For the past few weeks, UU Ministry for Earth and Elders Climate Action have been busy with the UU Project Drawdown Initiative 2021. UU DD 21 mobilizes teams or individuals to earn points for taking a variety of actions for climate and environmental justice. You can SIGN UP and take part in the challenge at any time until June, when the collective efforts will be compiled in a video to be shared and celebrated at UUA General Assembly. Get inspired with these highlights of progress so far.
Letter Writing to NoDAPL Political Prisoners, April 6, 2021, 4pm, Online
Join the Unitarian Universalist Association, UU Ministry For Earth, UU Service Committee and Love Resists for a letter writing campaign to show solidarity with Steve Martinez, a NoDAPL political prisoner who has been recently incarcerated after refusing to face a grand jury for a second time. Steve, an Indigenous water protector, was first subpoenaed to a federal grand jury in 2017 for his participation in the NoDAPL resistance movement and refused to comply then as now. This recent targeting came as a disconcerting surprise to many who have been supporting water protector political prisoners for the past four years. On the call, hear from Water Protectors and UU organizers about Steve’s current legal situation, and write your own letter to Steve and other NoDAPL political prisoners.
Another way to support is to DONATE to Steve Martinez’s GoFundMe.
JUUstwa Offers Bystander Intervention Training, April 23, 2021, online
On Friday evening, April 23rd from 6 p.m. to roughly 7:30, the JUUstice Washington’s Interrupting the School to Prison Pipeline racial justice action team will be offering an online Bystander Intervention trainer. Courtney Wooten is the developer and presenter of the training. For more information, see Suburbia Rising
The intention of the training is twofold. The session will provide online training to members of the ISPP committee, but more importantly, the committee invites Washington State UU congregation to designation a member of the congregation to experience the training and use the experience to consider asking Courtney to offer this or other trainings that Courtney has developed to their respective congregations. If your congregation would like to send a representative, please contact John Hilke at jchilke@comcast.net so that he can include your representative on the Zoom invitation list for the training.
FARM WORKFORCE MODERNIZATION ACT (FWMA) IS BAD FOR FARMWORKERS-Please Add Your Opposition
On Thursday March 18th the Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed the house with a 247-172 vote; the majority of votes in favor coming from Democrats.
C2C and Farmworker organizations nationally have opposed this legislation since it was introduced in 2019 during the Trump administration. We are deeply concerned that Democrats are giving in to political pressure to move quickly on immigration bills; with a dangerous tradeoff that will set in place the long-term implications of the FWMA.
We remain opposed to the FWMA as it is written.
We urge our supporters to reach out to your senators and tell them to vote “NO” on this bill.
While it is being touted as a bipartisan effort to attain a path for citizenship, what is being left out of the conversation is that this bill’s “path” sets up an 8-year period of exploitation that farmworkers have to survive in order to eventually qualify for citizenship. Workers who are injured during the eight-year process will be disqualified. The ultimate recommendation for citizenship will have to come from employers, which further entrenches the longstanding power imbalance between workers and farm owners.
Two dangerous long-term mandates in this bill are forcing agricultural employers to use E-Verify, the faulty audit system that has resulted in massive detention and deportation. This will put millions of undocumented people living and working in the United States at risk.
The other mandate is linking legalization to the exploitative federal H2A (guest worker) program, and permanently expanding it, making it harder for workers to organize and easier for corporate agriculture to obtain and exploit cheap labor, instead of hiring farmworkers already living in the U.S.
Read our joint statement with the Food Chain Workers Alliance here.
Sign on to Oppose FWMA Here!
Call and write your senators THIS WEEK and ask them to vote NO on the FWMA. Find your senator’s contact info here!
There’s a Right Track and a Wrong Track for the Future of WA State Rail
Tom White, one of the lead authors of the Amtrak Cascades LRP, and Solutionary Rail Project Lead Bill Moyer, wrote this article about the future of rail in our State:
by Thomas White and Bill Moyer
Washington state has two potential tracks toward a 21st century rail future, with starkly different outcomes.
One provides higher speed, climate-friendly passenger service linking as many as 13 communities on the Cascadia corridor, with increased capacity for freight trains. It has been in development since 1991 and some elements have already been completed. It would provide clean, electrified Amtrak Cascades passenger service at up to 110mph along existing lines. The phased effort would rapidly create jobs, upgrade service and cut carbon pollution. It could be completed in a decade.
Tragically, this shovel-ready plan is being ignored while another flashy vision grabs the spotlight. That is the “ultra-high-speed rail” (UHSR) project proposed by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee’s administration and developed by WSP, a giant engineering firm. It offers a maximum of five stops along the route. To facilitate speeds up to 220mph, it would require an entirely new passenger-only corridor acquired through costly land acquisitions and the controversial use of eminent domain, with many environmental challenges. While science tells us we need to dramatically cut carbon pollution this decade, UHSR would take many years before the first track is put on the ground and decades more to completion — if it happens at all.
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE
The Amtrak Cascades Long Range Plan (LRP) can deliver a proportionate, achievable and impactful transportation solution for our State. And it can serve as a Solutionary Rail pilot project, a huge step for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, tire and air pollution, congestion, wear and tear, and much more.
@Washingtonians: there’s still time to reach out to State Legislators & ask that the Amtrak Cascades LRP be funded.
Please, if you haven’t done so yet, contact your two state Representatives AND your state Senator, asking for:
- State funding to update the Amtrak Cascades Long Range Plan
- Legislators to work with WSDOT to request that Federal Railroad Administration grant programs be generously funded by the federal government.
Send this letter (“Legislative Sponsors Needed”) by email:
- Click to download the suggested text
- Copy and paste the subject line and text
- Send today to each of your State legislators
More info HERE
If you write to your elected officials, please fill out the form at the bottom of the page HERE (or send an email to info@solutionaryrail.org with the names of legislators you contacted) so we can track who has been contacted. If you hear back, please let us know. If your legislator asks for additional info, we can put them in contact with experts to answer all their questions.
Let’s do this, Washington!
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