If you care about democracy and justice in the U.S., you’ll enjoy reading the following list of GOOD news items gathered by our team of dedicated volunteers. Take a break from the headlines for a much-needed boost.
So far this year, our subscribers have taken 36,577 actions from the Checklist together–from calls, letters, and emails, to donations and signing petitions. If you’ve done even a singe action, you’ve contributed to the 374% increase in actions taken compared to January through May of last year. Together, through our Checklist, we are showing up together to let our nation’s highest leaders know that we don’t agree with their agenda, we are not complacent, and we won’t go along with their plans. That’s solidarity. That’s courage. And it’s worth celebrating!
In the words of our modern-day sage, Jane Goodall, “It is important to take action and to realize that we can make a difference, and this will encourage others to take action and then we realize we are not alone and our cumulative actions truly make an even greater difference. This is how we spread the Light. And this, of course, makes us all even more hopeful.“
All the good news
- D.C. residents honor Juneteenth with a Jubilee and Freedom Walk on the very path where enslaved people once escaped to freedom.
- Barrington, RI: Members of the Town Council vote unanimously to adopt a resolution declaring it a sanctuary town for transgender people and all members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
- Tulsa, OK announces a $105 million package devoting dollars and actions toward reparations for a racial-terror massacre in 1921.
- New York, NY: More than 75% of the city’s municipal vehicles—about 21,500—are now green (hybrid, electric, or running on renewable biofuel).
- Communities in Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Charlotte, San Diego, Boston, Houston, San Antonio, Minneapolis, Worcester, MA, and other cities show up publicly in support of their neighbors facing unjust ICE raids, detainment, and deportation.
- Four top lawyers leave the Paul Weiss law firm to start their own firm in protest of its leader’s deals to dodge an executive order that would have limited its business.
- Eight organizations are supporting transparency by making this information publicly available online in response to the administration’s scrubbing of data and records.
- A Georgetown University student is released from immigration detention after a federal judge’s ruling.
- Denka chemical plant will close in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” after years of advocacy from residents.
- Ten national unions and scores of local chapters representing more than 3 million members issue a joint statement demanding an end to the assault on the Constitutional right to organize and protest.
- EarthJustice wins its lawsuit against the USDA for deleting information about climate change from the government website. The USDA has been ordered to restore all previous pages.
- SEIU-USWW president David Huerta is released after being detained at a pro-immigration workers’ demonstration.
- Immigrant rights groups sue to overturn the president’s deal to send ICE detainees to a Salvadoran prison, arguing it violates the U.S. Constitution and due process protections.
- The non-profit We Fortify works to create low-income housing for teachers in a Colorado Springs school district.
- The neurodiversity advocacy nonprofit KultureCity rolls out a crowd-sourced map of neurodivergent-accessible spaces throughout Manhattan.
- Five press-freedom groups offer journalists legal, immigration, and safety training and resources.
- The adaptive design lab MakeGood NOLA invents a first-of-its-kind 3D-printed wheelchair for kids and offers free model downloads for anyone to print on their home 3D printer.
- For the safety of immigrant communities, Project South shares their fact sheet clarifying the difference between an official judicial warrant and an ICE administrative document that holds no legal authority.
- A group of rock climbing LGBTQ+ advocates hang a gigantic transgender pride flag on Yosemite’s El Capitan rock formation.
- Proceeds from “Protect the Dolls” t-shirt sales are being donated to Trans Lifeline, a nonprofit community group and crisis hotline.
- A teacher cleverly gets around Utah’s ban on LGBTQ+ displays in classrooms to ensure his students feel welcomed and supported.
- Punk bands use their music to drown out anti-LGBTQ+ speakers on a college campus.
- Air Canada honors Pride Month with an all LGBTQ+ flight crew, delighting passengers and workers alike.
- A 4-year-old girl is allowed to stay in the U.S. for lifesaving care after community outcry.
- About 500 NYC students walk out in solidarity after ICE detains a 20-year-old Venezuelan student attending high school in the Bronx.
- Dan Mancina, a blind skateboarder, creates the world’s first adaptive skatepark in Detroit, Michigan.
- Three teens design a brain-controlled bionic leg for a friend, winning $50K in the Gordon E. Moore Award at the International Science and Engineering Fair.
- The rate of young children in Texas who receive measles vaccines has increased significantly since 2019.
- New England’s electricity grid reaches a record low for power demand for the fourth year in a row.
- The EU will provide emergency funds to pro-democracy media outlet Radio Free Europe after the U.S. president cut its grants.
- Vatican City becomes the latest nation to run entirely on renewable energy, a dream of the late Pope Francis.
- New research shows that penguin guano is an important source of ammonia aerosol particles that help drive the formation of low clouds, cooling the climate by reflecting some incoming sunlight back to space.
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I’m so proud of us, as we show up for our nation and neighbors at this difficult time. Let’s keep carrying on together!
Gratefully,
— Jen Hofmann and the AoCC team