Tag: take action

Interlude: Credit Where Credit is Due

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So I’ve got a post-post for you tomorrow, but some things in the meantime:

  • Roy Moore, he who “allegedly” hit on actual children as a grown man, he who is totes cool with slavery as long as America is “great”, he who maybe doesn’t understand the swearing in process enough to explain it to his campaign staff, was narrowly defeated by Doug Jones a lot of determined men and women of color who got out the vote in spite of active voter suppression at the polls. Black men and women made up nearly 30% of the voting population, and overwhelmingly cast votes for Jones (92-ish% and 97-ish%, respectively). Black women in particular showed up, and were 17% of voters on Tuesday. If you want to thank them with more than just words, this article suggests ways you can do so. 
  • The Federal Communications Commission just overturned the net neutrality rules in place to keep a fair and open internet. While there is a slim, slim chance that this could be overturned by Congressional Review – and you should definitely do something to encourage that – there is a preliminary list of all the Congresspeople who 100% sold us out at the very end, and for how much. As a person on the internet who likes writing for y’all, and who can’t afford to pay more than she already is for the privilege of doing so, feel free to contact any of your representatives you find on the list and let them know how you feel about their chances in 2018 and 2020.

More travel-related writing tomorrow; I hope you spend some time talking about these issues today. 

Next Steps

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After months of stasis, things are finally starting to come alive again. And it’s not just the winter, which felt shorter than usual – it’s been rare that I’ve worn a coat in the last two weeks – but after a dearth of work, a dearth of purpose, things are finally picking back up on the life front.  Continue reading →

Interlude: Well, That Happened.

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It seems that Donald Trump was just sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.

Well then.

I’ve seen a lot of posts to the tune of “this can’t be happening”/”this can’t be real”/”this must be a bad dream” after the election and in the weeks since, particularly given the influx of cabinet appointments of people who are either unqualified or have incredible conflicts of interest.

Y’all. This is happening. This is real. This is not a bad dream.

But you’re right in feeling that something’s not right. It’s not right that Congress has made it easier to transfer public lands to states, and easier for states to sell those public lands to private interests. It’s not right that Congress wants to make it harder for federal agencies to do anything about climate change or to classify species as endangered, regardless of what scientists have to say about either matter. It’s not right that Congress wants to gut the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and make it harder for similar laws – that protect all of us and our public spaces – to get on the books. As people who enjoy our outdoor public spaces, none of this should feel right.

But as today and tomorrow are days of action around the country, today I’m going to focus on concrete action. Here are some things you can do to try to protect our wild spaces:

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