May 12, 2023
Expel George Santos, challenge censorship, #FreeBlackMamas for Mother’s Day and more!
Contact all members of Congress:
- By phone: (202) 224-3121
- By email: democracy.io
- By US mail: Representatives / Senators
- By fax: Representatives / Senators
- By Resistbot: Resist.bot
Contact White House or other federal agencies:
- TIME TO EXPEL SANTOS
Confessed fraudster George Santos (R-NY) has been charged by federal prosecutors with 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to Congress. Yet he still refuses to resign, and Speaker McCarthy still isn’t pushing him to do so. It is time for Congress to say enough is enough. Let’s contact our members of Congress and urge them to call for Rep. Santos’ resignation, and to support Rep. Robert Garcia’s effort to expel him if he will not do so. Let’s also add our voices to Rep. Garcia’s request for a House Oversight Committee hearing on Santos’ alleged COVID fraud. - WHITE SUPREMACISTS IN THE MILITARY
Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), already under fire for blocking the usually routine Senate approval of nearly 200 senior military promotions in an effort to pressure the Pentagon into dropping new policies that assure those in uniform can access abortions, has now gone even farther. He’s responded to criticism by attacking the Biden Administration for their concern about white nationalists in our armed forces, saying “they call them [white nationalists], I call them Americans.” Let’s contact our senators, especially those of us whose senators serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and let them know we want them to do whatever is in their power to move these promotions forward without selling out the rights of our troops, and to either publicly condemn Senator Tuberville’s remarks in defense of white supremacists in the military or explain why they won’t.
- CENSORSHIP AT SCHOLASTIC BOOKS Scholastic, the children’s book publisher, sold about 100 million books worldwide at last report and earned $1.64 billion in revenue in 2022. Despite their own credo, which insists on their opposition to racism, they seem nonetheless to have crumpled in the face of right-wing anti “woke” rhetoric (and, no doubt, the concomitant loss of profit), demanding that an Japanese-American author, among others, censor her work. Let’s join the librarians and teachers who have already protested this censorship by contacting Scholastic at 1-800-631-1586 or fax 1-800-724-4911 or write to CEO Peter Warwick at 555 Broadway, NY, NY 10012.
- JOIN AN EVENT DEMANDING FEDERAL ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN TOMORROW Enough is enough. It is time to take a stand against assault weapons. We’ve seen how legislation can make a difference before. Under the last assault weapons ban, guns deaths from mass shootings were 70% lower and we can bring them down again. TOMORROW, May 13th, we can join Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers holding events around the country, demanding that Congress reinstate the bipartisan assault weapons ban NOW. We can text RALLY to 644-33. to find an event near us.
- #FREEBLACKMAMAS FOR MOTHER’S DAYNational Bail Out is a collective of abolitionist organizations and activists who focus on pretrial detention and mass incarceration. They provide fellowship, advocate for bail reform, and run the annual Black Mama’s Bail Outs, which post bail for mothers who would otherwise be separated from their children. For those of us who are able, let’s celebrate Mother’s Day by helping these moms get out of jail and reunite with their families by donating what we can. Then, let’s read and share about the current state of the cash bail system in the U.S with this breakdown from The Marshall Project.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
- ALL – VOTING RIGHTSThe New York Times recently reported that the Republican party is pushing a long-term, incremental strategy for restricting voting rights in the states. The effort is supported by billionaire-backed advocacy groups. Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan organization that provides research and analysis useful to the movement for free and fair elections, has a State Voting Rights Tracker that we can use to find bills pending in our state legislatures that both support and undermine voting rights. Let’s:
- Use the tracker to research bills in our states and tell our state legislators which to support and which to oppose
- Get involved with voting rights groups, like the Voting Rights Alliance, League of Women Voters, or Common Cause