Blog

By Sam Levine, Photo: Karen Focht/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock, The Guardian, February 3, 2022 Hello Fight to Vote readers, For the last few months, I’ve been following the case of Pamela Moses, a 44-year-old activist in Memphis who was convicted in November for trying to register to vote while she was ineligible. On Monday, Moses, who is Black, was sentenced to six years and one day in prison. Amy Weirich, the local prosecutor, has trumpeted both the conviction and the sentence in press...

By Alí R. Bustamante, Photo: Unsplash, January 31, 2022 Decades of federal and state policy choices have placed the burden of financing colleges and universities on the backs of families instead of in the government’s hands, leading to today’s student debt crisis. Americans currently hold $1.7 trillion in student debt, with a disproportionate share of this debt falling on Black and brown families. Payments on student debt have been paused since the start of the pandemic, and President Biden...

By Molly Minta, Photo: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today, Mississippi Today, February 2, 2002 B rittany Murphree was born and raised in Rankin County, Mississippi, one of the most Republican counties in one of the most Republican states. She went to Northwest Rankin High School where she was the president of the school’s chapter of Teenage Republicans of Mississippi. She interned for Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, and her parents voted for Donald Trump twice (she did too, one time). At the...

Register now! February 11, 2022 10:30 AM 6:30 PM EST Pure Heart Church, Glendale, Arizona (In-Person or Online) As the founder of The Faithful City, I also founded Arizona Trauma Informed Faith Community (AZTIFC) five years ago. It was out of my life with a traumatic season and powerful healing journey with trauma informed care (TIC) that includes my faith tradition and practice. AZTIFC has been in an exponential growth as a grassroots movement, collaborating with all other social sectors to...

Healing from trauma requires a multi-faceted process. Bessel van der Kolk, Dan Siegel, Bruce Perry, Stephen Porges, Laura Porter and The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University all incorporate the felt sense of safety and belonging and strengthening capabilities in their protocol or frameworks for healing from trauma. All three concepts, when interconnected, create a synergy for personal and community growth and healing. Creating safety and belonging are important first steps in...

By Hallie Golden, Photo: Ted S. Warren/AP, The Guardian, February 3, 2022 F irst came the heavy snow in late December that blanketed Seattle and the surrounding area. Then the torrential rain and flooding hit in early January. One by one, four of the region’s main mountain passes were deemed impassable, and a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 5 south of Seattle was closed. It was the first time all five had been closed in more than a decade, leaving the Seattle area virtually cut off from...

By Brandon Tensley, Image: CNN, CNN US, February 5, 2022 Whoopi Goldberg's claim earlier this week that the Holocaust wasn't about race was baffling and shocking. An apology followed, along with a two-week suspension -- but the controversy has forced deeper questions about the history and evolution of race and identity in the US. Goldberg made her comments during a conversation about a Tennessee school board that removed Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel series "Maus,"...

By Emma Sarappo, Image: The Atlantic, The Atlantic, February 3, 2022 Book banning is back. Texas State Representative Matt Krause recently put more than 800 books on a watch list, many of them dealing with race and LGBTQ issues. Then an Oklahoma state senator filed a bill to ban books that address “sexual perversion,” among other things, from school libraries. The school board of McMinn County, Tennessee, just banned Maus , Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic memoir about the...

By Aditi Tandon, The Tribune, February 3, 2022 India-born Devika Bhushan was on Thursday appointed California’s top doctor after incumbent surgeon general Nadine Burke Harris resigned on Wednesday, following three years in the role. Bhushan, the newly-appointed California surgeon general, is Agra born. She’s the daughter of Indu Bhushan, who set up and steered India’s flagship Ayushman Bharat Mission for annual cashless hospitalisation cover of Rs 5 lakh for over 10 crore vulnerable...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/nyregion/nypd-gun-violence-prevention.html

In December, I had the privilege of connecting with Herbie Mack. He is a multi-times suicide survivor, and along with being a suicide prevention speaker and life coach, hosts the "Just Believe Podcast". The podcast aims to normalize conversations about mental health challenges, especially for black males and other males of color. He had me on as a guest to talk about the Connect All self-care framework - so wanted to share. Youtube link: https://youtu.be/JgIHjqJphgc Goodpods:...

A New Path Forward: A Report on How Stigma Harms Youth exposed to Parental Substance Use Disorder and Recommendations for a New Path Forward NEW REPORT: On February 3rd, Starlings Community released a FIRST of its kind report on how stigma impacts youth exposed to parental substance use disorder. Approximately 1 in 6 youth are exposed to the stress and stigma of a parent's substance use disorder. These children/youth are at double the risk for depression, triple the risk for addiction, and...