35 weeks to Midterm Elections
The AoC Checklist features clear, well-researched actions for Americans who value democracy, equality, voting, and decency. We are a big tent for all people who want a kinder, flourishing nation.
If you only have 10 minutes, take our top three suggested actions:
- Action 6: Safeguard Ukrainian citizens currently in the U.S.
- Action 1: Verify your voter registration monthly through November.
- Action 2: Get voters of color the ID they need to vote.
In this edition of the AoC Checklist:
- Senate actions: What we’re contacting our senators about.
- House actions: What we’re contacting our House reps about.
- Action 1: Verify your voter registration monthly through November.
- Action 2: Get voters of color the ID they need to vote.
- Action 3: Preserve governmental checks and balances.
- Action 4: Support democracy in Ukraine.
- Action 5: Support the rights of returning community members to get a job.
- Action 6: Safeguard Ukrainian citizens currently in the U.S.
- Say Thanks: Acts of Gratitude
- Check out Good News from around the nation
- How you can support and share the AoC Checklist
Contact your senators
Check the box if you made contact–whether for one issue or all–so we can count your action. Contacting your senators’ staffers with multiple concerns is more efficient for both of you.
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Your script: Hi, I’m from [ZIP] calling/writing about several issues. I’d like Sen. [NAME] to:
- Support H.R. 55, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which makes lynching a hate crime and passed the House with a vote of 422 to 3. [Source: AoCC]
- Support the House-passed Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376) to invest in our nation’s future and racial equity progress. [Source: Center on Budget]
- Invest in our communities by funding Homelessness Assistance Grants and Tenant-Based Rental Assistance at the maximum amounts possible. [Source: End Homelessness]
Contact your House representative
Check the box if you made contact so we can count your action.
Look up your House representative here.
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Your script: Hi, I’m from [ZIP] calling/writing to ask Rep. [NAME] to invest in our communities by funding Homelessness Assistance Grants and Tenant-Based Rental Assistance at the maximum amounts possible. [Source: End Homelessness]
I value democracy
With respect and collaboration, we work to create a nation that welcomes all people, expands freedoms, and upholds the Constitution. Each citizen must be able to freely and fairly elect those who represent their values.
Action 1: Verify your voter registration monthly through November.
Source: AoCC
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
This week, voters in Texas reported having their registration canceled without notice or reason, some even while trying to vote in this week’s primary. Don’t let this be you. Commit to checking monthly, starting today.
Check your registration again: Vote.org.
Action 2: Get voters of color the ID they need to vote.
Source: Spread the Vote
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Requiring voter ID is a discriminatory barrier to voting. According to the ACLU, “Over 21 million U.S. citizens do not have qualifying government-issued photo identification, and these individuals are disproportionately voters of color.” Even when IDs are free, the documents needed to get an ID are not. Spread the Vote assists people in obtaining IDs.
Donate: https://www.kindest.com/donate/spread-the-vote (If you do, mention that you’re from AoCC!)
Action 3: Preserve governmental checks and balances.
Source: Brennan Center
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Contact: The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Script: I’m joining 42 civil rights organizations in asking you to rescind your signing statement and comply with all the reporting requirements of the National Defense Authorization Act, which recently passed with strong bipartisan support. Allowing the Defense Department to withhold documentation required by the NDAA prevents congressional oversight of military operations and threatens the American system of governmental checks and balances. Thank you.
Action 4: Support democracy in Ukraine.
Source: Kyiv Independent
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
An English-language newspaper in Kyiv lists how to support Ukrainian communities as they face foreign aggressors. Note that these sites are credible but might redirect or seem low-budget due to the current reality in Ukraine.
Visit: https://ukrainewar.carrd.co/
I value equality
Support the dignity of your rainbow of neighbors from every religion, race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, age, and ability.
Action 5: Support the rights of returning community members to get a job.
Source: RAND Corporation
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Email or write: Your state legislators (look up).
Script: Hello, I’m reaching out from [ZIP] to encourage you to update [STATE]’s unemployment services to better support citizens returning from prison. People with criminal records historically have a harder time finding work, and currently experience nearly seven times the U.S. unemployment rate. I’m asking you to address [STATE]’s “labor shortage” and empower returning community members with accessible employment opportunities by:
- Passing expungement laws,
- Enacting fair-chance laws to make it illegal for employers to ask applicants about their criminal records,
- Enacting business-friendly laws that limit employer liability when hiring people with criminal records, and/or
- Hiring people with criminal records in state government positions.
Action 6: Offer U.S. refuge to Ukrainian citizens.
Source: AoCC
Note: This action has been updated to reflect recent developments.
Join the 0 Americans of Conscience who have completed this action by checking the tally box!
Contact:
President Biden via the White House contact form and
Alejandro Mayorkas Secretary of Homeland Security at (202) 282-8495 (DHS comment line)
Script: Hi, I’m contacting you from [STATE] to thank you for offering Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to the 75,100 Ukrainian people currently living here. The US should also follow the EU’s lead and allow Ukranians to bypass the usual asylum process so that our nation’s solidarity and friendship will be long remembered.
Acts of Gratitude
Signatures to the forms below will be printed with a letter of thanks from Americans of Conscience, and mailed to the recipient 2 weeks after the Checklist publication date. Your information will not be stored after that date.
Thank Michael Regen, EPA Administrator, for establishing an internal EPA council to identify opportunities for greater partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The new council enhances opportunities for recruitment of students and support for institutions through grants, contracts, transparent data sharing, and community engagement.
If you’d like to mail your own personal expression of gratitude, use this address:
Michael S. Regan, EPA Administrator
1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Mail code: 1101A
Washington, DC 20460
Good News
As Americans of Conscience, we celebrate!
Tribal
- Melissa Isaac (Saginaw Chippewa) is invited to sit with First Lady Jill Biden at the SOTU address after meeting at an October 2021 session on Indigenous youth mental health.
- “Bring Her Home,” an Indigenous-made film about three women fighting to honor their missing and murdered relatives premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana.
National
- Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is nominated by President Biden to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Black woman in the nation’s history to receive a SCOTUS nomination
- House passes legislation to make lynching a hate crime with a nearly unanimous vote.
- State Dept. restarts the Iraqi Direct Access Program to address the backlog of Iraqis seeking refuge in the U.S. who assisted the U.S. government.
- DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel affirms Congress’s power to remove the seven-year timeline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, clearing the path toward the ERA’s inclusion in the Constitution.
- The Biden administration takes steps to make masks and coronavirus tests more accessible to people who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.
- The Office of Science and Technology Policy holds a first-of-its-kind roundtable on the urgent need to counteract climate change.
- In light of the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. State Dept. encourages donations to USAID’s list of humanitarian aid organizations providing relief for Ukrainians.
- IN FY 2021, the average daily (ICE) detained population fell to about 19,200, the lowest level since FY 1999.
- Since 2020, over 427,000 people are newly eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) including Venezuela, Myanmar, Haiti, and now Ukraine.
State
- HI becomes the first U.S. state to ban shark fishing.
- KS: Court strikes down portions of a new state law criminalizing the distribution of advance mail ballot applications.
- MN: The former Minneapolis police officers responsible for the death of George Floyd are found guilty of violating Floyd’s civil rights.
- NC Supreme Court strikes down the state’s enacted legislative maps for being partisan gerrymanders.
- NV lawmakers approve an additional $2.2 million to improve the state’s switch to primarily mail-in ballots.
- PA Supreme Court adopts a fair redistricting map.
- UT’s voting system retains default mail-in voting despite legislative attempts to return to default in-person polls and make voting less accessible.
Local
- Madison County, MS Library System receives $110,000 in donations after facing a loss of city funding due to noncompliance with government censorship.
- Students, alumni, parents, and educators in PA’s Central York School District successfully reverse their school board’s freeze on various books and resources on people of color and racism, while students there push for more diverse and inclusive curricula.
Corporate/business
- Facebook and Twitter remove disinformation accounts targeting Ukrainians.
- Google (including YouTube), Meta (Facebook), Twitter, and TikTok block propaganda “media” run by Russian state media.
- Yale Law School will provide full-tuition scholarships for 45 to 50 students in its J.D. program whose family income falls below the federal poverty line for three years.
- Citi banks eliminate overdraft fees that unfairly punish society’s most vulnerable after years of consumer advocacy.
- HBCU Paul Quinn University will accept up to two family members of accepted students who meet certain requirements.
- The Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health makes “Abortion With Pills: Review of Current Options in the United States” available to read for free for a limited time.
Groups and organizations
- The ACLU, ACLU Texas, and Lambda Legal sue to block Texas from unnecessary and invasive investigations of trans youths’ parents.
- World Central Kitchen provides meals to Ukrainians crossing into Poland, Romania, Moldova, and Hungary.
- The E.U.’s European Commission requests that member countries grant asylum to all Ukrainian people seeking refuge for up to three years.
- YouTube vloggers’ 15th annual Project for Awesome raises over $3,236,000 for charities worldwide.
- Witness at the Border and other immigration rights organizations urge the Biden administration to implement full reparations and restorative justice for those harmed by family separation under the previous administration.
- The E.U. will pursue energy strategies that move away from dependence on Russian gas.
- Gizmodo Media Group Union goes on strike for improved pay, benefits, and diversity and inclusion policies.
- St. Vincent Hospital Nurses’ union secures a contract providing significant improvements in staffing, patient care, wages, and benefits.
- The nonprofit Airbnb.org will provide free temporary housing to 100,000 Ukrainians seeking refuge in the U.S.
News with heart
- Germans swarm train station to offer their homes to arriving Ukrainian families.
- Poles frantically rebuild a rail link over a mountain to Ukraine to help refugees.
- 100s of people book AirBnBs in Ukraine to show support and provide monetary assistance.
- Gabrielle Giffords and Yo-Yo Ma play music together to honor victims of gun violence.
- Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts are featured on the cover of Essence, becoming the first queer couple to appear together on the magazine’s cover.
- Court orders a new trial for Pamela Moses, who was sentenced to six years in prison for unknowingly trying to register to vote while ineligible.
- The Brennan Center for Justice finds young adults more civically engaged in their communities through voting, volunteering, and activism than they are given credit for.
- Anna Murray Douglass and her daughter Annie Douglass will be honored with memorials at Mount Hope Cemetery.
- Jorts the Cat’s Twitter account shares a message promoting OR’s farmworker overtime bill.
- Projection artist Alan Marling and Justice Murals project Ukrainian art onto the side of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
- Educator and civil rights activist Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune will be honored with a statue in her likeness in the U.S. Capitol, the first state-commissioned statue there of a Black woman.
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Housekeeping
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