‘Outraged Elders’ Keep RBG’s Spirit Alive

by Melinda Tuhus, New Haven Independent, March 16, 2021

Dori Dumas wanted to celebrate Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s birthday on March 15, so she pitched the idea to the other members of the core group of Outraged Elders. They showed up in single-digit windchill temperatures on the Green on Monday, paper lace collars around their necks, signs displayed around “the bench” across from the federal courthouse to signify the wisdom “the notorious RBG” dispensed in her decades on the Supreme Court.

Outraged Elders is the group of Black and white women who planned two COVID-safe Black Lives Matter rallies on the Green last summer to enable older residents who were staying home to avoid catching a deadly disease to safely express their support.

“As a group of women activists, we thought it most appropriate during Women’s History Month to honor the life and legacy of the honorable Ruth Bader Ginsberg, ‘The Notorious R.B.G.’ on her birthday,” said Dumas, who is also president of the Greater New Haven chapter of the NAACP. “The bench is a reminder that we have to keep the pressure on. We have to use our power of the vote and keep pushing for laws that protect and advance equality, women’s rights and more,” she said. “The struggle continues, but the fight continues as well.”

The women used this outing to express support for many struggles, sometimes reading a relevant quote from Ginsberg. The Rev. Allie Perry promoted the efforts of Stop Solitary CT to pass the Protect Act to end solitary confinement in the state’s prisons.

Read the full article here: www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/outraged_elders_keep_rbgs_spirit_alive

PEP Calls for End to U.S. Support of Yemen Blockade

by Amina Masri, Promoting Enduring Peace

More than 5 million people are at the point of famine in Yemen. This is being caused in part because of the Saudi blockade of Hodeida, the major port where foreign aid enters the country. It’s also where fuel enters the country.  This past month there’s been video of long, long lines of trucks loaded with food that are stuck around the port of Hodeida. There has also been video of lines of ambulances. The vehicles are unable to move because they have no fuel. There are some 13 ships in waters near the port that have been inspected by the United Nations that have been stranded there for months. None has been allowed to unload in the port since late December.

Promoting Enduring Peace calls for several measures: the U.S. government should explain how it is involved now or in the past in the blockade; the State Department should publicly call for an end to the fuel blockade; the U.S. should stop delivery of all weapons to Saudi Arabia.

We ask U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy’s attention to this issue because for years he has been a critic of the Saudi war on Yemen. He recently called on the British government to join the Biden Administration in stopping the sale of offensive weapons to the Saudis. We ask him to speak out on the blockade.

For more information about this see the website pepeace.org where we also talk about another outrage in Yemen, the burning to death of at least 44 Ethiopian refugees by Ansar Allah (Houthi) forces.

COVID-19 Vaccine Info and Other State Updates

From Sen. Chris Murphy’s Office

All Connecticut residents over the age of 16 will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting April 1 and can sign up for a vaccine appointment at https://portal.ct.gov/Vaccine-Portal [as well as through the Vaccine Administration Management System at https://dphsubmissions.ct.gov/OnlineVaccine or call (877) 918-2224 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can also call the City of New Haven Health Department at (203) 639-2245, and Yale New Haven Health at (833) ASK-YNHH [(833) 275-9644)].

Starting March 19, Connecticut eased a number of COVID-19 restrictions. Among other changes, restaurants, retail stores, offices, libraries, houses of worship, indoor recreation (excluding theaters), gyms and fitness centers, museums, aquariums and zoos are allowed to operate at 100% capacity. Mask requirements and social distancing rules remain in effect.

Members of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation, Gov. Ned Lamont and Connecticut Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno announced the launch of UniteCT, a new state program to provide rental and utility assistance to qualified Connecticut households financially impacted by COVID-19. UniteCT may provide up to $10,000 in rental assistance and up to $1,500 in electric utility arrearage payments to landlords and utility companies on behalf of approved tenants. To learn more about the qualifications and apply for assistance go to bit.ly/UniteCT.

Connecticut’s Congressional Delegation, Gov. Lamont and CT Airport Authority Executive Director Kevin Dillon announced that CT’s airports have been awarded more than $8.8 million in federal grant funding under the COVID-19 pandemic relief plan passed by Congress in December.

Gov. Lamont and Attorney General William Tong are warning Connecticut residents to be on alert for potential scams related to COVID-19 vaccines. To protect themselves against vaccine-related scams: 1) Do not pay anything to sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine; 2) Ignore sales ads related to the vaccine; 3) Beware of unsolicited emails or texts concerning the vaccine, including offers of rewards or payments; and 4) Do not share personal, financial, or health information with unfamiliar people.

Gov. Lamont announced that he has signed an executive order modifying certain state laws in order to allow expanded access to telehealth services to continue in Connecticut during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The filing and payment deadline for Connecticut and federal individual income taxes has been extended to May 17, 2021. For information on federal coronavirus relief, including help for small businesses, direct cash payments and more, visit murphy.senate.gov/coronavirus. This page provides answers to frequently asked questions and gives a summary of available programs and funding. For the latest information about keeping you or your family safe go to cdc.gov/coronavirus. For resources and information about Connecticut’s response, including updates about vaccine distribution, visit ct.gov/coronavirus.

What’s Your Story? People Get Ready!

https://www.peoplegetreadybooks.com

March 19, 2021

Like many small businesses across the country, a socially-conscious bookstore in New Haven has employed some creative strategies to stay afloat after the pandemic forced its doors to close, National Public Radio reported.

Delores Williams and Lauren Anderson are the co-founders of People Get Ready (PGR), which focuses on works by authors from underrepresented groups, including people of color and authors who are LGBTQ+, multilingual and/or Indigenous.

When the pandemic hit last March, Williams and Anderson found new ways to serve their community. Among other strategies, they’ve offered virtual read-alouds, upgraded their online store, and even have delivered books locally for free. The two say that books have provided their customers with comfort, growth and connection in a time that has forced us to be apart.

“The most important lesson we have learned is that we can’t go wrong if we stick to our founding mission, listen to what our neighbors tell us they need from us, and extend grace to one another as we figure out what it means to nurture an emerging business in these times,” Williams and Anderson write.

For more info, contact PGR at
119 Whalley Ave., New Haven, CT  06511
(203) 954-6678
https://www.peoplegetreadybooks.com

Never Ending Books Collective at 810 State St.

neverendingbooks.net

Never Ending Books Collective: We’re friends who value our city and what Never Ending Books has been to us and countless others, and who want to help shepherd it into New Haven’s future. And we want you to be a part of it!

Late last year, news broke that New Haven’s Never Ending Books — for years a sanctuary for artists, bookworms, and performers — was closing. We want to keep it open. And we need your help to make it possible.

The Never Ending Books Collective will create a community-driven, independent art and cultural center dedicated to keeping art at street level by providing an inclusive space for both artists and audiences, a curated print media selection, low-cost events, exhibitions, and more in a multi-use storefront.

That will mean more regular hours; a curated selection of used books for sale; a selection of art, literature, comix, zines, and more from local creators; and eventually, when it’s safe, a space for musicians and performers.

Check out the article from the New Haven Independent: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/neb_collective.

Sign up for newsletters at neverendingbooks.net. For now our hours are Saturday and Sunday 3-5 p.m. There is also an art exchange those hours: bring in a piece of art and take one from the bookstore. More hours will soon be posted on the website. When you’re in the neighborhood, stop by 810 State Street. If we’re open, please come in!

The Friends of Kensington Playground April Update

by Jane Comins, Friends of Kensington Playground

Taking the Dwight neighborhood’s only public playground for housing amounts to environmental injustice. Our efforts to save Kensington Playground from development continue.

Friends of Kensington Playground lawsuit in State court:

  • The City of New Haven has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit (on the grounds of lack of standing).  One Friend owns her home and lives across the street, so we expect to win on that.
  • The Community Builders (TCB) has filed a motion to be a party in the lawsuit.  The judge has said no for now.

The Mayor said no to mediation at March’s neighborhood meeting, choosing instead to spend taxpayer funds needless-ly to defend a lawsuit.  There are win-win options. Mediation could be helpful.
We asked the national Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to get involved. They have asked the City of New Haven to explain how people in the community were involved in consideration of the sale of the site and how a review of the site’s historic significance was done in advance of the decision to sell it.

Friends of Kensington Playground will be hosting several events in the park. Please come and please wear a mask. Food Pantry, Easter Basket Giveaway: Saturday, April 3, 10 a.m.; Park Spring Clean Up: Sat., April 10, 10-11 a.m.; Kids Bike Safety Clinic: Sat., Apr. 17, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.; Clothing/Household Goods Giveaway – May, date pending.

To get involved, learn more, donate, and sign our petition, please visit our website: KensingtonPlayground.org.

Protecting Dwight’s only playground from sale and development is costly, even though we have done as much of the work as possible ourselves. Please be as generous as you can. Don’t let the City take this playground for $1 with an illegal process. Take a stand for democracy. Fight environ-mental injustice. Require our city, state and federal governments to follow the law.

Campaign Forming to Stop Ruger Sales to Israel

by Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee

A number of groups are joining to try to save Palestinians from being shot by guns produced by Sturm Ruger & Co. which is based in Fairfield. The guns are barbarically being used for “crowd control,” that is, Israeli soldiers are shooting .22 caliber rounds into leaders of and participants in demonstrations, killing some and maiming others. Internet searches have shown more than 60 times Palestinians were killed or injured by Rugers over the past decade. The last was a youth killed on his 15th birthday last December.

The Middle East Crisis Committee had an effort in 2018 trying to get Ruger to take responsibility for its gun sales. Letters were written to Chris Kiloy, Ruger CEO; an op-ed was published in the New Haven Register; and three CT groups banded together for a march to Ruger headquarters on a sweltering June day. A company VP met with activists for literally a couple of minutes and said the company was following all U.S. law.

A website is being prepared. See NoRugerGunsToIsrael. godaddysites.com. We’re working on an action on March 30th which is Palestinian Land Day and the day the Great March of Return began in the Gaza Strip 2018. That effort lasted well over a year. According to the UN, “214 Palestinians, including 46 children, were killed, and over 36,100, including nearly 8,800 children, have been injured.”No Israeli soldier was killed over all that time and only one soldier was injured.

We hope this campaign will be sustained and, in view of growing support for Palestinians among U.S. citizens, U.S. Jews, and even among Congress, will have more success.  #NoRugerGuns2Israel

A Third of COVID Deaths Tied to Lack of Insurance as Dems Reintroduce Medicare for All | Democracy Now!

A new report by Public Citizen finds about one-third of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. were tied to a lack of insurance. Nearly 537,000 deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic. Millions of infections would likely have been prevented under a Medicare for All system, says Public Citizen.

This comes as Democratic Congressmembers Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell are introducing the Medicare for All Act of 2021 today — one year after the first COVID-19 cases were confirmed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The bill has over 100 co-sponsors. President Biden has rejected Medicare for All, even though the majority of Americans support it.

Source: Report Finds a Third of COVID Deaths Tied to Lack of Insurance as Dems Reintroduce Medicare for All | Democracy Now!

Medicare 4 All CT Action Alert on Universal Healthcare in CT! | Action Network

We need you to contact our CT Legislators to support Universal Healthcare! We now have two opportunities this week to make our elected leaders hear our demands!

We have all been made exhausted by this year of the pandemic, but our healthcare system has been making us tired even long before then. We now have a real chance of making a statewide single-payer system a reality in Connecticut that would ensure we can all be in good health no matter our wealth!

Write to The Human Services Committee to tell them to support this bill! Click here to be taken to the letter writing form!

Then, Next Tuesday, March 30, at 2 PM EST, you have a chance to speak to our legislators at the General Assembly when The Human Services Committee will hold a public hearing on S.B. 1090, a bill that we at MEDICARE 4 ALL CT have written that will study the benefits of a HUSKY for All program. As Bernie Sanders would say, WE WROTE THE DAMN BILL!

 

This key bill will finally allow resources to go into a formal study that will prove to everyone in Connecticut for all that not only will the costs of single-payer healthcare create a great savings for the people of Connecticut, it will finally ensure that everyone can be covered and finally be healthy!

Do you have your own healthcare story you need to tell? Are you a member of a union or organization that wants to be able to focus on other issues for your members? Do you have astronomically high co-pays, deductibles, and premiums that make it almost irrelevant to have for-profit healthcare coverage at all?

Then please step up to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Follow these steps to take action NOW!

  • Use this form here to contact all members of The Human Services Committee to tell them you support S.B. 1090 and that they need to vote to move the bill on to the next step of the legislative process! Vote to send SB1090 out of committee!
  • You can draft written testimony to submit to the committee or simply submit “Say YES to S.B. 1090!”. If you have any questions or need any assistance writing your testimony, please sign up here and we will contact you for help.
  • If you plan to submit oral testimony over Zoom, please register here before Monday, March 29, at 3 PM.
  • The order of speakers to deliver oral testimony will be randomized and published by the Committee by 8 AM EST on the day of the hearing.

Green Party of Connecticut Calls Dems’ HR 1 a ‘Poison Pill’ Linking Needed Voting Reforms to Attacks on Third Parties, Independents

An otherwise progressive proposal that would enhance voting rights for many Americans is being used in a stealth attack by the Democratic Party to suppress third parties and to entrench the power of rich people in choosing who Americans can vote for. The Green Party of Connecticut supports many of the important reforms in HR 1, the so-called “For the People Act,” but calls on Democrats to amend the bill to truly do what it says – protect democracy.

Justin Paglino, the Green Party’s 2020 candidate in Connecticut’s third congressional district, said of H.R. 1, “Reforms in this bill that empower voters are welcome, including early voting, public disclosure requirements for donors to corporate Super PACs, and a plan to end partisan gerrymandering. But hidden in HR 1 are measures whose clear purpose is to strengthen establishment power and weaken voices of dissent. HR 1 skyrockets the amount of money that party leadership can give to a candidate from $5,000 to $100 million – and that is not a typo! Even worse, at a time when 62 percent of US voters say we need a new major party, HR 1 dramatically raises the hurdles that third parties already face, instead of lowering them. HR 1 quintuples the donation threshold candidates must meet to earn matching funds, and eliminates the 5%-of-the-vote threshold for federal grants, a provision that has long been the light at the end of the tunnel for third party candidates.”

Paglino, who recently announced his intent to run for Congress again in 2022, added “Connecticut’s third congressional district shows exactly what’s wrong with our election laws. The two-party system has given us a thirty-year incumbent Democrat who refuses to support widely popular policies such as Medicare for All or a Carbon Tax, and Republican challengers whose only prerequisite qualification is that they have large sums of money to run their campaigns.”

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