guardianship – The Time is Now

This week, and it’s only Day 2, has brought many setbacks–DAPL, ACA repeal (kind of), the Gag law, alternative facts and more–but like my friend Wendy reminded me this morning, keep your eyes on the ball. These are mostly reactionary and symbolic. Mostly. The best part is that they remind us not to be complacent. And not to be sucked into the dismay. Luckily we are constantly reminded that this is NOT NORMAL. Rick Perry (who will likely head the Dept of Energy) sits on the board of a company that will gain huge $$$ from DAPL. Just sayin.

I’ve listed today’s actions and readings below. But I want you to think about how you can do something real. Today. Get involved in a real way to make a difference. Here’s one way…

The Guardianship Project:

Any of you have experience creating a webpage? Our Guardianship Project is looking for someone to create a simple website. If you don’t know about the project, here’s the short of it:

The Guardianship Project offers free guardianship paperwork to undocumented families, looking to appoint a guardian for their children in case they are deported. We have documents in Spanish ready to go. The documents appoint who parents would like to take care of their children in case of deportation, but do not immediately grant guardianship, instead they act as the first step in the official legal process, while also creating a temporary caretaker for the child.

Also we are looking for Spanish speakers to help us when we go to meetings throughout the US (we’ve been invited to many), and to bring the documents to Latino groups on campuses and beyond. We also need representatives willing to volunteer their time to copy the documents, go to meetings, find organizations in communities that work with undocumented people, and get the word out.

Actions:

Sign to resist the Labor Secretary nomination.

Resist Mnuchin! Call your senators. Need the numbers? They should be programmed into your phones.

Stand up for DAPL.

Ten actions to do in the first hundred days.

Required reading:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/19/womens-march-washington-occupy-protest

http://www.refinery29.com/2017/01/136924/jen-psaki-million-woman-march-activism

http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/big-trump-protests-are-fine-but-heres-a-to-do-list-fo-lasting-change-20170118

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2017/01/20/the-day-democracy-died-an-epitaph/

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/01/the-inauguration-and-the-counter-inauguration/514055/?utm_source=atltw

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/opinion/we-are-dissidents-we-are-legion.html