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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.

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In this edition of 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.

Look up your senators 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 about several issues. I’d like Sen. [NAME] to:

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

State

Local

Corporate/business

Groups and organizations

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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