After last year's war between Israel and Gaza, thousands of Palestinian children still sleep in rubble, still face bombings at their schools, and still can't get health care because all the clinics got blown up, all because Israel still maintains its seven-years-and-counting blockade of Gaza and basic rebuilding materials can't get in, to the point where Oxfam thinks it could take a century to rebuild Gaza at its current rate. Don't be one of those who think Israel should do just anything to defend itself -- sometimes the things you do to defend yourself wind up making you more insecure, and forcing a neighboring population to live in utter squalor is one of those things. Hence Avaaz helps you tell Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza. No need to remind me that Palestinian politicians have been shuffling their feet on rebuilding their own land -- lifting the blockade would give Israel the moral upper hand for once, and if politicians in Palestine are too cynical to take the help they'll get as a result, sunlight will surely find them.
Meanwhile, the last year has seen numerous attacks on the Endangered Species Act, whether through "reform" legislation, attempts to defund, or premature delisting of animals. Why? So that Congressfolk's big donors (whom they no doubt consider their true constituencies) can drill for gas and oil and mine for coal and cut down forests for wood with no regard for the species already living there or for what we'll be leaving for future generations. Oh, sure, they talk about "protecting the environment," but we know them by their actions, and when they try to make the regulatory process more convoluted, or give regulators the option of just ignoring scientific research, then we know their hearts. They also talk about "jobs," but the Endangered Species Act creates jobs -- highly-skilled jobs, in fact, for folks who plan to save species and implement those plans. And while gas and oil and coal and wood exist to be made into things, but habitats and species are forever. The League of Conservation Voters helps you tell Congress to stop endangering the Endangered Species Act.
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to support H.R. 5159/S. 2642, the Schedules That Work Act, then CREDO still helps you do that. Far too many lower-wage working folks get schedules that make no damn sense, and they too often don't get their work schedules with very much advance notice, so they can't plan their child care, schooling, or whatever second job they need to help pay the bills. Folks who worry that passing this bill will result in ZOMG TEH EMPLOYEEZ GETZ WHATEVER THEY WANTZ THE COMPANEEZ BE DAMNEDZ!!!!! should consider that the bill specifically allows employers to deny unlawful employee requests. Also, union employees with contracts that cover scheduling practices would be exempt from the act. And higher-paid employees more commonly called "talent" by their (pretentious as hell!) bosses should attend the fact that the Schedules That Work Act covers time spent on-call as well, since, as Robert Reich told us last week, a lot of bosses seem to think workers should be ready to work at any moment, like they got nothing else going on. Of course, people do have lives beyond their jobs, whether they're called "talent" or not.
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