Exercize Your Rights

What I Wish I'd Told That Heckler
Karen McCann
Several evenings a week, four of us spend an hour standing at a busy California intersection holding up signs that say “Black Lives Matter” and “Honk for Justice.” Most people honk cheerfully, many wave, a few cheer, and some shout encouraging words. Of course, we get our hecklers too, including one who yelled crossly, “Don’t all lives matter?” If he hadn’t driven away so fast, this is what I’d have liked to tell him.
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I first saw this meme on the Facebook page of a conservative friend. A hopeful sign!
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Exercize your rights
In the face of outrages of every kind from the Trump administration, more segments of society than ever before are pushing their members to register and vote. We have seen efforts from environmentalists, LGBTQ groups, health care professionals, communities of color, educators, expats—and now, the buff wellness gurus have their say.
—Kathy Sherretts


Take a Vote:
The New Yorker: Can Our Ballots Be Both Secret and Secure? by Sue Halpern
There are more than nine thousand election jurisdictions in the country, each with its own requirements—variable, sometimes onerous, and subject to politics. (Long read)

Electoral Oversight:
The Root: Mississippi Election Commissioner Complains That 'Blacks' Are Registering to Vote by Ishena Robinson
Why the concern at Black people registering to vote? And the implication that there is a distinction between “blacks” and “people in Mississippi”?

To Tell the Truth:
RawStory: Evangelical minister in Mike Pence’s Indiana prayer group says he’s voting for Biden by Brad Reed
‘Brother Mike, Jesus commands you to love your neighbor, not love your boss,'

Pipe Dream:
Slate: The Pipeline Setbacks Reveal the Perils of Rushed Agency Approvals by Jayni Hein
The legal battles against these efforts are paying off, mainly due to government agencies cutting corners. The laws already on the books are working—and working particularly well in the face of bureaucratic incompetence.

Just for fun: Testing, testing...
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Voting in a Pandemic Year
Help make the 2020 election free, fair, accessible, and secure,
from the Brennan Center for Justice

Learn More About Candidates and Issues! 

• Progressive Action, Global Exchange (PAGE) 
• Americans of Conscience Checklist
• ClimateRecovery.org

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