powerful and carry impunity when they kill and harm Black people and others. In their world, supporting transgender kids is considered child abuse. In their world, educating people about sexual health and U.S. history is dangerous. They are building a world where our lives and decisions can be cut short and predetermined by extremism and fundamentalism. Their world is theocratic and authoritarian, and they are seeking to use the law and those emboldened by these legal decisions to control and contain movement opposition.

In their ruling on Dobbs, the right-wing Supreme Court majority wrote: Ordered liberty sets limits and defines the boundary between competing interests. They contrasted the right to bear arms as a more legitimate and fundamental right than access to abortion or health care within their version of ordered liberty.

The Supreme Courts affirmation of ordered liberty as a ruling framework signals that the definitions of freedom that social movements have won are being intentionally eroded and reimagined to usher in a bleak future.

The decision to overturn Roe signaled to lawmakers, corporations and hostile organized forces that the definition of liberty is about control, criminalization and dismantling hard-won protections rather than rights, self-determination and dignity.

As thinking, caring people concerned about the direction of this country and this world, we must recognize the significance of this decision to roll back a fundamental right to health care and reproductive choice. We must support people who need and want abortions. Let us coordinate across state lines and political views to support health practitioners taking necessary risks and challenge the criminalization of people seeking, providing and supporting abortions. Let us honor and support the decades of reproductive justice work largely led by Black women and women of color who have been preparing for this moment with great care and intention.

We also cannot afford to miss the bigger picture that this decision catalyzes, a dangerous precedent for legislation, bans and criminalization of many basic freedoms on multiple front lines. This decision is one part of a larger playbook to build a world that protects the powerful and controls and contains the rest of us.Movement and community-based strategies have to go beyond reacting to these decisions one by one, issue by issue. We have to envision and build our own world: to subvert control, to exercise community power, to protect and defend our lives.

Part of our responsibility is to imagine what our world looks like. Who is protected? How do we provide authentic options and cultivate a sense of collective well-being, not individuals surviving at the expense of others? In our world, we must create and build. We must make places and spaces to celebrate, mourn and learn. Lets open doors, not lock them. We must sustain our world, not strain it to the point of collapse. At the same time, we have to understand exactly how the right-wing and authoritarian forces are moving.

Whose freedoms are protected and whose freedoms are limited? Whose lives are protected or criminalized? Who gets to make decisions about their bodies and futures? And who controls these definitions of freedom, dignity and even life itself? That question was in part answered not just by the sloppy definitions of embryos quickening and other nonsense in the Dobbs decision, but also in a bill that Congress passed into law the same day to increase funds to provide protection for the justices at the same time that police were tear-gassing people exercising their right to protest in the streets after hearing about these decisions.

We are in a battle for our lives, and we have to understand the full terrain on which we are fighting. The opposition has exposed itself, and we cannot just see the one gun pointed at any one group at any one time. We must recognize that this shot fired by the Supreme Court is a call to arms, a call to coordinate across legal frameworks to control, contain and criminalize many more groups on the field. This decision will also have ripple effects beyond reproductive rights. This shot fired opens up the field for multiple guns to train themselves on any person or group that threatens the status quo.

Using the gun metaphor is intentional, given that the Supreme Court made a decision just 24 hours preceding the Dobbs decision that expanded gun rights. Creating almost unlimited gun rights prepares the ground to privately enforce ordered liberty in the form of armed militias and individuals who feel authorized to act on behalf of white supremacist groups. It is important to remember here that the contradictions between who is allowed to carry guns and who is not originated to protect slavery, white supremacy and social control.

As Carol Anderson and other historians point out, the Second Amendment is rooted in racism and was created for Southern white plantation owners to crush rebellions of enslaved people. Its not hard to imagine that white supremacist groups are preparing for uprisings and rebellions to come in the next few years. The acquittal and celebration of Kyle Rittenhouse after he killed two people at a racial justice uprising in Wisconsin signals just that.

During the 2022 legislative sessions across the states of the U.S. South, we witnessed the attempts to protect murderers like Rittenhouse as acting in self-defense, including Tennessee and Oklahoma. Of course, as we know, protecting the right to self-defense goes only one way these legislative attempts do not protect a Black woman firing a warning shot to defend against an abuser, like in the case of Marissa Alexander, but somehow find a way to justify murders that white people commit.

The Supreme Court decision to regulate gun carry laws demonstrates an overall strategy to extend certain freedoms and prohibit others, consistently skewing towards states rights arguments like the Dobbs decision. Using states rights, like using the term ordered liberty is part of this broader signaling to eliminate federal protections and strengthen states rights when convenient. Again, calling on states rights is rooted in the Confederate slaveholding South to protect white supremacy, deny rights, limit freedoms and dismantle infrastructure for social movement.

The maps that show where abortion can and will be banned and where trans lives and rights are being rolled back is a Southern map. It is not a coincidence that many of these Supreme Court cases are originating in the South: Mississippi (restricting abortion rights); West Virginia (stripping the Environmental Protection Agency); North Carolina (redistricting and gerrymandering, to be heard in the fall). The Dobbs decision, and many of the decisions made in the last session, strengthens and advances a Southern strategy to eliminate federal protections and allows for states across the whole country to design and control voter suppression tactics, criminalization of freedoms and militarization of our public places.

When they invoke ordered liberty the right-wing Supreme Court justices also signal to a newer term: rights of conscience. This term emerged during the Donald Trump era to protect discrimination and support individuals who refuse to provide services or aid, particularly allowing doctors and nurses to refuse to provide abortions, if the decision offends their conscience. Trump appointee Roger Severino institutionalized this framework to dismantle basic civil rights in the Department of Health and Human Services with the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom. Legislation that mirrors this framework has passed in Arkansas with a conscience rights measure in 2020; Texas protecting Chick-fil-A from LGBTQ boycotts; as well as similar measures in Illinois and Indiana.

The Supreme Court Dobbs decision states, Abortion presents a profound moral question. But the justices are not debating moralities; they use morality as a way to wedge and blur their intentions. They have institutionalized legal and structural mechanisms to assert that freedoms to determine your own gender, reproductive journey and health care should be limited or eliminated to satisfy religious extremists.

They use historical precedent as a justification, but they refer to an outdated Constitution; all white male, pre-14th Amendment courts; and court decisions enforced by the state and aligned with privatized violence. Public intellectual Kimberl Crenshaw of the African American Policy Forum connects a more relevant historical precedent to this decision in their incredible statement:

The consequence of our societys failure to see coerced pregnancy as a legacy of enslavement has descended once again upon Black women and all pregnant people with lethal force. Had the project of liberation from enslavement been rooted in this recognition, then coerced childbirth would have been prohibited as a foundational principle of freedom. Our response must not be siloed to a problem that is historically and continuously interconnected.

Crenshaws statement encourages following the vision of the second founders: the people who fought for freedom and who loosened the grip of enslavement and tyranny, and we know that many of those movements have been rooted in the South.

The dangers related to these maneuvers affect every marginalized group in this country, but also create multiple opportunities for us to unite across different frontlines and communities to fight for a different world with self-determined protections and authentic definitions of freedom. The U.S. South, a region that has faced decades of repression as a direct response to the strength of our social movements, offers powerful examples from history and today.

My organization, Project South, is an education and organizing institute that works with hundreds of other organizations fighting on these frontlines and building a Southern Freedom Movement for the 21st century. As organizers, movement builders, and people living and working on these frontlines, we have a responsibility to understand the depth of these recent Supreme Court decisions and make meaning of them so we can share the meaning and implications with our families, communities and organizations. We work to protect our folks and find ways to work around unjust laws. And, at the same time, we have to start crafting our own world.

The U.S. South has experience building worlds to replace slavery, segregation and Jim Crow. During the Black Reconstruction era more than 100 years ago, communities built thousands of schools and grew political power until violent white supremacist repression countered their efforts. In the 21st century, Southern communities come together to protect each other and rebuild before, during and after climate disasters. Abolitionist organizers work to craft worlds we have only imagined. A world without prisons, police and state control of our bodies includes a world with freedoms to make decisions about our health, gender and reproduction. Young people and organizers have been training up on self-managed abortions, how to research and obtain abortions without being tracked and monitored by our own phones, and organizers are building networks of medical and health practitioners that will continue to offer much needed care despite these attacks.

Our world needs to define exactly what we mean by public safety and public health. We need to imagine and create public infrastructure that is accessible and useful.

Just like the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, are not really just about guns, the Dobbs ruling to overturn Roe is about more than just abortion. The recent mass shootings and subsequent police responses are rooted in white racist violence. The Buffalo shooter cut and pasted whole sections of the Islamophobic manifesto written by the 2019 shooter in New Zealand. The coordinated multi-state attack on a Pride parade in Idaho by self-proclaimed white supremacists is not just about LGBTQ people. Coeur dAlene, Idaho, was where the Aryan Nations headquarters were based in the 1980s. The Patriot Front members did not have guns with them but they did have detailed battle plans tucked into their khaki pockets about how to use sharpened poles and smoke grenades on a public community gathering. Through all of these examples from the judicial to the legislative to the social arenas we are witnessing a rising, organized and resourced call to racist, Islamophobic and homophobic violence.

The opposition will use our language, our tone and our strategies. They will appeal to a notion of caring for mothers and children and protecting peoples safety. They will reference movement gains like overturning Plessy v. Ferguson to end discrimination, challenge racism and expand democratic practices while advancing laws that function more like the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 that protected slavers outside of slaveholding states and criminalized free Black people escaping slavery.

The opposition is not going backwards, it is going forwards to a white supremacist, fascist form of state power with all the tools of the 21st century. We can be angry and hurt, but we also have to be smart.

Southern organizations are coordinated and prepared. We know these battle lines, and we have been resisting attacks and building peoples defense for decades through mutual aid liberation centers, peoples movement assemblies and cross-frontline organizing. Project South is part of the Southern Movement Assembly, a growing constellation of frontline organizations that practice peoples democracy at the grassroots level with movement assemblies, grow mutual aid centers and build infrastructure that can protect and defend our communities. The Southern Movement Assembly supports people this summer to gather, analyze the situation and create community-based solutions on every front line.

Kenny Bailey, principal at the Design Studio of Social Intervention invites us in Doing Dishes in a Collapsing Society to take time to pay attention to all that is happening, to be creative, and to use a full season to step away from superfluous distractions and step into shared study, community, and society building. We could model what it looks like to do society work, and what it looks like to stand up for the kind of society we want to be a part of.

Whatever part of the country we live in, we must analyze the details and broad signals of the current right-wing attacks, and we can learn from peoples movements and the Black radical traditions of the U.S. South to build our visions of freedom and self-determination.

Join the Southern Movement Assemblys Summer of Assemblies, a season of organizing community gatherings, discussing what were up against, and building our own forms of movement and community governance.

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The Supreme Court Cited Ordered Liberty to Overturn Roe. Whats Next? - Truthout

Many of our everyday products contain highly toxic fluorinated chemicals known as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Used in commercial products since the 1940s, this family of thousands of long-lasting human-made chemicals breaks down very slowly over time. Because they contain an extremely strong carbon-fluorine bond, these chemicals do not readily degrade in the environment. For this reason, they have the nickname forever chemicals.

PFAS are commonly used around the globe in nonstick cookware, food wrappers, fire-fighting foams, fertilizers from sewage, and waterproofing or stain-repellent chemicals. They are widely used by many industries, including aerospace, automotive, textiles, construction, electronics, and the military. In addition, they have been found in the environment, including in drinking water supplies and waterways, and in wildlife, including fish and deer.

Unfortunately, these chemicals are very widespread. PFAS are found in the bloodstreams of 97% of Americans and may take years to leave the body. PFAS are linked to health problems including cancer, immune system disorders, and reproductive issues. As concern and awareness about these chemicals grow, a national crisis is emerging.

Numerous drinking water sources are known to be contaminated with PFAS, but more research is needed to know the full scope of the issue. The Environmental Working Group tracking map shows that PFAS contaminate the drinking water sources of millions of people; however, the extent might be far greater. EWG scientists believe that PFAS is likely detectable in all major water supplies in the United States. While many sources have not been well tested, concern and awareness are growing across the globe. In the meantime, a variety of products that line our store shelves contain PFAS or are packaged in materials that contain them.

Non-stick cookware contains PFAS. Although the original chemical used to manufacture Teflon is no longer on the market, it is unknown if the new PFAS are safer alternatives. Paper and cardboard food wrappers for fast food and bakery goods are commonly treated with coatings containing PFAS to make these materials water and oil-resistant.

Fabric treatments for furniture and carpets, such as Stainmaster and Scotchgard, contain PFAS. Likewise, clothes that are water or stain-repellent, such as Gore-Tex boots and coats, and even many cosmetics and personal care products contain them also.

Although its nearly impossible to eliminate your exposure to PFAS, it is possible to minimize it. First, determine if your drinking water is contaminated with these chemicals. If your water is from the public drinking water system, determine if its been tested for PFAS by referring to the EWG interactive map. On the other hand, if your drinking water is from a private well, you will need to conduct the testing, ideally with a state-certified lab that uses methods developed by the EPA.

If you are concerned that your water has unsafe levels, use an NSF-certified water filter that removes PFAS. Ask your water utility what they are doing to reduce levels, such as changing drinking water sources or using filtration. Also, call your state health department or local environmental protection agency for guidance.

Because PFAS can collect in household dust, its helpful to vacuum rugs regularly, use a mop on floors, and wipe down surfaces with a damp cloth. Avoid purchasing stain-resistant furniture and carpets whenever possible. If you use non-stick pans, consider replacing them with cast iron or stainless steel cookware. In addition, support clothing brands that do not use PFAS in their clothing.

Either avoid fast food and takeout food or look for restaurants and retailers that are clearly taking steps to reduce PFAS exposure. For example, McDonalds, Panera Bread, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Wendys, Whole Foods, and Burger King have created targets to eliminate the use of PFAS in food packaging. Also, avoid heating food in containers that may contain water and oil-resistant coatings, like the bagged version of microwave popcorn.

In addition, some cosmetic companies have voluntarily eliminated the use of PFAS in their products. Although the list is relatively short, these companies include Burts Bees, H&M, and Pacifica. Voicing your concern to companies that continue using these toxic chemicals can help encourage positive change.

Although specific types of PFAS known as PFOS and PFOA are no longer on the market in the United States and Western Europe, researchers have not determined that their replacements, also part of the PFAS family, are safe. PFOS and PFOA contain eight carbon atoms and are known as long chains. By contrast, their replacements contain six carbon atoms and are known as short-chain PFAS. Yet DuPont admits that the short-chain chemical GenX causes cancerous tumors in lab animals, and a 2019 Auburn University study states that short chains may pose a greater health risk than long chains.

Thus, more research is needed to determine the human health effects of these chemicals, decrease community exposure to them, and identify high-risk populations. Ideally, policymakers, regulatory agencies, manufacturers, and consumers will then use this information to reduce human and environmental exposure.

Although many of these chemicals provide certain benefits, the potential cost to human health and the environment is staggering. There are laws regulating some PFAS but others remain in use. Ultimately, local and national lawmakers need to create policies that protect individuals and communities from the health impacts of these toxic chemicals.

There is a recent bill introduced in the House to ban the intentional use of PFAS in cosmetics. Also, some states have taken strides to limit PFAS use in various consumer products. You can show your support for such legislation by contacting your lawmakers.

State legislatures recognize the severity of the toxic PFAS crisis were facing and theyre taking action, said Sarah Doll, national director of Safer States, in a statement. States continue to lead the way in addressing these serious problems with urgency and innovative solutions.

Ultimately, it is critical to dramatically reduce the use of these toxic chemicals as quickly as possible to stop them from accumulating in the environment. Certainly, cleanup efforts are also essential, as these chemicals are extremely persistent and have been in use for decades.

In the meantime, protect yourself by taking steps to reduce your exposure to PFAS. Write or call your elected officials and let them know you are concerned about these toxic chemicals and their presence in products you and your family are exposed to daily. Ask them to pass laws to regulate them, for phase-out programs, and for labeling to identify products that contain them. And urge them to ensure your drinking water is safe and to implement PFAS cleanup when necessary.

Link:

How to Reduce Your Exposure to Toxic PFAS - Earth911.com

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First lady Jill Biden traveled to one of the most populous Hispanic communities in America on Monday to tell Latinos that all we are good for is our breakfast tacos and bodegas.

Mrs. Bidens inflammatory and offensive rhetoric about Hispanic diversity in San Antonio, Texas, was not a gaffe. It is another example of the Biden administrations insensitive, bullying and politically divisive attacks on minorities in America.

The White House rigorously reviews and scrutinizes all public remarks prepared for the president and first lady. Yet Bidens protectors in the left-wing media say that the words Jill read from a Teleprompter "didnt come out correctly."

JILL BIDEN SAYS TEXAS HISPANICS AS UNIQUE AS BREAKFAST TACOS DURING SAN ANTONIO SPEECH

Lets set the record straight: Jills rehearsed speech was out of touch, insulting and derogatory towards Hispanics. The problem is even deeper than just her words. It starts with the fact that she spoke at the LatinX incluXion luncheon. The vast majority of Hispanics reject the term "LatinX." Yet the Democrats insist on forcing their language doctrine on the Hispanic community. What will come next?LatinX Hispanic Heritage Month?

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday, May 30, 2022, after returning from Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The first lady is a lifelong educator and teaches a writing class at a Virginia community college. Her husband Joe fawned over the English professor in their Vogue cover story for laboring over important speeches and grading student papers.

A White House spokesperson issued an apology on Jills behalf following Breakfast Taco-Gate. Latinos wont fall for a half-hearted one sentence mea culpa tweeted out from her press secretary when Jill herself drafted and delivered the insult-ridden speech.

JILL BIDEN APOLOGIZES FOR 'TACOS' COMMENTS ABOUT LATINOS

Dr. Jill Biden may have her doctorate, but she is in no way a healer. Her husband prescribed unity and truth for a nation reeling from blue state lockdowns and riots. The full-time Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, retirees, however, have exasperated cultural divisions in America and clearly have no interest in embracing Hispanic heritage, beyond a sign-of-life visit to a taqueria in Washington, D.C.

If Jill really cherished the "bodegas of the Bronx" and wanted safe communities for Hispanics, she would urge Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to drop the murder charge against Jose Alba, a bodega worker and immigrant from the Dominican Republic who stabbed an ex-con in an act of self-defense.

JILL BIDEN'S HISPANIC 'PANDERING' GAFFES ACCUSED OF CHANNELING JOE'S 7-ELEVEN, 'YOU AIN'T BLACK' REMARKS

She would also advocate for religious liberties, strong families and educational freedom with no leftist divisive propaganda.

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Democrats will always take minority voters for granted. They promise Hispanic-Americans opportunity, security, fairness and prosperity. Then they go to Washington, abandon you and sell you out. Instead of dealing with the issues that impact Latino families most, including historic inflation and energy costs, Biden is importing millions of illegal immigrants, enabling drug cartels and human traffickers and neglecting the hardworking and patriotic Hispanic-Americans who are already here.

Decades of pandering to identity politics is permanently pushing Hispanics away from the Democratic Party. A New York Times poll found 63% of Hispanics who said that they would vote in the 2024 Democratic primary do not want Biden to run again. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump's strongest support in 2024 comes from Hispanics in a Republican primary.

Hispanic-Americans will lead the red wave that swamps Democrats in 2022, and the Bidens in 2024.

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"Far-Right Latinas," as inappropriately described by the New York Times, who embrace Trumps America First agenda are an essential coalition in returning peace, prosperity and freedom to all communities throughout this nation.

Now more than ever, Republicans need to support Latinos who can speak to Hispanic-Americans with humility and their own experiences so that they can serve and represent their constituents as they would their family.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM MERCEDES SCHLAPP

Mercedes Schlapp is a Senior Fellow for CPAC. She was a Senior Advisor to Donald J. Trump for President Inc. and formerly the White House Senior Advisor For Strategic Communicationsin the Trump administration.

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Jill Biden's 'breakfast tacos' remark was not a gaffe. It was intentional and will drive Latinos to the GOP - Fox News

There are unexpected nutrients in lifecertain experiences and habits that give the mind and body essential support and make a marked improvement in how well we think, feel, and move as we age.

Social determinants of health are aspects of everyday living that impact our health. They span from intuitive components, such as economic status, to less apparent determinants, such as community.

In their 1999 bookSocial Determinants of Health, Michael Marmot and Richard Wilkinson provide scientific evidence in support of this added dimension of well-being. They found that poverty alone doesnt explain discrepancies in health. When people change social and cultural environments, the authors write, their disease risks change.

What does this mean for everyday people trying to improve their own health and well-being? Access to health care, screenings, and checkups are only part of the story. A persons social and cultural environmenttheir communityalso impacts their physical and mental health. Here are five research-backed ways to tap into community-based health benefits.

Social ties are at the heart of every community and can help prevent age-associated cognitive decline, but which social ties are most important? Data collected as part of the longitudinal Survey of Ageing, Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) initiative have been helpful in exploring this question. The data measured cognitive scores using immediate recall, delayed recall, and fluency while also measuring five types of social connectionspouse, children, other relatives, friends, and volunteeringbased on the participants lists of confidants (maximum of seven).

In a 2021 study, researchers modeled the SHARE data to examine five social structure types:

Participants in the multi-tie group experienced less cognitive decline on all measures than those in other groups, an indication that varied connections might be the key to staying sharp in old age. The friend-enhanced and family-rich networks also led to benefits when compared to close-family or family-poor groups.

Theres more than one way to access the cognition-based benefits of community, which is good news for older adults whose familial ties may already be cemented. While a varied social network including family and friends is the gold standard, a friend-enhanced social network can be built at any time and offers health benefits.

The SHARE study found that volunteering was an attribute in two of three community groups most likely to improve cognitive decline. Other studies have looked at volunteering on its own and found good reason to head to your local soup kitchen or community center.

Beyond the cognition-based benefits of an enriched social network, volunteering is associated with a reduction in hypertension.Hypertension, or high blood pressure, can damage artery walls leading to stroke or heart disease, two major causes of morbidity.

Onestudy looked at Americans aged 50 and older and took baseline blood pressure readings from those who had volunteered more than 200 hours in the previous year and those who hadnt. The study found that the people who had volunteered were significantly less likely to develop hypertension over the next four years.

Retirement homes have long been a potential living arrangement for older adults, while group homes have been popular among young adults. Multigenerational living, however, is currently making a resurgence through intentional living arrangements including cohousing and familial multigenerational housing. Multigenerational communities can help delay age-associated cognitive decline by increasing a personsaccess to a diverse and multi-tiered social network.

Further, cohousing represents a unique model that allows Americans to live in a multigenerational, intentional community without giving up the independence of single-family living. The mental health benefits of these communities were highlighted during the COVID-19 period of isolation, with cohousing residentsreporting lower levels of anxiety, depression, and self-destructive coping strategies than their peers outside of intentional communities. Several studies also have reported an association with improved physical health, though more research needs to be done to corroborate these findings.

Its unclear whether familial multigenerational housing has a positive impact on elder health when compared to living with a partner. Seniors living alone, however, tend to subjectively experience poorer health and exhibitpoorer health outcomes.

Children growing up in multigenerational housingexhibit improved cognitive functioning, possibly due to the strengthening bonds generated between young children and their elders. Additionally, financial benefits and the development of a village atmosphere can decrease the burden of child-rearing in isolation for young families.

An excellent way to build a community of friends and level up into either the multi-tie or friend-enhanced social categories is to join a social group. This is especially important for retired people, as an important source of social cohesion and cognitive complexity can be lost when people leave their work.

Astudy of English retirees found that participants who remained actively engaged in two social groups after retirement experienced a 2 percent risk of death in the first six years of retirement. For participants who began retirement with two social groups but maintained neither, the rate of mortality shot up to 12 percent. The relationship was linear: For every group lost in the first year of retirement, a participant was likely to experience a 10 percent lower quality of life at the follow-up six years later.

The importance of social groups extends beyond retiree health. Stroke patients resiliency has beenlinked to the number of social groups they had before having a stroke, while people suffering from a brain injury areless likely to experience post-traumatic symptoms if they join a social group after their injury. Moreover, college students who belong to multiple social groups exhibit better mental health outcomes and higher levels of resiliency.

Gardening is a time-honored tradition known for getting people active and outdoors. In many circles, community gardening is considered an upgrade. In addition to the physical benefits of gardening, those who garden in communityreport an improved sense of well-being, resilience, and optimism. For people who dont live near a community garden, resources on how to get started and fundingopportunities have been sprouting up in support of their creation.

There are many ways to tap into your community as a resource for health. What works best is often personal and depends on a persons own interests and inclinations. If your community is lacking and the available options arent a great fit, you arent alone and you arent without options. You can be the one to take that first step by starting a book club, exploring cohousing, or spearheading a garden in our own community.

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The Health and Healing Powers of Community - The Epoch Times

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, July 14, 2022Press Contact: Jessica Ortiz, [emailprotected]

TEXAS In response to the news that Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are bringing a group of GOP Senators to tour the South Texas border later this week, RAICES issued the following statement:

We are not surprised that Texass Republican senators have devised another political stunt to fuel xenophobia and rally Trump voters ahead of a critical midterm election. Like Governor Abbott, these politicians have no plan to protect the lives of people seeking safety at our border, and would rather support cruel and racist policies that endanger refugees and service providers.

Unlike our Senators who are only visiting the border to score political points, RAICES is here everyday to support immigrants and refugees in need. It is intentional and unfortunate that Cruz and Cornyn will be consciously omitting from their tour the truth of what we are seeing at the Texas-Mexico border: Communities coming together to care for and support each other in the face of immigration policies that have decimated our asylum system, and forced people to make unimaginable choices in their journey to seek safety and refuge in the U.S.

The reality is that the so-called turmoil at the border that these lawmakers have exploited for their own political gain was created and exacerbated by policies like Title 42 and Remain in Mexico. Cruz, Cornyn, and other GOP lawmakers have been fighting ardently to maintain these racist Trump-era policies, including championing Rep. Lankfords current attempt to codify Title 42 into law.

Seeking safety is a human right and RAICES and communities across the border are ready to welcome people seeking asylum to our communities. People seek asylum because their lives, and the lives of their children depend on it. Restoring a fair asylum process will help keep people safe and families together. Thats what we should be focusing on, not meaningless stunts for political attention.

###The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees. Learn more at Raicestexas.org

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Texas Senators Not Qualified to Give Tour of Border Communities - RAICES