You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: the Sierra Club's "Beyond Coal” Campaign.

Climate actions and campaigns can seem overwhelming in scope. But while few in the media were paying attention, the grassroots organizing and smart strategizing of the Beyond Coal campaign has made shutting down the dirtiest energy source in the country look almost easy.

The main goals of the Sierra Club campaign are to keep coal in the ground in Appalachia and elsewhere, move municipalities to clean energy, and successfully retire one-third of the nation’s 500-some coal plants by 2020. Last week, they celebrated the closing of the 200th plant, leaving 323 on their targeted list.

This is a major victory for both health and optics reasons. Coal is responsible for one-third of US emissions while making us unnecessarily sick. As many as 13,000 premature deaths and more than $100 billion in health care costs annually are attributed to coal. Hitting even just the hallway mark — which is practically around the corner — would make a massive difference in the lives of millions while proving that transitioning from dirty to clean energy is not the impossibility it was once portrayed as.

Bruce Nilles, ‎senior campaign director for Beyond Coal, explained the importance of last week’s milestone to Kate Sheppard at The Huffington Post:

"Back in 2009, the prevailing wisdom was that coal was inevitable, that the U.S. would be burning coal for a long time. We set out to show that you can make a lot of progress even without a climate bill.”

The Sierra Club is still, of course, pushing the administration to follow through on promises to be proactive. Their “Speak Out For a Strong Clean Power Plan” petition — which can be found at SierraClub.org. — is flooding the administration with support ahead of the expected push back on the EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan from fossil fuel billionaire. Through the petition page you can sign; tweet to the EPA with the hashtag #ActOnClimate; post the campaign to your other social network feeds; get involved in specific coal plan closing action in your state; and connect to other campaigns.

Join with Beyond Coal and help push them over the tipping point to achieving an end to our dirtiest energy source.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN & SHARE: Speak Out For a Strong Clean Power Plan with the The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign

Get involved in your state through Beyond Coal’s Take Action Page

Sources/further reading:

“United States Phases Out 200th Coal Plant As Momentum For Renewable Energy Grows” via The Sierra Club

"Iowa Utility Will Phase Out Coal At 5 Plants, In Milestone For Sierra Club” by Katie Sheppard via Huffington Post

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #940 "What we are facing and how we are fighting (Climate)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Finally.

In case you missed it, women don’t have equal rights in this country.

The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in 1923 — three years after the 19th Amendment gave women the vote. Early women’s rights activists knew that the vote was just the beginning. Real equality was more than just dropping a ballot in the box. They sought to add “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” to the Constitution to enshrine full quality of the sexes into our founding document.

Congress finally passed the ERA in 1972 and 35 states ratified it — three states short of the constitutional requirement. The ERA has ben reintroduced in every legislative session since it stalled in 1982 — when the time to ratify expired, but it continually fails to garner support. This is in part because a generation after the campaign to adopt the ERA, most Americans assume the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment or the right to vote in the 19th automatically dissolved any disparities between cis men and everyone else.

In her statement of support for the renewed effort to ratify the ERA, California Congresswoman Jackie Speier said:

“The time is ripe to ratify the equal rights amendment. Seventy percent of people polled think that we already have an ERA in the Constitution and they’re shocked to find we don’t have one.”

She’s backed up by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who has said: "If I could choose an amendment to add to this Constitution, it would be the Equal Rights Amendment.”

The Equal Rights Amendment Coalition is taking RBG’s words to heart. If women are to be equal in stature before the law, we need a guarantee that can’t be repealed — an amendment to the Constitution rather than just a piece of legislation subject to the whims of Congress.

Supporting this common sense and long overdue amendment is as easy as signing the petition at MoveOn.Org and visiting ERACoalition.org where you can take the pledge to support the ERA and send a message your legislators asking them to become supporters of equality.

You can also keep an eye out for the upcoming documentary "Equal Means Equal” which depicts the modern day disparities for women in every area from reproductive rights to paid family leave to equal pay and follow and use the hashtags #EqualMeansEqual and #ERANow.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN: "Pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)” via MoveOn.org

SUPPORT the ratification of the ERA: Take the Pledge and Contact Your Representatives via the ERA Coalition

Additional Activism:

Watch for the release of the documentary "Equal Means Equal” from the ERA Education Project

Sources/further reading:

"Meryl Streep Helpfully Reminded Congress We Still Don’t Have an Equal-Rights Amendment” at The Cut

"Meryl Streep Is Pushing Congress to Finally Revive the Equal Rights Amendment” at Mother Jones

"The new women warriors: Reviving the fight for equal rights” at CNN.com

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #938 "What are women complaining about? (Feminism)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached today’s activism segment. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s a glimmer of hope to remind you that not absolutely everything is completely terrible all the time. Today’s update: MayDay PAC's #Leaders4Reform.

Last year, in order to change how our elections are funded, Lawrence Lessig launched “the SuperPAC to end all SuperPACs” — MayDay.US. He was shrugged off by mainstream press and his grand idea seemed impossible even to those who hoped he would succeed.

Then something incredible happened.

"We raised the initial $1 million in 13 days, rather than 30," Lessig wrote at Medium. "That was matched two weeks later, and then we launched the second campaign. Thirty days after that, we crossed the $5 million mark...By the end of our campaign, we had raised $11 million of the $12 million that we had planned, with more than 50,000 donors from almost every state in the union.”

When that monetary success didn’t translate into wins in the voting booth in November, Lessig decided to relaunch with the goal of winning over current members of the House and Senate in order to pass legislation now. With a bill introduced in the Senate and 151 of the 218 House members needed to guarantee a reform majority, that goal looks increasingly within reach.

At MayDay.US you can contribute to the momentum of identifying leaders for reform and support the Fair Elections Now Act, Senator Dick Durbin’s bill which has added twenty co-sponsors less than a month after being introduced.

From the MayDay.US home page you can record a voice message in support of reform legislation which MayDay will deliver to key members of Congress, call your representatives directly using their handy script, view the full list of Leaders for Fundamental Reform, and encourage those not yet signed on to join the fight via social media using the hashtag #Leaders4Reform.

MayDay still plans to target and support pro-reform candidates for Congress next year; they simply aren’t sitting on their hands in the meantime. Lessig’s ability to adapt and continue with their mission is just one more reason to support the work MayDay is doing.

Update!

S.1538 - Fair Elections Now Act

Follow-up/new Action: #Leaders4Reform w/@MAYDAYUS

Leave a message for Congress: Citizen Recording Studio

Build a bigger #Leaders4Reform coalition: Call your representatives

Sources/additional glimmers of hope:

"The 'Super PAC to End Super PACs' Makes a Strategic Retreat” at Bloomberg Politics

"We tried. We learned. We’re trying something new: Mayday.US, v2” by Lawrence Lessig

"Frodo Baggins for President” by Lawrence Lessig

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #937 "Making progress on our biggest problem (Money in Politics)"

Revisit the original action/segment:

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Universal Access To Affordable Medicine.

Before we dive in, consider this my requisite plug for the need to achieve universal, single-payer healthcare. In the meantime, there *is* work to be done to help alleviate suffering and improve quality of life.

Prescription medications are one of the most expensive parts of healthcare — even for people with insurance. Pharmaceutical companies already enjoy the profit-boosting privilege of lengthy patents before generic versions can be developed and sold. Originally, this was designed to help research institutions and companies recoup the millions it can cost to create a drug, thus making it less risky to fail now and again and somewhat profitable to manufacture medications for uncommon ailments. Like everything else, however, corporate greed has turned a well-intentioned fail safe into a way to injure anyone who isn’t rich.

The leaked language in the Trans Pacific Partnership indicates that its passage would likely intensify this injustice. According to Doctors Without Borders, "aggressive intellectual property rules...would restrict access to affordable, lifesaving medicines for millions of people” by enhancing patent and data protections while dismantling international public health safeguards and obstructing price-lowering generic competition.

In short: we need an international movement supporting medication access and we need it now.

The Access Our Medicine Initiative - which is supported by the prescription assistance non-profit NeedyMeds - is working to make affordable medicine a priority in the UN 2015 Sustainable Development Goals currently being discussed. These discussions set international cooperative priorities for the next 15 years — kind of a big deal. The "Access Our Medicine” Declaration has already garnered the signed, visible support of individual doctors, famous advocates, and organizations like the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the MS International Foundation and more. What they need now is a groundswell of support from us.

You can sign the declaration at AccessOurMedicine.com. While you’re there, take advantage of their cache of stories from real people, easily shareable facts like "1/3 of Americans with a chronic disease has difficulty paying for food, medications or both,” and well-curated media page. After you add your name, let people know why this issue matters by sharing it with the hashtag #WhyISigned.

For immediate help paying for medications, visit NeedyMeds.org and click on their Generic Assistance Program; they offer 20 generics medications for no cost in coordination with Rx Outreach, the largest non-profit pharmacy in the country. And if you aren’t in need, pass information on the program around; you never know who in your network might.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN the "Access Our Medicine” Declaration from the Access Our Medicine Initiative

Additional Activism/Resources:

Let people know about The Generic Assistance Program (GAP) for prescription medications through NeedyMeds

Sources/further reading:

"Trading Away Health: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)” via Doctors Without Borders

"What the Affordable Care Act Means for Prescription Coverage” via The Washington Post

"Prescription Drug Costs and Health Reform: FAQ” via WebMD

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #936 "Drugged and broke (Health Care)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: #Not1More.

Jennicet Eva Gutiérrez’s interruption of President Obama at the White House Pride reception was met with the type of hostility trans people experience regularly in their every day lives. Pride, like the mainstream movement for marriage equality, is often very white, very cis, and very male — sidelining those like Gutiérrez, an undocumented trans woman of color. As we’ve outlined before in the show and previous activism segments, the marriage equality victory being celebrated at the reception that day is an important step, but it should be seen as the first of many for LGBTQ people.

As black trans queer feminist Raquel Wilis wrote last week:

"Today, with New York City’s streets still glittering from the aftermath of the weekend’s Pride festivities, I stand in solidarity with Gutiérrez as she stands up to the government and the queer elite. Many have given her their half-hearted support—agreeing with the cause but discrediting her methods. To these people I ask: when is the right time? Those of us who have not been able to play the assimilation game learned long ago that respectability politics mean nothing when our community is constantly under threat.”

Undocumented LGBTQ people are an especially vulnerable group, often being subjected to abuse during detention and disproportionately facing deportation and separation from their families.

The group Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement has built quite a coalition in under a year and a half specifically to address issues like the detention, abuse and deportation of transgender immigrants and undocumented people. Their campaign #Not1More — which you can find at NotOneMoreDeportation.com — "builds collaboration between individuals, organizations, artists, and allies to expose, confront, and overcome unjust immigration laws.”

Through their website you can support individuals facing deportation, share stories and artwork, and call on your representatives to end abuse and detention.

While the White House released a memo on the detention of transgender immigrants in response to pressure from the #Not1More coalition following the White House Pride reception, guidance documents don’t have the force of law that will prevent abuse and violence against those being detained and deported.

In their "Tell President Obama, Don't Discriminate Against LGBTQ Immigrants” petition, FAMILIA seeks to remind us and the president that justice is not achieved until no one is left behind: "Millions have finally been provided relief. But millions more have still been excluded.”

You can sign the petition at NotOneMoreDeporation.com calling on the president to expand deferred action for all families and amplify the stories and artwork of those affected by this unjust immigration policy.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN: "Tell President Obama, Don't Discriminate Against LGBTQ Immigrants” via FAMILIA: Trans Queer Liberation Movement

JOIN the movement to end deportation of undocumented LGBTQ people with #Not1More

Sources/further reading:

“#Not1More RESPONSE TO ICE NEW MEMO ON PROCESSING TRANS DETAINEES”

"A transgender woman of color on the hypocrisy of the gay rights movement” by Raquel Wilis at Quartz

"Obama's reply to a trans woman proves LGBT advocacy stops at gay marriage” by Meredith Talusan at The Guardian

"Was Obama’s Heckler Actually A Transgender Hero?” by Kristina Marusic at MTVIssues

"The Obama Legacy: Inequality, Corporate Trade Deals, Worldwide War” by Kit O’Connell

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #935 "It is so ordered (Marriage Equality)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Showing Up For Racial Justice.

As has been discussed on this show fairly regularly, members of marginalized groups are called on continually to do the “101-level” explanations of their issues and teach people how to be allies. This work is thankless, exhausting and often takes valuable time away from real movement and liberation work.

But to achieve equality in any real way, majority groups must participate in the efforts to recognize and solidify immigrant rights, women’s rights, trans rights, gay rights, and rights for people of color — just to name a few of the current fights for justice. So, how do movements engage the majority without ceding the mic or spending resources they don’t have teaching allyship?

Enter Showing Up For Racial Justice — or SURJ. This national network of groups and individuals does the work of organizing white people for justice. On their “About” page they explain their role through a quote from Alicia Garza, a community organizer and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement: "We need you defecting from White supremacy and changing the narrative of White supremacy by breaking White silence.”

SURJ helps train white people to play supportive roles in the campaigns driven by people of color and how to take a racial justice focus back to their other organizing efforts — in climate, economic, political, LGBTQ, voting rights, feminist campaigns and movements. One of the most important things white people can do to challenge white supremacy is to speak up in typically white, privileged spaces.

ShowingUpForRacialJustice.org has a great “Action” tab with local events across the country. There are affiliated chapters in almost every state; you can also sign up to start one in your area. They need volunteers to help with social media, fundraise, write for the blog, do graphic design and web layout, plan actions, and facilitate training. Basically, whatever skills you have are needed and useful.

Katie participated in the “White People Take Action For Charleston” conference call/webinar last week. 500 people were on the call and the suggestions — like pushing back on right-wing media and engaging anyone carrying an “All Lives Matter” sign at an event so black organizers don’t have to — were fantastic and designed to keep white allies in the background while being visible support.

SURJ also provides a handy redirect for people of color tired of going through the 101 racism and White Supremacy explanations. It can be hard — if not impossible — to tell if people approaching you online or in your daily lives are asking questions in good faith and with real interest; the beauty of referring them to a resource like SURJ is that those truly looking for a way to understand and get involved will be appreciative and those who aren’t are quickly dismissed.

TAKE ACTION:

Volunteer and/or participate in actions around the country with Showing Up For Racial Justice

Follow SURJ on Twitter and like the on Facebook

Additional Activism/Resources:

#TakeDownTheFlag

AskAWhitePerson.com

Sources/further reading:

"12 Ways to Be a White Ally to Black People” by Janee Woods at The Root

"White Supremacy Culture: From Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups” via SURJ

"Take Down the Confederate Flag—Now” by Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic

"Calls to Drop Confederate Emblems Spread Nationwide” via The New York Times

"Before Charleston, Not Many People Wanted To Take Down The Confederate Flag” via FiveThirtyEight.com

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #933 "The long shadow of southern white supremacy (Racism)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: Fight Back Texas with Fund Texas Choice.

With 35% of U.S. women of reproductive age living in the 87% of counties without an abortion provider, Texas is certainly not the only area where the phrase “undue burden” applies. However, as the second largest state in population — with nearly 27 million people — and the second largest physically — topping 268,000 square miles, the impending clinic closures put the population with the the highest percentage of uninsured adults in the country in immediate crisis.

Thanks to the Fifth Circuit, unless the Supreme Court steps in with an emergency stay, half the clinics in Texas will close. Again. Depending on whether a couple can comply with a handful of specific provisions in HB2, on July 1st there will be only 8 to 10 clinics to serve the entire state — with none in the expansive western half and likely no abortion provider at the clinic in the Rio Grande Valley should it remain open.

Patients who were already having to travel hundreds of rural miles will now be competing for appointments with city residents or going out of state at great expense. Clinics in New Mexico and Oklahoma are the next closest options — 500 miles from central West Texas and 200 miles from Dallas-Ft. Worth respectively. With overnight stays due to ultrasound, mandatory counseling, and waiting period laws, a trip for even a simple, five minute first trimester procedure or to procure the abortion pill easily becomes a four or five day trip with all the expenses of travel, time off work, and child care.

Fund Texas Choice is the abortion fund dedicated to helping patients navigate and afford the logistical challenges of accessing this vital medical care. In-state check points and buses that are regularly swept for people without papers exacerbate an already challenging road to the doctor for many Texans. Fund Texas Choice already sends over one-third of their clients out of state, sometimes costing thousands of dollars just in travel. You can help lessen the burden and increase their ability to help bridge these gaps by donating at FundTexasChoice.org and following them @FundTexasChoice on Twitter.

Their “Texas Abortion Clinic Map” page has an updated list of clinics that are open and/or providing abortion care. They also link to the orgs that help patients fund procedures — Lilith Fund, TEA Fund [just said like “tea”], and West Fund. You can also give directly to Whole Woman’s Health — the independent clinic chain spearheading many of the lawsuits attempting to overturn harmful laws — at WholeWomansHealth.com under the “Abortion Care — Financial Assistance” tab.

TAKE ACTION:

Follow and support Fund Texas Choice

Additional Activism/Resources:

Follow and support the other Texas abortion funds:

Lilith Fund

TEA Fund

West Fund

Whole Woman’s Texas Action Fund

Sources/further reading:

"State Facts About Abortion: Texas” via The Guttmacher Institute

"Fifth Circuit Upholds More HB 2 Provisions, Dares the Supreme Court to Step In” by Jessica Pieklo at RH Reality Check

"Court Upholds Texas’ ‘Devastating’ Anti-Choice Omnibus Law” by Andrea Grimes at RH Reality Check

"Plaintiffs appeal to 5th Circuit Court, Supreme Court following ruling on HB 2” at The Daily Texan

"Fifth Circuit Refuses to Stay Ruling That Could Immediately Shutter All But 9 Abortion Clinics in Texas” via The Center For Reproductive Rights

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #932 "Moving the goalposts on "undue burden" (Reproductive Justice)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: "Move the Money" - Reducing the Pentagon Budget.

This month, Congress spends a significant amount of time on the military budget for the following year. They debate the National Defense Authorization Act — or NDAA — and lay the groundwork for foreign policy based on how much money can be spent where and on what.

The National Priorities Project explains the NDAA and military budget process is super simple terms at NationalPriorities.org:

• The NDAA is an authorization, not an appropriation; it gives the government the authority to spend money and sets policy direction.
• Drafts of the NDAA are not open and transparent.
• The current draft has Congress ignoring its own budget caps, allotting some $90 billion off the books to fund the supposedly over Iraq and Afghanistan wars. 
• The NDAA has billions allocated for equipment the military says it doesn’t need or want and protects military contractors.

The NDAA is an authorization, not an appropriation; it gives the government the authority to spend money and sets policy direction. Drafts of the NDAA are not open and transparent. The current draft has Congress ignoring its own budget caps, allotting some $90 billion off the books to fund the supposedly over Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The NDAA has billions allocated for equipment the military says it doesn’t need or want and protects military contractors.

Veterans For Peace is taking this opportunity to lobby Congress and engage those of us who would rather see our money invested in people and peace than war and destruction to let our representatives know we support a shift in policy.

Use ContactingTheCongress.org to get your representatives’ phone, address, and social media handles and let them know you support the Veterans For Peace priorities listed under the “Legislative Update” section of “Take Action” at VeteransForPeace.org.

Budget change demands include: moving money from the military to urgent domestic needs like health, education, environment, and infrastructure; closing bases from wars waged in previous generations; reining in profits of Pentagon contractors; and auditing the Pentagon to eliminate waste.

If you’re looking for a way to get more involved with Veterans for Peace, registration is open for their annual convention August 5-9 in San Diego, CA. You can’t miss the tab at VeteransForPeace.org.

TAKE ACTION:

Use ContactingTheCongress.org to tell your representatives to follow the Veterans For Peach plan to “Move the Money” & “Audit the Pentagon”

Additional Activism/Resources:

Register for the Veterans For Peace 30th Annual Convention, August 5-9

Sources/further reading:

"Praying for Peace While Waging Permanent War?” via CounterPunch<?p>

"National Defense Authorization Act: Five Things You Should Know” via the National Priorities Project

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #931 "From rewriting wars to waging peace (Foreign Policy)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: End Cash Bail in New York.

Stealing a backpack shouldn’t be a death sentence. Kalief Browder’s death is an indictment on nearly every aspect of our jails and prison system.

We should — all of us — be taking this tragedy seriously, as Glenn Martin, president of Just Leadership USA explained to Aaron Morrison of International Business Times: “Ultimately, we are all collectively responsible for the death of Kalief, since our insidious criminal justice system exists in our name.”

The length of time Browder spent at Riker’s simply because he couldn’t post bail has surprised people. But if we’re supposedly all “innocent until proven guilty,” maybe the question shouldn’t be “Why was a 16-year-old expected to have $3,000 on hand for bail?” Instead, we should be asking, “Why do people pay for the privilege of waiting for their day in court at all?”

As the editorial staff for amNY explained in an op ed demanding bail reform, the NYC Independent Budget Office report found in 2011 that pretrial detainees make up 75% of the average daily jail population and nearly half were there because they couldn't post bail. Nationally, the numbers are six out of ten prisoners who are incarcerated in lieu of bail.

Cash bail is nothing more than punishment for the poor that benefits only the CEOs of private prison companies and their lobbyists.

Visit the Pretrial Justice Institute’s website — Pretrial.org — and click the banner for their petition with MoveOn titled "Gov Cuomo: End Cash Bail in New York.” Sign and share to encourage similar actions in other states and cities. Pretrial.org also has a great “Take Action” tab with local and national coalitions, an events calendar, and a page to submit your story.

Martin F. Horn — former commissioner of NYC's Department of Correction — closes his plea to prevent even one more Kalief Browder at The Marshall Project this way:

"It requires political courage for the city to address these issues and bring sanity to the jails. It will take money and leadership. There is no alternative, because our jails are a reflection of our collective conscience, and if they remain as they are, the fault is ours.”

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN: "Gov Cuomo: End Cash Bail in New York” via the Pretrial Justice Institute

Additional Activism/Resources:

Follow and support the work of The Bronx Freedom Fund

Follow and support the work of The Brooklyn Bail Fund

Sources/further reading:

"Fixing the Jail Where Kalief Browder was Held: Former corrections chief Martin Horn has some ideas for Rikers Island.” at The Marshall Project

"Newsday: NYC may set up taxpayer-paid bail fund for low-level offenses”

"After Kalief Browder's Death, Prison Reform Advocates Say NYC Rikers Island Abuses Must Not Produce More ‘Martyrs’” by Aaron Morrison at The International Business Times

"Bail reform can help fix NYC criminal justice” by the Editorial Staff at AM New York

"How to Lock Up Fewer People” by Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project

"City Needs ‘Some Type of Bail Reform,’ de Blasio Says After Kalief Browder Suicide” by Jill Jorgensen at NY Observer

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #930 "Our prisons: cruel and counterproductive (Injustice System)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich

You’ve reached the activism portion of today’s show. Now that you’re informed and angry, here’s what you can do about it. Today’s activism: "Free Victims of the Drug War" with the Drug Policy Alliance.

President Obama stepped up his pardons earlier this year by commuting the sentences of 22 federal prisoners convicted of nonviolent drug offenses being served “under an outdated sentencing regime,” according to the administration. As Trymaine Lee reported for MSNBC.com, the president described the power of commutation as embodying “the basic belief in our democracy that people deserve a second chance.”

For what are most certainly widely varying reasons, bipartisan conversations have begun seeking to tackle the injustices of decades-old mandatory minimum and three-strikes laws which have lead to the overcrowding of our nation’s prisons and the fulfilling of the greedy dreams of private prison company CEOs. In his statement on the commutations, the president acknowledged both the social good and the financial imperative of fixing the broken system.

“Well, here’s the good news,” the president said. "There is an increasing realization on the left, but also on the right politically, that what we’re doing is counterproductive. We’re all responsible for at least a solution to this.”

As the predictably slow wheels of potential Congressional action turn, there is good news: this is another situation where the White House holds significant unilateral power. The Drug Policy Alliance is campaigning to pressure the president on additional commutations — which should be an easy sell as he has already established a clemency initiative to encourage individuals sentenced under the draconian drug laws to petition for commutation.

You can join with the Drug Policy Alliance by visiting DrugPolicy.org/action and contacting the White House through their "Free Victims of the Drug War” page. You can also follow their hashtag #NoMoreDrugWar and use it to publicly share that you’re participating in the campaign to free those wrongly and cruelly incarcerated.

As the Drug Policy Alliance letter-writing page explains, the White House is starting to listen on this issue; now is the time to build momentum by asking the president to continue a process he began and not leave the work unfinished for an incoming administration. The time is now.

TAKE ACTION:

SIGN to tell the president to Free Victims of the Drug War via the Drug Policy Alliance

Additional Activism/Resources:

FOLLOW the hashtag: #NoMoreDrugWar

For those who want to get more involved, it’s early registration for the International Drug Policy Reform Conference (11/18-11/21/2015)

Sources/further reading:

"President Obama commutes prison sentences of 22 drug offenders” by Trymaine Lee at MSNBC.com

"Prolific Pardoner? Obama Grants Clemency to 22 Prisoners Last Week, but Has Denied Thousands” by Annie Waldman for ProPublica via Truthout

"Will the U.S. Senate Finally Reform Harsh Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Drugs?”> via Drug Policy Alliance

"The Nation's Shame: The Injustice of Mandatory Minimums" by Andrea Jones at RollingStone

Hear the segment in context:

Episode #929 "Looking to avert further tragedy (War on Drugs™)"

Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich