First Amendment Solutions Sunday – Call Your Senators!
Posted in Editorials on February 20th, 2011by Elizabeth
Tags: Environmentalism • Feminism • First Amendment Solutions
First Amendment Solutions Sunday is a series of posts with a quick link round up of actions you can take to exercise your First Amendment rights to help feminist, environmentalist or otherwise progressive causes.
Here are three reasons to call your Senator this week:
1. The League of Conservation Voters released its annual scorecard for Senators this week. How did your Senator do? Call to congratulate them for a job well done or urge them to do better next time
2. Congress voted to give themselves a few more months to decide what to do about the Patriot Act. It’s not too early to get yourself on the record with your Senator about opposing Civil Rights violations in the name of security theater.
3. The House of Representatives voted to defund Planned Parenthood. Call your Senators and tell them you stand with Planned Parenthood.
Other ways to get involved:
I was deeply disturbed by the sexual assault of Lara Logan, a reporter covering the revolution in Egypt, and the subsequent victim blaming that went on in the media. I have decided to make a donation to the women’s shelter and rape crisis center in my neighborhood. Women are victims of violence all of the world, not just when it makes international news.
Planned Parenthood New York City is having a rally this Saturday February 26th. Plan to attend here.
Finally, former Senator Russ Feingold is starting a new political action committee, Progressives United. It’s not clear yet how it will function – will it be similar to Move On or something else entirely?
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:55 am
I like your note on Lara Logan, particularly this bit: “Women are victims of violence all of the world, not just when it makes international news.”
Since I’m currently researching issues like this in other African countries, I was a bit shocked to see that no one in the media (or elsewhere) took the charge of pointing out that while it is awful that this happened to a media personality, it is also important to note that this is not an isolated incident and it is happening daily to Egyptian women there as well.
February 23rd, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Hi Jackie.
I agree with you. I did see some people insinuating that all Arab or Egyptian men are predators. Although there are cultural differences that may influence sexual assault, racism is not ever an appropriate response.