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Are Shelters an Option for the UnHoused During a Pandemic? Is There a Better Way?
In the District of Columbia, there are people who have gone far too unnoticed in their community. They are some of the most brilliant and creative souls in the region. They are masters of innovation with the ability to weather extraordinary situations. These are the unhoused or homeless, as people want to call them. In a city where 46% of the population is African American, the homeless are 86% African American. Dealing with housing instability is tough enough outside of dealing with health issues like the current Covid-19 Pandemic.
These men and women have a story to tell. People like Daniel Ball who not only makes the best of the situation but also has strong ties to his community. His mother used to live in DC before moving to Addison Road in Maryland.
As far as experiencing homelessness, “yes, some nights I stay up here in DC and some nights I stay with my mother,” Ball said. “I understand people experience homelessness. It’s a good question and going to be a good question because people are experiencing homelessness.”
Daniel Ball is just one of many who have found themselves homeless during the COVID-19 crisis gripping the globe. “Yes sometimes I sleep outside. Either I’m on a bench or either I’m up in Farragut West straight up the elevator, I sleep there,” Ball said. “Last night was an experience too. Usually the man from the food court wakes me up. Sometimes I’m already up. A girl slept beside me scheming. When I got up, I didn’t bother her because I know we going through the same change. I usually jump on the Metro. Today I rode the X2 and came up here. But I love a good question like that you asked because it’s a good question. What are you experiencing?”
Ball gave reasons why he chooses to come to the District of Columbia. “It’s like home to me. And my mama always asks, ‘why you keep running to DC?’ I keep running here, because my job is here,” he said, “and some people don’t have money to travel back and forth like that.”
Ball then described his experience signing up for programs in the city. “We do intake with the case worker. They call them caseworkers. I filed for food stamps. I applied for my housing. One thing right now with what’s happening is you can’t rush people. You can’t be going there like, ‘give me my food stamps.’ You gotta have patience. Everything has patience with it,” Ball said. “I ain’t going to knock nobody out. My name is Daniel Ball and I am not going to do that. As far as the government, there are people that are social. There are some that get involved.”
Those living in shelter during this unprecedented emergency are also finding it hard to deal with certain conditions. Forty-four year old, DC native, Donell Lowell used to be an auto mechanic but has been homeless since July 2018. Lowell also survived a stroke which occured on April 16, 2019, “a year and a day ago today,” Lowell says. “Social distancing is pretty much obsolete here. Outside of here you can pretty much isolate yourself if you want,” he said. “I’ve met some good people but there are some bad people out here, especially, these security guards. They treat you like shit. That’s my situation. That happened to me.”
Lowell was assaulted while staying in shelter during the health emergency. “I complained that he bullied me, threatened me. And he was still able to work here. And I sustained injuries at his hands.” The only time Lowell saw any disciplinary action came after he had been attacked by security. “After I got injured they fired him right away,” he said. “Other than that, we have no say. You gotta be hurt or something to be heard around here.”
DC officials have been telling the community in weekly calls that they were providing rooms for self isolation. When I asked Lowell if he was provided any of these other services and did officials consider him vulnerable to the disease, Lowell said,“Yeah they do but they didn’t offer me nothing.”
It may seem like during this crisis a large congregate setting may not be the ideal setting for mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Before the crisis, DC had to deal with considerable disdain for providing emergency housing and spending more per capita than any major city in the United States on housing production. Despite this, the District of Columbia has the tenth highest number of homeless in the United States.
The unhoused in DC in particular are in a state of flux during the current health crisis and each day brings new challenges. It seems like they are being ignored more than others who are receiving help from agencies, neighbors and local governments. What do the homeless have to say about their situation? Are they being heard if they have a solution to address their current situation?
Donell Lowell seems to have some solid recommendations on homeless prevention and how the city could better its response during the COVID-19 crisis. Problems with the courts after the death of a relative contributed to Lowell becoming homeless. Lowell thinks now that more oversight of the probate courts would help. “That’s unfortunately how I got here,” he says. He also suggests that some people who are experiencing homelessness could benefit from better efforts from upstream services like rental subsidies and that would keep people from becoming homeless in the first place. Lowell thinks that this kind of in-depth oversight could come from government officials–the mayor, city council and governors.
Lowell is hopeful about his plight once things get back to normal. He sees this as a way to potentially end his homelessness for good. “If the city would open back up, I wanna go to school to learn how to become an information technology specialist. With the city shut down and everything it seems like it’ll never open back up,” Lowell said. He also recommends and wishes that, ”there was more oversight for these security guards and all these shelters really. They do what the hell they wanna do. The city should be considering the fact, we don’t really have a voice as homeless folks.”
Many residents have taken to living through this crisis outdoors. Paul Infante is currently experiencing homelessness. He has been living in the region for three years and is originally from California. “I think what makes most sense is if you stay (sleep) near a safe place that has services,” he said. “You could get a meal in the morning or you could get a meal in the evening. A lot of places will give you social services and Items like toothbrushes and shaving stuff, you will need for hygiene. That is especially important if you’re trying to find a job and pull yourself out of homelessness,” he said.
Infante also has some pretty strong recommendations in terms of how DC could be serving those who have chosen to live outside. “The District of Columbia could do more on its own rather than relying on federal aid to help residents who live on the street. I would say it makes sense, without opening like a FEMA thing, would be to open up lots with showers and outdoor cots that abide by social distancing,” he said. I think it makes more sense than the opening of shelters that don’t have a lot of space.” Infante also feels DC needs to provide more showers and bathrooms. “You will find that people in general would say that they need more bathrooms and more showers,” he said.
Governments all over the place are trying to coordinate the best responses possible to this crisis. The District of Columbia is no exception. But the voice of the homeless and their recommendations to address their needs is currently in a state of flux. Communities that are most greatly affected by the national emergency of COVID-19 can only wonder how their concerns and suggestions will make it to the officials tasked with leading the various responses to the crisis
I interviewed District of Columbia’s Director of Human Services Laura Zelinger on March 15th 2020. She has been at the forefront of the city’s response to COVID-19 and the homeless community. Zeilinger and her team have been convening weekly calls to help agency providers understand the current state of affairs as it pertains to their respective populations. According to Zeilinger, “we have a very strong and important safety message that people need to isolate so we can stop the spread of this virus.”
When asked specifically about permanent housing placement Zeilinger said, “It’s not realistic that people can be out putting together paperwork for their housing application or in a housing search. Meaning, we can’t get people in the same room in this climate. The District of Columbia chose to suspend its full housing placement process until it feels it can conduct certain business safety. The decision by the government in light of stay-home orders implies that people who may have a housing resource such as a voucher cannot use it to obtain a unit. We are very focused on our emergency operations to keep people safe. In the immediate, as we are putting together and executing our response on our emergency activities, we are suspending the CAHP (Coordination Assessment and Housing Placement) system.”
The CAHP system uses a matrix of factors to determine which homeless individuals will be prioritized for available housing, Those factors include: age, history of homelessness, physical as well as mental health, and substance use. With that process frozen, the Department of Human Services and its providers are looking into different ways of using the data to address concerns related to COVID-19 exposure. “We are using that data to identify, as well as our understanding of medical information, to prioritize for housing, to ensure we are reaching out to and provide opportunities for safe placement and isolation of people who are most vulnerable should they be exposed to Covid-19,” Zellenger said.
Zeilinger was optimistic however, about when housing activities could occur: “If we understand that we may be in this state for a prolonged period beyond a matter of days that may be longer than that, we will look to ways we can continue that key part of our work and move people from sites that they may be in isolation and in environments that provide opportunities to social distance particularly residents who are most vulnerable and have been identified for permanent supportive housing to be able to support their transition directly into housing as best as at all possible.”
Zeillenger also provided an overview of the city’s response to people who are currently homeless and what services they can expect to receive. “First and foremost what we want is that people are in a place that is safe and their exposure to this virus is limited. So what we have done is taken our low barrier programs that were just overnight and made them 24 hours at all of our shelter sites. We are providing full meals. And we have added additional outreach and meals in community so that people can have their needs met without having to travel and without having to congregate in lots of different places where we could increase the spread. We’ve instituted screenings in our shelters and if people are showing any potential symptoms we’re moving them into spaces where they have the opportunity to social distance and have medical attention as well as testing when warranted,” Zellienger said. The District of Columbia has also considered making hotel rooms available for people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis. “We have secured 3 hotels for use that we are using for people who that have tested either positive so they can be in isolation and don’t need hospitalization, where they can be checked on by medical professionals same as people have homes would be isolating at home and have a nice place and not returning to shelter,” Zeillenger said.
With housing placements frozen and public input at a stand still, people who are currently unhoused, could remain homeless for the duration of this unprecedented emergency. Under these circumstances, can the District government call mitigating the spread of the Coronavirus amongst the homeless a victory? It seems like we’re just cruising forward. Without the input of those who are experiencing homelessness, we are being encouraged to normalize COVID-19. As far as homeless people go, the CDC guidelines don’t seem to apply. Doing this may lead our community into believing that what looks like success is success when it’s actually failure.
The District of Columbia is just one of three or four jurisdictions in the nation that even have laws requiring emergency shelter. It may not be the best setting in a crisis, but it is better than the alternative where most services for the poor are provided by churches which are also closed during this crisis. People need housing to advance their lives. If housing was not such a commodified asset and considered a privilege rather than a right, we would not be in this situation. Housing is healthcare. If this country and this region believes that to be true, then more needs to be done immediately. If COVID-19 and the experience of the homeless has taught us anything, it would be that we have to do right by the poor.
The post Are Shelters an Option for the UnHoused During a Pandemic? Is There a Better Way? appeared first on Grassroots DC.
Should Black and Brown Organizers Trust White Allies?
I originally started this blog post just after former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the 2020 presidential race, much to my relief. In the midst of editing and finalizing it, the coronavirus hit and the world turned upside down. At that point, it seemed ill-timed and irrelevant to publish this. But the coronavirus is not going away any time soon, and neither is gun violence. Or racism. In fact, systemic racism is causing the coronavirus to sicken, kill and impoverish Black and Brown people at a disproportionate rate. This unjust imbalance mirrors the impact that gun violence has on communities of color as well. Despite stay at home orders, as of May 22, 2020 homicides in DC are trending even higher than they were at this time last year. Tragically, the District has experienced multiple double and triple shootings in the past few weeks, many involving teenagers or young adults, with one ending in the death of a 17-year-old. That’s why I feel it’s important to publish this blog post. Especially now, we all need to work together, fight injustices and help each other. I don’t want any level of distrust to get in the way of working together for the greater good. So consider this a case study: “Should Black and Brown Organizers Trust White Allies?”
I didn’t become the DC chapter leader for Moms Demand Action for fame and certainly not for fortune. It’s a volunteer role- not paid- and there’s nothing glamorous about working to stop people from dying of gun violence. I became the chapter leader in 2018 because that year my husband’s hometown of Parkland, Florida, and my childhood neighborhood of Squirrel Hill both experienced mass shootings. I felt I had to do more. But it wasn’t just that. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the District. I am also painfully aware that while 51% of DC’s residents are Black, approximately 96% of DC’s gun homicide victims are Black. In my experiences as a volunteer both before and after becoming chapter leader, I have met so many beautiful people here in DC whose lives are forever stained by bloodshed as either they were injured or they lost a loved one to gun violence here in DC. My uncle committed suicide by gun before I was born. I am all too familiar with the chaos and devastation that a tragedy of gun violence wreaks on a family for multiple generations. I’ve met so many survivors here in DC, I’ve listened to their stories, and I’ve built strong connections with many of them. I feel a moral obligation to them. I cannot turn my back on them. But I’m not here to save the day. I’m here to listen, learn and use my white privilege to assist however I can.
I felt immense relief when former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race in early March. My relief was not just because I vehemently disagree with his support for racist policies like stop and frisk and his callous and misogynistic comments towards women, but also because as the volunteer leader for the DC chapter of Moms Demand Action, his candidacy has sowed doubt about my volunteer-led organization with some of our partner organizations led by Black Washingtonians.
Here’s why: Bloomberg partially funds Moms Demand Action nationally, but he did not create Moms, as he erroneously claimed during the Democratic debate in South Carolina in February. Stay-at-home mother Shannon Watts founded Moms Demand Action in 2012 after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. (She had no personal connection to that shooting, but felt connected to the cause and emboldened to do something about it as she was raising her own young children at the time.) Shannon partnered with Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns in 2013 to create Everytown for Gun Safety, the umbrella organization for Moms, Everytown and the Everytown Survivor Network. Currently, he funds about 25% of the Moms budget nationally.
Moms Demand Action is an all-volunteer grassroots organization focused on passing common sense public safety measures to protect all people from gun violence. That means each chapter’s agenda is set by the volunteers and volunteer leadership who live in that city or state, with help from Everytown’s research and policy experts. (You can read more about Everytown’s national agenda here: Break the Pattern.)
Moms was started by a white suburban mother in response to a school shooting, but the organization has evolved over the years to include research, education and advocacy for domestic violence, suicide and city gun violence, which together make up the vast majority of gun violence in our country. The organization has also worked very intentionally to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive in all aspects of the work, from people to policies. For example, Shannon Watts penned this blog, “We Have to Say “Never Again” to Police Violence, Too”, about police violence after officers shot and killed Stephon Clark in his own backyard in Sacramento.
In DC, our chapter works hard to make connections with community organizations in neighborhoods most affected by gun violence and to uplift the too often overlooked and undervalued work that Black women and men have been doing in DC for decades to end gun violence. As someone who is white and who moved to DC as a young adult, I do not pretend to have that lived experience – or to have all the answers. I have learned so much from the Black and Brown people doing this challenging work, and I am grateful for their partnership and friendship. I am still learning – and Moms as an organization is still learning – about what being a true ally looks like.
A little about our chapter: We have volunteers from all eight Wards, including Black, Brown and white individuals, men and women, young professionals, students, grandparents, parents, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of many faiths. We each come from different backgrounds, but we are all working toward a common goal: to put an end to the public health crisis of gun violence locally, regionally and nationally. Our annual DC chapter budget from Everytown is $2,400, and last year we raised an additional $18,000 to fund our local agenda and activities, as well as to support our local community partners, the majority of which are local non-profits owned and operated by Black people here in the District. We also submit grant requests to Everytown to provide additional support for the work of our local community partners, who are doing the important work of healing trauma, teaching conflict resolution skills, and addressing the myriad of root cause issues that contribute to gun violence in the District.
There are volunteers in our ranks who are vehemently opposed to Bloomberg, and there are others who supported his campaign because of the huge investment in gun violence prevention that he has made over the years. Bloomberg and Everytown spent a record $2.5 million in Virginia during the 2019 midterm elections to elect what we call “Gun Sense Candidates,” or candidates who have vowed to enact legislation that will reduce gun violence. We flipped the Virginia House and Senate in that election and the state is now starting to pass common sense gun safety laws. This will save lives in the District, as over 35% of the guns recovered in DC are traced back to Virginia. And it wasn’t just Everytown’s money that helped us win that election – Moms volunteers from DC, Maryland, and Virginia made phone calls and knocked on doors for months to help get out the gun sense vote.
I continue to be angered and saddened by the racism and sexism in our country – even within organizations and people who simultaneously support progressive work. I try every day to chip away at the systems that hold back my Black and Brown neighbors and friends.
We all want to see an end to gun violence in DC, but we know our work is only as strong as the community partnerships we have built. I welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues in person and together unravel this tension.
Rachel Usdan moved to DC in 1999 and is currently living in the District with her husband and two young children, who occasionally help her Demand Action. All opinions are her own. dc@momschapterleaders.org
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Coronavirus is Devastating the Homeless Community: DC Must Pivot Quickly to Save Lives
Cross-Posted from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
For decades, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless has worked to break down the barriers that widespread poverty has created. Since our inception, we have worked to affirm housing as a fundamental right—not a privilege. Perhaps no moment more critically highlights the crucial importance of and need for housing and safe spaces than the current public health emergency. COVID-19 has ravaged the most vulnerable communities across this nation. It has directed a spotlight onto the many injustices and inequities faced by those existing in spaces that society has cast aside, exacerbating the real and deadly effects of poverty and white supremacy. It has pushed to the forefront conversations around health and economic disparities, income inequality, housing insecurity, and the inequitable allocation of resources.
While the disastrous effects of this pandemic are being seen throughout the country, people experiencing homelessness and in congregate settings are among those most heavily impacted. With a lack of access to widespread testing or safe spaces to socially distance, these communities are seeing a massive spread of infection. Simply, streets and congregate settings are not appropriate environments to contain or control the spread of this virus.
Despite this widely accepted fact, there are still far too many DC residents on the street and in crowded congregate shelters. Out of approximately 4,000 single adults currently experiencing homelessness in DC, less than three percent have been relocated to private spaces where social distancing can actually occur. Tragically, nine homeless DC residents have died from COVID-19 and 152 have had confirmed positive results as of Sunday, April 26th. During a five-day period last week, the spike in cases among the unhoused community was 2.5 times higher than the increase among DC’s general population. Without access to universal testing, the numbers of those affected are undoubtedly higher than the reported data reflects.
We know that the containment of this virus is a global undertaking. Community members, nonprofit organizations, and local government officials have been working hard to figure out ways to protect the community with limited federal funding and constantly evolving public health guidance. However, the District is certainly not alone in the challenges it faces to protect its homeless population. When confronted with startling data, other jurisdictions shifted gears in order to respond with urgency and creativity in ensuring that shelter and street populations are widely tested and moved to non-congregate settings. Many other jurisdictions have already placed thousands of homeless individuals in hotels. Meanwhile, DC’s current hotel occupancy rate is less than ten percent, leaving nearly 30,000 rooms empty, in addition to thousands of vacant dormitory and housing units throughout DC.
Unfortunately, DC’s current initiatives are not enough to protect DC’s homeless community. The time has come to shift the DC government’s approach.
The Legal Clinic recommends that the DC government:
- Immediately offer a COVID-19 test to every person who lives on the street or in a congregate setting.
- Immediately offer a placement to every person who lives on the street or in a congregate setting into a private and non-congregate setting, such as a hotel room, a private dormitory unit, or a vacant housing unit. Develop a system to screen and place people who become homeless during this time into private settings. In these non-congregate settings, provide food, staffing, other basic needs, and medical assistance, as appropriate. Ensure that those residents are checked on regularly.
- Retain non-congregate placements until COVID-19 is no longer a pandemic or epidemic and has been nationally contained by widespread access to a vaccine. Simultaneously work to quickly place people into safe, affordable housing to limit the number of individuals who will eventually return to congregate settings.
Last Friday, the Legal Clinic sent a letter to Mayor Bowser detailing the aforementioned concerns and recommendations for protecting the lives of community members experiencing homelessness and in congregate settings. People experiencing homelessness in DC are more likely to be elderly, Black, and suffer health conditions that place them at high risk of death or serious complications from COVID-19. DC must act immediately to protect the lives of its vulnerable communities. DC must also further its expressed commitment to racial justice by creating and maintaining housing that is deeply affordable for those who need it to survive here, now and post-pandemic.
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Act Now To Secure Your 2020 Solar Incentive Tax Credit
It’s Not Too Late for Solar Incentive Tax Credit Eligibility… Here’s Why
When you install your home solar system with Alba Energy before December 31st 2020, you may be eligible to earn 26% of your system cost as an Investment Tax Credit, or ITC.
How Does The Solar ITC Work?Here’s an example:
Gross System Price: $20,000
Less 26% Tax Credit: ($5,200)
Net Cost: $14,800
Let’s say the system you purchase is $20,000. Your 26% tax credit would be worth $5,200 dollars, meaning that the net cost of your system is now only $14,800 dollars. What’s even better is that using Alba Energy’s SMART Solar Finance options, this system would only be $97 per month.
And in addition to the 26% solar tax credit, you may also be eligible for solar rebates/incentives from Texas power companies, helping you save even more. The Austin Energy Solar Rebate and CPS Energy Solar Rebate Programs pays as much as $2,500!
How Do You Apply For The Solar Incentive Tax Credit?File the form 5695 as part of your tax return, and then enter the value of the 26% solar ITC into line 53 of form 1040. Don’t worry, Alba Energy is here to help if you have any questions!
Click to read more on How To Claim The Solar Tax Credit
As always with tax matters, make sure to consult a tax professional or CPA if you have any questions related to your specific situation.
Remember, in order to qualify for the tax credit in 2020, Alba Energy will need to substantially complete your installation by the end of the year, so act fast.
Save Money With Solar Panels In TexasAlba Energy is proud to be a leading solar installer in Texas, with offices across the state. Alba’s SMART solar financing programs allow you to POWER your home with solar panels, pay LESS on electricity bills, and contribute to a CLEAN energy future! Contact Us to find out how much you could be saving with solar.
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KEEP IN TOUCH SHOW ME MY SOLAR SAVINGS!The People’s COVID-19 Demands
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are looking for ways to help their communities or communities with less resources than their own come through the current crisis as undamaged as possible. As a result, community activists and organizers created the DC Mutual Aid Network. Although they take donations from anyone, Mutual Aid Network administrators and lead organizers are clear that they are not a charity. They are consensus-based rather than hierarchical. They build the leadership of the people most impacted by the problem. They also recognize that the current crisis is connected to wider issues of injustice and work to correct those injustices.
To further those goals, the DC Mutual Aid Network plans to present a set of demands to District Government regarding their response to COVID-19. Before they can do that, they must gather the thoughts, opinions and suggestions of those most impacted by the problem. To that end, they put together a People’s Demands Survey in both English and Spanish.
Information about the survey is posted below or can be found at the survey website http://thepeoplesdemandsdc.com/. If you’re reading this and you are a District of Colombia resident please consider filling out the survey, especially if you or someone you care about, is unable to socially isolate.
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Supporting COVID-19 Mutual Aid Efforts
We know now that the best way to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is social distancing. But we also know that many people in our communities will need help to make social distancing possible—elders, disabled people, and immunocompromised folks who can’t run errands without compromising their health; workers who don’t have paid sick leave; and people whose anxiety is triggered by isolation, among others.
Throughout DC, people are organizing to help their neighbors through mutual aid.
Mutual aid is a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions, not just through charity or symbolic acts or putting pressure on their representatives in government. Instead, this is about actually building new social relations that are more survivable.
You can find out more about ongoing opportunities and sources for mutual aid at the DC Mutual Aid Network on Facebook or on Instagram.
If you are able to contribute time, energy, skills, or labor, we encourage you to fill out the forms linked below, which will connect you to groups organizing mutual aid throughout the city.
You can also use the forms to ask for help, if you need help cleaning, running errands, dealing with prescriptions. Most of us will end up needing to ask for help during this crisis.
Mutual Aid Request and Volunteer Forms:
- Ward 1
- Ward 7 and 8: Call the hotline – 202-630-0336 – for those needing support or looking to volunteer.
- Takoma/Ward 4
- Ward 6
You can also support by donating to groups organizing mutual aid efforts, including:
- The Peace House DC (paypal.me/thepeacehousedc) for Ward 7;
- BLM-DC for Ward 8: CashApp: $DCBLM or PayPal: finance@dcblm.org;
- Black Swan Academy;
- Healers for Liberation Network (paypal.me/H4LNDC) who is offering free mental health and emotional support; and
- Mutual Aid in Ward 1
If you know of additional organizing going on in DC, please email info@sptdc.com or hit us up on social, and we’ll amplify your work.
Above all, please take care of yourselves physically and mentally. We are literally all in this together.
Yours in struggle,
SPTP-DC
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Antifascist Comedian Mike Gamms Gets New York Green Party Nod for NY27 Congressional Race
An anti-fascist comedian has earned a Green Party nomination to run for the New York 27th District Congressional seat. The New York State Board of Elections announced Mike Gamms’ candidacy on Friday, February 20, after the Green Party of Erie and Monroe counties nominated him. He is running in a special election to be held on April 28, 2020, for a seat vacated by disgraced Trump supporter Chris Collins, who resigned after pleading guilty to insider trading.
Gamms is well known in anti-fascist social media circles as a funny-bone. He focuses attention to social issues with his videos by creating comical drama around them. He has upended neo-nationalist and conservative rallies by poking fun at them. He’s often used comedy as a tactic to push back against narrow ideologies with parody and ad hoc theatrical performances. He has dressed up as a flamboyant superhero and as an “anti-Christ” devil and appeared at KKK and nationalist rallies to challenge racist and homophobic rhetoric.
He’s not very imposing but that makes him more effective in his craft. A slender frame and all of “129 lbs., 5 foot 7 3/4 inches tall in ‘girls’ clothing,” many just giggle at him. And they have. But then he starts his routine and the targets are easily distracted by his comedy. He trolls fascists, nationalists and the KKK. He lambasted the police at the Standing Rock Pipeline fight while activists stood-off against the paid police proxy of TransCanada’s Dakota Access Pipeline. ”I use comedy as my weapon because it’s the only one I have,“ he said.
He uses comedy to make light of serious situations. “I use comedy as my weapon because it’s the only one I have.” Photo: Mike Gamms
He realizes the issues he’s confronting are no laughing matter. “I am running on a platform eco-socialism, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, and anti-capitalism,” said Gamms. He expressed pride in having been chosen to represent Distruct 27 but knows there’s a lot of work to be done to restore confidence in the fractured political system of his district.
Republican Congressman Chris Collins won New York District 27 in 2013. He also served on Trump’s 2016 election transition team. He was forced to resign on September 30, 2019 before pleading guilty to insider trading. Collins is among a growing number of discredited public figures connected to the 2016 Trump Presidential campaign and subsequent transition team.
Gamms, a self-described radical insurgent and anti-fascist, plans to center issues important to the marginalized at the front of his campaign as he works to empower them in his community. He is running to challenge the political standard of entrenched entitlement.
“I don’t see myself fitting into this political system and that’s exactly why I’m running,” said Gamms. “I don’t like the label ‘progressive’ as it has been co-oped by pseudo-progressive incrementalists who stand in the way of justice.”
As a self-described bisexual extremist, he comes out in support of federal decriminalization of sex work, the repeal of SESTA/FOSTA, and proposes extending standard workers rights to sex workers. He is the first openly bisexual male comedian ever nominated for United States Congress.
He supports classifying crimes against sex workers as a hate crime. “This is important because so many violent crimes are against sex workers. They are seen as less than human,” he said.
“I am also calling for a federal ban on all conversion therapy on children. This includes both gay conversion therapy, and applied behavioral analysis conversion therapy on autistic children. Furthermore, Autism Speaks and any other group who push these practices must be classified as a hate group,“ he said
He is also standing against the growing military budget and its cycle of military industry financial donations to buy political favor. He argues it has siphoned public funding for programs where people are suffering most: health care, education, and housing. “We spend trillions of dollars committing mass murder and ecocide around the world for the profits of a few at the expense of the planet and everyone on it. We need to redistribute billionaires’ wealth and redistribute the military budget,” he said.
Gamms was active in the enviromental movement at Standing Rock where he participated in the Dakota Access Pipeline battle in 2016-7. He has traveled around the country advocating for environmental protections in communities needing support.
Healthcare reform and Medicare for all is another issue Gamms strongly supports. As a comedian searching for a break through moment he has no health plan because he can’t afford one and has experienced first hand the costs of not having healthcare. After a hard-arrest during an environmental action he was videotaping, he was forced to pay out of pocket expenses for bruises and cracked ribs.
He lost a comedian friend, Raghav who just like him had no health insurance or means to pay for care. Raghav couldn’t afford the prescriptions or visits for his severe depression. Gamms was moved by his struggle and decided he would do something about it if he ever got the chance. About ‘45,000 people in the US die every year from not having health insurance,’ reads a published Elle story written by Raghav’s former girlfriend, Kate Willett.
Gamms believes healthcare is a human right, “Not a privilege for those who can afford it.” He endorsees healthcare for those who are in need regardless of their status. Photo: Mike Gamms
He believes healthcare is a human right, “Not a privilege for those who can afford it.” He endorsees healthcare for those who are in need regardless of their status. “My republican opponent, Chris Jacobs opposes Medicare for All, while my democrat opponent, Nate McMurry claims to support Medicare for all but adds ‘until everyone in my town, state, or county has full healthcare, we can’t give it to the world.’” Both are unacceptable options to him as they allow the healthcare industry to deny care to those who can’t afford it.
His platform includes eco-socialism, anti-capitalism, and anti-imperialism. He plans to do “whatever is necessary” to shake up the political system that looks away as the environment is ruined and benefits from corruption with businesses.
“The system is right to be afraid of us,” he said. “I believe in disrupting the political system, the status quo and business as usual. As long as warmongers continue to control our lives, millions of people will continue to suffer.
You can donate to his campaign here.
The post Antifascist Comedian Mike Gamms Gets New York Green Party Nod for NY27 Congressional Race appeared first on DCMediaGroup.
Martin Luther King Explains the Three Evils of Society
Fifteen years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., President Ronald Reagan signed the bill that would make the third Monday of January a holiday in his honor. Like many if not most Republicans, Reagan opposed the holiday. They believed that King was a communist. They didn’t like that he opposed the war in Vietnam and then of course there was all that business with the Civil Rights. The law almost passed in 1979, but it wasn’t until 1983 that it passed in both the House and Senate by veto-proof margins which forced right-wing hero President Reagan to sign it.
For that reason alone, I love this holiday. But every good thing has its unintended consequences. One of those is the commercialization of the holiday and the very successful attempt by corporations, the media, most of our elected officials, etc., to whitewash the memory of Martin Luther King. By focusing only on the speeches and actions that do not criticize Capitalism or US Imperialism, most Americans have no real understanding of the depth of King’s critique of the United States and its policies. Sure overt bigotry is bad and it’s kinda crazy to think of not sitting next to a Black person at a lunch counter or on the bus but all that talk about poverty, his support for unions and the anti-war movement–do we really need to go there?
In the spirit of honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. in a manner that is true to his vision, here is one of his lesser-known speeches.
The Three Evils of Society: Racism, Poverty and WarKing delivered this speech at The National Conference for New Politics, which took place in Chicago over Labor Day weekend in 1967. Around 3,000 people, from hundreds of organizations, attended the conference which featured MLK as the keynote speaker. The goal was to unify political activists of all races who believed in civil rights and opposed the Vietnam War. President Lyndon B. Johnson felt so threatened by the conference, he instructed the FBI to attempt to track the attendants’ movements and thwart any long-term plans of the NCNP. As the commentary Revisiting MLK’s speech, ‘The 3 Evils of Society, ‘ suggests that this speech is the most prophetic and revolutionary address to date on the questions of militarism, poverty, and racism.
The running time is 43 minutes. For those who prefer to read, a transcript of the speech can be found at the bottom of this post.
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Black Lives Matter Open Letter to the Board of the Women’s March
January 15, 2020
To the Board and Staff of the Women’s March,
As we approach the 4th Annual Women’s March this Saturday, and especially given our interactions with Women’s March staff and leadership over the last month, it has become apparent, again, that all of our efforts to call you in have failed. You have failed both to fulfill your agreements to acknowledge the harm you have caused, and to complete the reparations you have previously committed to. This failure is clearly evident in your planning of this year’s March, as you are continuing to ignore the communities in DC in your practice, when you claim to be standing in solidarity with us in your words. We have attempted, repeatedly, to call you into more accountability and to actively restore the relationship with us and the communities we work with.
On December 27, 2018 we sent you this incredibly important email which carefully detailed the history of harms perpetuated by the Women’s March and those associated with the organization. Some of these harms included a failure to center DC, the continuous exclusion of local Black Trans women, and the permanent damage done to the local ability to organize. We continue to impress upon you that more than one thing can be centered at a time, and poly-centrism is essential in this work. In this instance:
“D.C. is more than Congress and the White House. It is more than the DOJ and the National Mall. For large mobilizations that come into the District, this means holding the reality of D.C. as both the nation’s capital, the center of empire, a necessary place for national protests, and home to real life human beings with important local issues. Local D.C. is a domestic colony and the actions of national organizers have to recognize that.”
And we’ve said, “Here in D.C., these unstrategic mass mobilizations distract from local organizing, often overlook the Black people who actually live here and even result in tougher laws against demonstration being passed locally.”
Last year we worked closely with Rachel Carmona, Tamika Mallory, and Linda Sarsour. This work was facilitated by DC Action Lab (who pushed Tamika and Linda to meet with us). Outside of the public gaze, in meetings and calls, we made some progress that included this public letter, written by the Women’s March. Even though there was no apology or recognition of harms included in this letter, as the agreement was that they would be detailed in a second letter, the Women’s March did state:
“We commit to being intentional about reaching out to local BLM chapters and other local organizations to understand their needs and to hear how we can ensure our work in their cities is not a burden but an opportunity for amplification and collaboration.”
We want to be very clear, the Women’s March failed to fulfill this commitment to us and to other BLM chapters. BLM Los Angeles has also experienced the same failure to reach out. To that end, it was particularly frustrating to come across a picture of one of our organizers’ car and our contingent in the local DC MLK Parade being used to promote this year’s March on Instagram, knowing that you did not continue with the process we agreed to nor reach out to us about this year’s march at all.
The organizers, advocates, DC residents, and grassroots organizations we are in community with were very skeptical last year, even after the public letter from the Women’s March. We took a lot of personal hits, including having our politics deeply challenged as a result of us publicly working with you, agreeing to speak at the 2019 rally, and marching with you. At great risk to her own credibility, one of our Core Organizers April Goggans, did a radio interview shortly after the beginning of the accountability process, where she publicly named that there seemed to be a new path forward for the Women’s March that was intersectional, inclusive, and responsive to local organizers.
We had a call later with Carmen Perez, National Co-Chair. During the call Carmen agreed to write a public apology letter that would speak to the harms we had relayed, as well as specifically address her role in talking to DC organizers during the Justice League’s March 2 Justice in 2015. She was also supposed to address her remarks on Angela Rye’s podcast on July 9, 2017, when she publicly disparaged DC organizers by insinuating that they are comparable to COINTELPRO and agitators. Carmen never sent or posted this letter. In fact, we hadn’t heard from Carmen since that call, until she reached out to April Goggans via email on January 6, 2020. This is not the only apology letter that the Women’s March committed to writing but then failed to send. At our two week debrief after the 2019 Women’s March, you committed to sending a detailed apology letter that acknowledged past harms. It has now been a year and you have not released the letter or completed any of the other steps you committed to during that debrief.
You have been planning this year’s March for the better part of 4 months but AGAIN waited until December to reach out to BLMDC. By the time you reached out everything was finished, and you expected us to rush to tell you about specific issues, just so that you could rush to check them off your list. A quick check-in or heads-up to even tell us you were still having a March would have been nice, as we’ve told you that MLK Weekend is a historically busy weekend in DC for local communities and organizers. As we have mentioned in the past, checking in with us and other local folks would allow us to see how we can work together around the impact to public transit for DC residents (most directly impacting Black and brown folks), space, port-a-potties (AGAIN), and more. Not this time. The harms you are perpetuating now have not changed, and clearly the Women’s March has not either.
As always, in building the world we want, we remain committed to continuing to walk in our values and principles when it comes to co-creating accountability. BLM DC is led entirely by Black femmes and we want to name that we will not be putting further emotional or other labor into this process until the Women’s March fulfills the commitments it made last year at our two-week debrief. We look forward to seeing the Women’s March Board and Staff take public accountability, make public apologies, and take public steps to repair harm.
Toward Liberation,
Black Lives Matter DC
Twitter @DMVBlackLives
Instagram: blacklivesmatterdc
Facebook: BLMDC
Our mailing list.
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Radheshyam Etikala
Radheshyam loves products that care about their users, and tries to do the same with the software he builds. A programming padawan, Radheshyam joined Sahaj as a fresher after working as a JavaScript developer for a while.
A cinema and filter coffee enthusiast, Radheshyam is also into all things fast and on wheels.
Oncor’s Solar Incentive Program Makes It Even Easier to Go Solar in 2020
Oncor is Giving Incentives for Going Solar
Details of the 2020 Oncor Solar Incentive Program have been released and the Program Launches February 3rd. The Texas-based electric utility will be offering incentives to home and business owners who install solar panels throughout the Oncor Service Region, but it doesn’t last long, so find out now if you qualify.
Though it may seem counter-intuitive for a power company to offer solar rebates & incentives, many electricity providers in Texas have programs that are designed to encourage their customers to go solar to help relieve the stress on the grid at peak usage times.
Request a FREE analysis of how much money you could save by installing a solar system at your location! Just fill out the form below.
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Top 5 Things To Know About Oncor’s Solar Incentive Program- Energy created from solar panels is energy that electric utilities do not have to produce from their own power plants or purchase on the spot market at higher-than-usual prices. Installing solar panels on your home helps you lower or eliminate your power bill, save money immediately, benefit the environment and also relieve stress on the grid during “peak demand” periods.
- Your solar system becomes your primary power source, with additional power seamlessly available from Oncor (the grid) anytime it is needed.
- Homeowners in the Oncor service regions can receive substantial incentives to offset the cost of installing solar panels on their homes or businesses. The amount of the incentive varies depending on system size, placement and power generated, but our experts can calculate exactly what it will be for your specific application.
- Historically a typical 10 kW residential solar system facing south would be eligible for a $5,000 solar incentive.
- Homeowners must use an approved solar contractor, like Alba Energy, to receive the incentive.
Oncor’s Service Region spans across Texas and includes 402 cities across 91 counties, encompassing nearly one-third of the state’s geographic area. The map below shows locations within the Oncor Service Region that are eligible for the solar incentive:
SMART Solar Financing Available in the Oncor Region
With SMART Solar Financing from Alba Energy, going solar is affordable for all qualifying applicants, allowing you to save money INSTANTLY! Once you go solar, your new power bill, if any, plus the fixed monthly solar financing should be less than your current power bill! Making it a no-brainer to go solar!
Installing solar panels in the Oncor Region lets you take ownership of your energy supply and stabilize and/or eliminate your bills over the long-term. Let one of Alba Energy’s 5-star solar professionals show you how to save money with a solar panel installation. Contact Alba Energy to request a free consultation about going solar TODAY!
Alba Energy LocationsAustin | Dallas | Houston | McAllen | San Antonio
KEEP IN TOUCH SHOW ME MY SOLAR SAVINGS!Sex Trafficking And DC’s Missing Youth – A Frightening Connection
Approximately 300,000 children under the age of 18 are lured into sex trafficking each year. Girls are typically brought into the sex trade as young as twelve years old. Boys can be entrapped into the illicit trade at an even younger age. Sex trafficking tends to occur in impoverished neighborhoods, urban centers and along interstate highways. Most victims tend to be those associated with the foster care system, runaways or black. Forty percent of sex trafficking victims are African Americans. It is estimated that 62% of suspected victims are African American. In the District of Columbia over 2,500 cases have been reported as of 2017. It is reported that over 1,600 of these cases involve children. The same year in which controversy sparked over the amount of missing black girls in the District who received little to no media coverage. This form of modern-day slavery is prevalent in Washington, D.C. and is affecting our youth.
Sex trafficking is far from a victimless crime; it is, in fact, a multi-billion dollar industry that operates throughout the United States. Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, harboring or transporting for compelled labor or sexual acts. Human trafficking can also consist of forced marriages, organ removal, and domestic servitude. Sex trafficking can include but does not require movement. More than 2,000 children go missing each year in the District of Columbia. The Polaris Project study determined that the number of cases reported to a national trafficking hotline surged 25 percent. As of 2019, more than 100 children have been rescued from sex traffickers in the metropolitan area. When black and brown children are missing, little national attention is given to their plight. According to Natalie Wilson of the Black & Missing Foundation, black children who go missing, receive less media attention than white kids.
Communities of Color: Myths & MisconceptionsYouths who are victims of sex trafficking go through a process of manipulation. These kids are often targeted regarding lack of family support, bullying, and even struggling for social acceptance can make them targets. Often youth are groomed or tricked into false beliefs based on words told to them. The process can start off as innocent with toys, candies, compliments, etc and gradually began to escalate. By building a connection, sex traffickers begin to brainwash and manipulate their victims. Hallmarks of child sex trafficking can include unexplained absences from school, bragging about making or having a lot of money, evidence of physical abuse, sexualized behavior and acting withdrawn. Victims’ home life can revolve around violence, substance abuse, sexual abuse and more and will shape the perception of their predators as a saving grace. Boys can account for 13% of human trafficking.
Due to a lack of resources for male survivors, there are limited resources for them. Thus in which research regarding abused male survivors is scarce. Statistically, 0.4% of cases are identified, meaning the majority of cases are not. The representation of sex trafficking in the media warps the perception of who’s at risk. Any child who has been abused or abandoned no matter their gender can become a victim of child trafficking. The image the media shows of who a victim might be is often not who it is. Anyone can become a victim. Trafficking can take place anywhere as the main goal is exploitation and enslavement. Many common misconceptions and beliefs hinder us from being aware of our surroundings and noticing when these situations are out of the ordinary.
Sexually exploited youths do not have the freedom and are not able to escape. Victims of sexual exploitation often suffer from physical, emotional, and mental abuse. One of the least acknowledged facts regarding child trafficking is an alarming number of black victims. Black youth between the ages of 12-19 have or will experience higher violent interactions than their white counterparts. This is because the narrative of the topic is victim vs exploiter. Case in point, Cyntoia Brown-Long was sentenced as a teen to life in prison for killing her abductor. Black girls are often labeled as the perpetrator rather than a victim. This makes them easy targets for predators. In 2013 60% of prosecuted minors were arrested for prostitution.
Statistics show that African-American men kidnap and traffic the majority of America’s sex trafficking victims. However, these traffickers are marketing and selling the services of their victims to a largely white, affluent base. Most people who pay for sexual favors generally have disposable income. For example, Jason Rodger or DJ KID has trafficked 700 black females. His criminal history of kidnapping, harboring and forcing minors to perform sexual acts go back far as 2011. The white south Carolina promoter also has AIDS that wasn’t reported to other parties until a 13-year-old victim revealed it. Rodgers is in custody but the story receives no coverage from mainstream media. This is because black victims are ignored. The suspects’ page is still active in which he boasts about his triumph: “I’m 36 with 693 BODIES (All Black females), WBU?”
Social and economic impacts on society can contribute to why certain areas are a hotspot for trafficking. The rise of social media has allowed it to become more accessible to order sex. While this can reduce violence among adult sex workers who work for themselves, the Internet has not been positive for young victims. Websites such as Backpage, Kik, Snapchat, and Instagram distribute services of young minors globally. Backpage CEO was even arrested in 2016 for conspiracy to commit pimping and other charges. The apps have been involved in over 1,000 child abuse cases. Youtuber Matt Watson’s video explained how predators even time stamp videos and comment when minors appear in a sexually explicit manner. These operations can be hidden under ordinary business establishments. To help put a stop to human trafficking the District of Columbia passed the Prohibition of Human Trafficking Act of 2010.
Tina Frundt, Executive Director of Courtney House created the Washington, D.C. organization to help children who have gotten out of the illegal industry and to educate others to recognize indicators of possible sex trafficking. The organization encourages citizens who suspect children are being victimized to report their suspicions to law enforcement and in doing so possibly save lives.
Sex trafficking has been reported in hotels, brothels and massage parlors but victims can be recruited anywhere. There is no specified region for human trafficking as it is a global business. Workers and bystanders are being trained to recognize victims of child trafficking and online predators.
Gentrification and the rise of tourism in DC has made the city a sex tourist destination. The DC Bill Community Health and Safety Act of 2019 will also make it harder to find victims. By removing criminal penalties for engaging in sexual exchange trafficked victims are at risk. A better solution would be the Equality Mode as it would not hold the sex workers accountable but it would reprimand buyers. By providing options for victims to exit the lifestyle, this approach would make buying people a criminal offense. The model would help reduce the demand for sex trafficking. Becoming more educated on the topic can help save a life. Report any pages, threads or profiles that mention, discuss and engage in fetishizing lascivious acts with minors. Social media has helped these acts to spread through online feeds featuring child pornography and snuff films. Educate minors to become more aware of online predators, child exploitation and sex trafficking. The main goal of sex traffickers is to find the means to exploit the victim or have the victim leave home to engage in sex. As a reminder child sex trafficking is a genderless crime and can target anyone.
How To Report :To help defend human dignity and end child exploitation the following options to report are listed below:
Report child abuse/neglect hotline: 202-671-(SAFE) or 7233. Representatives will ask for the following: General information regarding minors such as their name, gender, address, etc. The extent of abuse witnessed and any additional information.
Some people in specific professions, teachers, chiropractors, dentists and more can take FREE training classes. To access these free training courses click here. To report sexual implicit videos, images, text messages, etc involving minors please visit: http://www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/cybertipline
Baylor University offers recommendations to discuss the conversation and educate youth here. By noticing these signs and spreading awareness, you can help at-risk youth and save a life.
To contact safe havens for victims: The Courtney House: call 202 525 1426. The Black and Missing Foundation can be reached at 877 972 2634.
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What Is A Dyke March?
A Dyke March is a lesbian visibility protest designed to promote activism within the LGBTQ community and bring awareness to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LBGTQ) rights. The First Dyke March took place April 24, 1993, as part of the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal rights and Liberation.
During the 1990s, the LGBTQ community faced far more hate crimes than they do today. Many laws we have now that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation simply did not exist. We would not be where we are today, were it not for the activism that took place before and after the original Dyke March.
According to the Urban Dictionary, a dyke is a slang word used to refer to lesbians that was originally meant to be a slur. There are many theories surrounding the origins of the word and how it became used as an anti-lesbian slur. Scholars debate whether or not the origin came as a shortening for words such as morphadyke or hermaphrodite. In an earlier English dialect, the word was simply a contemporaneous term for women.
Regardless of its origin, a dyke describes a masculine tomboy or androgynous female. In recent years, the term has been re-appropriated by many lesbians who use it to identify themselves. Many people who identify as LGBTQ have been ridiculed by such words. For this reason, it is considered rude to use the word dyke unless you self-identify as one.
By stripping the negative aspect of the word, lesbians reclaim the power of the word and own our own identity. Transgender activist Jessica Xavier says, “Dyke is political. It’s an identity queer women could use as a means of our own empowerment, and having the march was this way to share in our queer sisterhood together.” Whatever words we use to describe ourselves our individuality and self-representation should be respected.
Grassroots DC reporter Billie Mckelvie interviews fellow marcher Shelby Bass on why she attended the march.The DC Dyke March is returning after a 12-year hiatus. It returns as an act of queer liberation. It is led by self-identifying dykes and as a protest for different issues regarding the LGBTQ community. The DC Dyke March is an inclusive community that supports marginalized groups that are often ignored by mainstream media when reporting on LGBTQ issues. For more information visit: https://www.dcdykemarch.com/about-us/
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#ShutdownDC: District Brought to Standstill over Inaction on Climate Emergency
Washington, DC — Over two dozen environmental and justice groups coordinated a massive shutdown of twenty major locations in the District, snarling traffic and business operations and creating chaos for commuters as they brought the nation’s capital to near gridlock. The unprecedented action involved a series of coordinated nonviolent civil disobedience actions which included blockades of key freeway ramps, a yacht launch on K Street, a van blockade and multiple demonstrations with sit-ins on city streets.
The actions come in response to worsening global climate and government inaction or business initiatives to tackle or even acknowledge the existence of global heating and its fallout. A key issue prompting the shutdown was corporate policies of business-as-usual and failure to implement even bare-minimum renewable energy solutions.
Youth-led groups included the Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, 198 Methods, and 350 DC. Other groups included Beyond Extreme Energy, Black Lives Matter DMV, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Code Pink, and Friends of the Earth Action, Friends Meeting in Washington Social Concerns Committee. Friends Meeting House of Washington, DC provided critical space support for the activists.
The shutdown had been planned for several months and involved as many as 2,000 activists from a variety of groups which have traditionally not coordinated actions on such a large scale. The success of the shutdown demonstrated that groups have found new confidence that they can cooperate in a large scale actions and demonstrate to authorities they are no longer going to accept business-as-usual as the climate crisis worsens.
This action was different from protest actions of the past when thousands marched along permitted prearranged routes, holding signs and delivering keynote speeches. The actions of the past generally led to inaction from government and business comfortable with maintaining the status quo of a fossil fuel-based economy.
These actions represent a new direction of ramped-up pressure against the administration and its cabinet of climate denier industrialists and the fossil industry businesses enthrall to them.
In this action, many groups consolidated their efforts to respond as if they were one group with one voice and a wide power base. The groups realized over the last few years that they must include social justice issues at the center in the climate movement, because they are the core issues often overlooked by environmentalists in their fight against the fossil fuel industry.
Among social justice groups spearheading the actions was Black Lives Matter DMV–a collective of activists fighting for minority social justice in Washington, DC–which organized a shutdown of a key intersection near the U.S. Capitol by setting up a mock medical aid station.
“Black people in frontline communities are always most impacted by climate change, by climate disaster, but are often the last that people think about,” said April Goggans, a lead organizer of Black Lives Matter DMV. “We are highlighting environmental racism in DC to remind folks we cannot be erased. You cannot talk about saving the Earth for future generations if you cannot talk about those who have been suffering the longest,” she said.
Goggans pointed out that those frontline communities of color in the Bahamas, New Orleans, Puerto Rico and the Philippines which were recently hit by massive hurricanes still have not and may never recover. “It is a social justice issue, because housing is a climate issue,” she said.
A group of about 60 students aged 19 to 22 from five universities, shut down a key access to the I-295 tunnel and interchange at New York Ave., where 27 people were arrested. They were released within hours on post and forfeit bonds after being charged with obstructing an access road.
Jeremy Liskar, a student from George Washington University, who was arrested but later released, said that his generation is in a fight for their future and willing to do what they need to do to change the fossil fuel-based economy. “It’s not like this is something we want to do, skipping school to get arrested, but we feel it’s a moral imperative,” said Liskar
Liskar said that if he were speaking to the Congress he would tell them: “We are on a timeline. We can’t be debating whether this is happening because it is happening. We need to start talking about how we’re going to fix it,” he said.
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It Takes a Village: A Celebration of the Life of Gary Hopkins, Jr.
On November 27, 1999, my son Gary Hopkins, Jr., was gunned down by an Prince George’s County police officer. This was years before smartphone videos made it possible for us to watch unarmed Black folks die at the hands of police on our social media feeds every week or so.
Along with mothers from across the nation who’ve lost their children to what is essentially state-sanctioned violence, I have been fighting to change the criminal justice system for the last twenty years. On October 26, 2019, we plan to celebrate the life of Gary Hopkins, Jr and those of other loved ones lost. It will be a day of healing, storytelling, performances and activism.
Grassroots DC is a partner in this event and will be presenting a short video about Gary Hopkins, Jr., one that we hope to eventually turn into a feature-length documentary. Below is the budget for the event. If you can support this effort, please go to our GoFundMe page and make a donation. You can also send a check to the Coalition of Concerned Mothers, 3304 Asher Street, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772. If you can’t support, please share this post with those who can. Thank you.
“IT TAKES A VILLAGE” – A CELEBRATION OF GARY HOPKINS, JR.’S LIFE
I. SUMMARY
Gary Hopkins Jr. was an artist, writer, and a full time college student, whose life was taken by the police in 1999. Marion Gray-Hopkins, Gary’s mother, is hosting the first commemoration event after 20 years since his death, with the hope to (i) celebrate Gary’s life and achievements, (ii) bring together families who were affected by state violence locally and nationally to grow the movement against police terrorism, and (iii) collectively heal through this weekend long event, centering around an artistic ceremony and installation.
II. ABOUT A. Context:
Gary Hopkins, Jr., at the time of his death, was 19 years old, the youngest child of Gary Hopkins, Sr. and Marion Gray-Hopkins. Gary was the brother of Tahlita, Antwon and Tashia; he was also an uncle, cousin, nephew, and friend to many. Gary was also an aspiring rapper, writer, and producer, who was a full time college student majoring in mass communications with a business minor. On the night of November 26, Gary attended a dance where one of his friends got into a verbal altercation with another young man. Following the event, on early morning November 27, 1999, after breaking up the altercation and getting everyone into their cars, Gary was sitting on the window ledge of the lead vehicle when a police officer used his patrol car to block them from exiting the venue. The police officer got out of his car with his gun drawn, went up to Gary and placed the gun to his temple. The officer then pulled him off the car by the collar of his shirt when Gary stumbled backwards another officer, who was moonlighting at the dance, shot Gary in the chest killing him.
The officer who shot Gary was charged with manslaughter, which, following a bench trial, was acquitted by the judge. No charges were filed against the officer who precipitated the incident, although he was under investigation for several excessive force violations.
B. After Gary’s Death
Gary’s murder at the hands of law enforcement and the failure of the State to restore justice to him and his family have led Marion Gray-Hopkins, his mother, to become an activist against police terrorism, advocating for policy and legislative changes. Marion began her activism work with Prince George’s County People’s Coalition against Police Brutality and later began to partner with ONUS Inc.; Families United 4 Justice; American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); Code Pink; Progressive Maryland; Campaign for Justice, Safety, and Jobs (CJSJ); A Mother’s Cry; Black Lives Matter DC; and Amnesty International.
Marion’s activist work has led her to speak out against police terrorism locally, nationally, and internationally. Marion spoke at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil to support the “Beyond Borders” Conference; and Kingston, Jamaica for the “Broken but Not Destroyed Campaign.” She currently serves as a board member with ACLU Maryland, and co-founded and serves as the President of the Coalition of Concerned Mothers (COCM).
III. Case for Support
We appreciate you and your willingness to support the movement against police terrorism and specifically this event to commemorate the life of Gary Hopkins Jr.. With you support, we hope to achieve:
- – Bringing 20 mothers from out of state and 20 local mothers who were affected by police brutality to Washington, DC to attend the full day event.
- – Having 150 participants (including mothers) at the commemoration ceremony for the evening program.
- – Reaching 7000 people on social media, before and after the event.
- – Strengthening the foundation of this work: (i) healing: centering impacted mothers and families and creating a space for them to share their experiences, move through trauma and grief with community; we believe that impacted mothers need to be cared for and be well before they advance the work of the movement; (ii) building: when individuals are well, the community can be well; we believe the healing and collective sharing of mothers will set a strong foundation for trust building, relationship building, strategies building and thus, movement building; (iii) outreaching and modeling: police brutality and racial profiling of young black men have historically contributed to the enactment of white supremacy in America; by creating this space to share and grow together, this commemoration event will not only center Gary’s life, Marion’s experiences and those of local mothers, but also serve as a model for other spaces to be created nationally with the same purpose: taking steps to heal from white supremacy and fighting for collective liberation.
IV. ‘IT TAKES A VILLAGE’ EVENT DETAILS
1. General Programming
The event is expected to take place from the evening of October 25 to end of evening October 26, 2019 (location TBD), with the bulk of activities taking place on Saturday, October 26. Below is a break-down of the key parts of the program:
2. Artistic components
Art has long been the tool that uplifts our collective voice, helps us reimagine our reality, and inspires us to create a liberatory future. For this event, the programming heavily relies on the arts to achieve Marion’s vision and objectives to heal and find collective power with local and national mothers who were affected by police terrorism.
Our program has been in touch with friends, families of Gary Hopkins, Jr., as well as local artists in the DMV to tap into the resources and power within our community.
a. Performances
During the official commemoration ceremony on October 26 evening, there will be various performances to celebrate the life of Gary Hopkins, Jr., including:
- – Spoken Word performance.
- – Gospel singing performance.
- – Dance performance.
b. Art Workshop
After the Emotional Healing session, an art workshop will be offered for mothers to reflect and create arts on their own experiences; drawing from their personal story and adding to the collective voice and vision of the movement.
c. Art Installation
Our programming will be centered around an artistic installation, hereby referred to as an artistic altar (references and inspirations below). The altar is inspired by various religious and spiritual practices, where the altar is believed to be a sacred place where we can connect to the spirits of our deceased beloveds. It’s also a place for family members, friends, and acquaintances to show love and respect for people who passed away through prayers and offerings.
This altar will: (i) serve as a visual celebration of Gary’s life, as the artists will create both 2D and 3D suspended and installed art pieces that represent Gary’s dynamic personality, yearning for social change, loving compassion as well as his own artistic passion; (ii) an interactive altar where folks can give offerings in multiple ways throughout the event.
*These images serve as the centerpiece’s inspiration only – the final installation will be created by our artists as it pertains to Gary Hopkins Jr. and the current movement against police terrorism.
d. Artistic Offerings
There are two formal sessions of artistic offerings:
(i) after the art workshop: all art created during the art workshop will be installed by mothers onto the altar to showcase and build collective narratives on the effects of police terrorism on families as well as share their healing process.
(ii) at the end of the commemoration (after dinner), mothers, general participants as well as donors, sponsors will have their own rounds of offering. See section V for details.
There are also opportunities for participants and mothers to give offerings at any convenient time, either through prayers or written notes that can be installed on the altar.
V. BUDGET
VI. Donation Options
Our work in this movement heavily relies on the support of donors and sponsors. We deeply appreciate any support we get, and want to include our donors and sponsors in our programming as much as we can. Donors and sponsors will get their own round of acknowledgement and offerings: each support, regardless of the amount, comes with a candle. Donors will take part in our offering ceremony and place their candles on the altar to celebrate and honor the life of Gary Hopkins, Jr. along with family members and friends (other participants are also asked to donate a minimum of $20 to attend the evening program and will also participate in the offering sessions with their candles). Additionally, we have three suggested levels of donations with additional benefits outlined below:
The Visionary: $10,000 and above
The Change Agent: $5,500 – $9,500 The Collaborator: $1,000 – $5,000
Thank you very much for your time and support for this event and the movement against police terrorism. We look forward to working with you!
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