Three bills that threaten OUR rights to vote were introduced this month at the Nevada Legislature. They are unwarranted legislation in search of a problem that doesn’t exist. We cannot let them become law!
SB 169, AB 253, and AB 266 require voters to show a limited number of acceptable forms of ID. These types of Voter ID laws impact vulnerable populations who are left struggling to obtain identification that will allow them to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
Introductions of AB 253 and AB 266 were held on Tuesday, March 17, in Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections at 4 p.m. Contact your Assembly member now and let them know that you oppose any Voter ID bills that will make it difficult for Nevada’s citizens to vote.
There is a false notion that every Nevadan has an ID and if they don’t, they can easily walk over to the DMV and get one. The “Let Nevadans Vote” coalition has been conducting surveys with vulnerable populations such as the elderly and homeless families and through that process, they’ve learned just how difficult it is to obtain an ID. Here are a few of their stories with names removed to protect their privacy:
One Reno woman moved here from another state and lacks a Nevada ID. Her supporting documents were lost to theft and she’s had difficulty just getting a copy of her birth certificate, saying it was “hard as heck” and she has to “jump through hoops.” She’s indigent and reports having both physical and mental disabilities, and relies on public transportation to get around.
A 2014 voter registered as a nonpartisan is currently jobless, homeless, and relies on public transit that he can barely afford. His birth certificate and social security card were stolen, a common occurrence when experiencing homelessness. The only ID he has is a Clarity Card issued by Catholic Charities, which doesn’t meet the requirements of this bill.
Another voter lives in a rural county, 90 miles away from the only DMV office in her county. Everybody in her local community knows her upon sight, but she doesn’t have the requisite ID prescribed by the legislation being proposed to allow her to vote. She doesn’t drive. She doesn’t own a car. She doesn’t have a valid driver’s license (why would she?). Now add to that, that there is no available public transportation she could utilize to make the hour and a half trip to the DMV to get the ID, nor to make the hour and a half trip back to her home.
Yet another man lives in a rural county in a group facility for those with disabilities. He’s a Vietnam War veteran and Agent Orange snuck up him some time ago. He’s been voting by mail-in ballot for some time now. Like the lady in the last example, it’s 90 miles to the nearest DMV facility. He no longer drives and he also doesn’t have a car or a valid Driver’s license. There’s no public transportation, and even if there was, just the 3-hour round trip would be exceptionally stressful given his current health conditions. To be able to vote in future elections, he would not only need to make the trip to the DMV but to the Registrar of Voters office as well to present his ID for the record.
In each of these cases, an undue burden is placed on each person who should clearly be qualified to vote. Please contact your Assembly member and make it clear that, as their constituent, you oppose passage of Voter ID bills SB 169, AB 253, and AB266. You can also use the “Opinions” app at the 2015 NV Legislative Session page to read the bills and comments from others as well as to leave your comments about each bill: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Opinions/78th2015/A/
The first hearing on one of legislative Republicans’ Voter ID bills just started in the Assembly Legislative Operations and Elections Committee. This bill is the latest attempt by Republicans to make it harder for you to vote. Across the country, Republicans are engaged in a systematic effort to put as many roadblocks to voting as possible. The Koch Brothers and their Republican puppets now know that if they are going to win the White House and keep Republicans in power in Congress and the Nevada legislature, they need to ensure as few people vote as possible.
If you care about protecting YOUR right to vote, contact the members of the Assembly Legislative Operations and Elections Committee right now and tell them to oppose AB266:
Republicans in the legislature are determined to make it as hard as possible for minorities, seniors, and military families to vote. Email them today and tell them you want them focused on improving education and creating jobs, not taking away our right to vote.
The Latest Ploy in The Ongoing Attack on Women’s Health
GOP breaks out their favorite Poison Pill … Again!
Women’s access to basic health care continues to be under attack at both the state and federal level. The most recent threat came this week when Republican lawmakers in the Senate snuck anti-choice provisions into a bipartisan bill aimed at helping victims of human trafficking. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 (S. 178), which would establish a fund for victims of human trafficking, wasn’t supposed to be controversial. In fact, it enjoyed wide bipartisan support until Senate Democrats discovered that Republicans added language that would restrict federal funding for abortion–even forcing underage victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term. Democrats have now vowed to hold the entire bill until the anti-choice language is removed.
While Democrats have been able to prevent anti-choice language from creeping into federal law thus far, these state-based corrosive efforts are working. A ThinkProgress investigation found that the maze of state abortion restrictions, usually framed as legal regulations, is driving the price of abortion services up so high that lower-income women are effectively priced out of the market. The attack on women’s healthcare has gone so far that a Texas Republican legislator has protested her colleagues’ proposal to cut funding for cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics, saying that without that “provider network, women cannot be served. And they will die.”
As an aside: Senator Heller has submitted an amendment (S.Amdt 283) to this bill, however, the text of his amendment has not yet been posted to Congress.gov.
The Fight For Equal Rights For LGBT Americans Does Not End At Marriage
We’ve been talking a lot about a certain Supreme Court case over the past month, with the Affordable Care Act under attack for a second time. Next up, the Supreme Court will hear another important case in April on whether to legalize marriage for committed same-sex couples throughout the country. While proponents of equality are hopeful for a historic decision to finally ensure marriage equality nationwide, regardless of the outcome, the fight for LGBT equal rights will not end in June. One aspect of that fight is securing basic non-discrimination protections for the LGBT community.
While the fundamental right to marry the one you love has been extended to Americans in over thirty states, we still have a ways to go in enacting meaningful anti-discrimination laws across the country. As the graphic below demonstrates, LGBT Americans are still vulnerable to discrimination in many other ways. And click here to learn more about all the protections that LGBT Americans don’t have.
BOTTOM LINE: While the Supreme Court may soon rightly decide that marriage equality is constitutional, the fight for fairness and full equality will not be over this summer. Congress and the States need to act to ensure equal protections for LGBT Americans.
— by Senator Aaron D Ford, Senate Democratic Leader and Marilyn Kirkpatrick, Assembly Democratic Leader
As Nevada Democrats, we share a core belief: Every Nevadan deserves a fair shot at the American Dream. That starts with a quality education, and it includes access to good jobs that can support a family, a safe community in which to live, and a secure retirement. Achieving the dream is not a guarantee – it requires personal accountability and hard work – but it also should not be impossible.
Nevadans have a natural instinct for hard work and ingenuity. In the 2015 Legislative Session, Democrats’ focus is on creating opportunities that lay the necessary foundation for Nevadans to improve their personal economic security.
We must ensure that those who work hard and play by the rules are rewarded for it – whether that means having access to affordable higher education, or the ability to buy a home, raise a family, and retire with peace of mind. We must also ensure that the middle-class families who suffered most during the Great Recession will not be punished again as we transition into a 21st-Century Nevada.
Democrats are at the table ready to work and look forward to honest conversations, fair hearings, and debates on our ideas to address the needs of all Nevadans. If we come together now to put middle-class families first, then our future is undeniably bright. To that end, we offer our Nevada Blueprint – an agenda outlining our principles and legislative goals that will help every Nevadan reach their own American Dream – from childhood to retirement. We hope you’ll join us in working to achieve these goals on behalf of all Nevadans.
A Department of Justice probe into the now-notorious Ferguson Police Department confirmed Wednesday what residents of this majority-black city in Missouri have long charged: racism is endemic throughout the local “justice” system—manifesting in everything from traffic stops to predatory court fines to physical attacks.
Now, the activists whose sustained protests put Ferguson in the global spotlight are responding to the revelations with observations of their own. They say the abuses documented in the DOJ’s 102-page review are not new information to municipal residents; they are not unique to Ferguson; and, ultimately, they constitute a call-to-action.
“What the DOJ has memorialized on paper, we will memorialize in action,” said Tory Russell, cofounder of Hands Up United, which was formed shortly after the August fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
Ferguson is just a symptom of an international problem, one that is fueled by social, economic, and racial inequality, by a lack of access to education, resources, employment, and one that wont go away until we take an introspective look at ourselves as a nation and as a global community facing daily flashpoints between the privileged and the repressed.
“Ferguson is a microcosm of how marginalized communities interact with the state, but also a spark that inevitably stokes that flames of justice in the hearts and minds of people of all creeds peppered throughout this country.” —Tory Russell, Hands Up United
The DOJ, is an organ in these systems of inequality. The same CS gas that police used to disperse our assemblies in Ferguson, is the same CS gas, manufactured here in the US with support from US taxpayers, that is used to disperse assemblies in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For those of us on the receiving end of this gas our struggles are intertwined.
Moreover, our socio-economic systems appear to thrive in (or at the very least, understand) the chaos of flashpoints between the haves and have-nots. What is harder, for everyone to understand to and address, is how to challenge the predicate series of systemic injustices that fuel and fertilize these flashpoints.
Ferguson is a microcosm of how marginalized communities interact with the state, but also a spark that inevitably stokes that flames of justice in the hearts and minds of people of all creeds peppered throughout this country.
Additionally included in the press statement were remarks by Tef Poe, also a cofounder of Hands Up United, who said:
While we should not diminish the significance of the DOJ’s findings, and the prospect of subsequent attempts to reform policing in Ferguson and St. Louis, we also need to remain cognizant to the fact that Ferguson is but a microcosm of repressive and violent community-police interactions nation-wide.
Today the DOJ’s report has validated that traffic stops in Ferguson disproportionately target people of color and Ferguson courts have become sources of revenue – straying away from their purpose of protecting our communities. We who live this, every day, having been slapped with exhaustive series of tickets, or bench warrants, for our minor infractions, or due to simple mistakes, already knew this.
“This is not news for those of us who have felt a baton in our back or a boot on our neck— moreover, the incidents Ferguson Police choose not to document are perhaps the most frightening and hardest for us to forget.” —Tef Poe, Hands Up United
In incident reports filed by Ferguson Police, detailed in the DOJ report, nearly all of the situations wherein police used force were against people of color. This is not news for those of us who have felt a baton in our back or a boot on our neck— moreover, the incidents Ferguson Police choose not to document are perhaps the most frightening and hardest for us to forget.
To see what we have been saying and living for decades validated by the Department of Justice is not insignificant, but these problems are like a cancer—whether the symptoms spread through a body or a whole community, they cannot be addressed piecemeal. To isolate and exemplify Ferguson, is to infatuate over the finger while the organs of our State and the soul of our Country continue to metastasize.
To begin to address this cancer we must first begin by viewing it as such. This cancer is one that saturates everything—like smoke lingering on your clothes after a night out—and it is not reserved for a specific demographic. This smoke lingers on our clothes inasmuch as it lingers on Darren Wilson’s blood stained uniform —the only difference is that we’re ready to change that. ”
Organizers with Millennial Activists United, a youth-led, grassroots coalition in the St. Louis area, put it succinctly:
The DOJ’s release of the report, which coincided with its announcement that it will not prosecute Wilson for shooting Brown, prompted protests on Wednesday against racial disparities. Numerous eye witnesses say that police arrested those who gathered to demonstrate, sparking renewed outrage among local organizers, including the network Ferguson Action:
Raven Rakia pointed out in The Nation on Thursday that police practices in Ferguson, and local resistance, have nation-wide implications.
“The flames of Ferguson following Michael Brown’s death captured the country’s attention, and brought the Justice Department to town,” wrote Rakia. “But what of all the other small and big cities across the United States engaging in the same practices? If we are to look towards Ferguson as a lesson, changes may come only following a sustained grassroots movement from those directly affected.”
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
How We Can Eliminate Barriers to Economic Security and Mobility for People with Criminal Records
— By Rebecca Vallas and Sharon Dietrich
Between 70 million and 100 million Americans—or as many as one in three—have a criminal record. Many have only minor offenses, such as misdemeanors and non-serious infractions; others have only arrests without conviction. Nonetheless, because of the rise of technology and the ease of accessing data via the Internet—in conjunction with federal and state policy decisions—having even a minor criminal history now carries lifelong barriers that can block successful re-entry and participation in society. This has broad implications—not only for the millions of individuals who are prevented from moving on with their lives and becoming productive citizens but also for their families, communities, and the national economy.
Today, a criminal record serves as both a direct cause and consequence of poverty. It is a cause because having a criminal record can present obstacles to employment, housing, public assistance, education, family reunification, and more; convictions can result in monetary debts as well. It is a consequence due to the growing criminalization of poverty and homelessness …
Shortly before Michael Brown’s fateful encounter with Ferguson cop Darren Wilson, I was appointed as a teaching assistant in a class on race and ethnicity.
I’m white. I didn’t go to grad school to study race — I study agriculture. When it comes to race, I’m clueless.
I wish I could say that I was clueless — that I’ve since obtained a whirlwind education on race in the United States. But that’s not true. If anything, I’ve gained a deeper appreciation of my blind spots.
I probably boast a more diverse group of friends than many of the folks I grew up with. But like the majority of white people, my social networks are still almost entirely white.
I could tell you the names of every single black kid in my grade in my childhood elementary school because there weren’t that many. At the time, I thought they were having the same social and educational experience that I was.
The Prejudicial System, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib
The Prejudicial System, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib
I was wrong.
I recently reconnected with an African-American guy from my fourth grade class. Our teacher, he told me, was racist. “What?” I responded.
I mean, I was there. But I remember nothing. It was something I didn’t even think about as a kid.
What I do know is this: Whenever I had a run-in with a teacher — or anyone else for that matter — I never had to wonder if they treated me that way because I was white. Not so for my black classmates.
I’ve never had acquaintances come up and touch my hair as if they’re petting a dog. I’ve never had someone say something like, “You’re so cool, I don’t even consider you white!” or “You’re pretty, for a white girl.”
People of color hear statements like these all the time.
When I screw up, I don’t have to worry that I’m representing all white people and ruining things for all of us. When I get pulled over by a cop, I never wonder if it’s because I’m white.
And, what’s more, I never even have to think about this stuff. I can even claim I’m “colorblind” because we live in a “post-racial” America.
As an adult, I’m frequently shocked by how different my black friends’ experience of America is from mine. One friend told me that when she dresses in the morning, she consciously attempts to look “non-threatening” to white people.
Other friends worry about the safety of their teenage sons.
What do you do when your 13-year-old is six feet tall, and you see the police looking at him as if he might be up to something? How do you explain to your rambunctious, innocent nine-year-old that he can’t wear the hoods on his hoodies, just in case?
It’s hard to buy into the “post-racial” lie when you fear that a not-so-colorblind cop might shoot your kid.
Being white doesn’t give me a free pass in life. As a white person with a medical disability that impacts every day of my life, I struggle plenty. But my experience — any white person’s experience — of America doesn’t match what people of color experience.
If this makes you uneasy, there are a few small steps you can take to promote change.
First, admit your ignorance and withhold judgment. White folks don’t know what black folks are going through. How on earth can we judge the outpouring of anger in Ferguson right now?
True, burning down a strip mall won’t help anything. But with a legal system deeply biased against African Americans, white Americans need to understand that this anger comes from an entirely valid place — one that most whites simply don’t understand on their own.
Second, reach out. Make friends. Get to know someone who doesn’t look like you.
In fact, get to know many people who don’t look like you. Because the first step toward bridging the gap between the races in America is forging friendships.
OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. OtherWords.org
Our immigration system has been broken for decades. And every day we wait to act, millions of undocumented immigrants are living in the shadows: Those who want to pay taxes and play by the same rules as everyone else have no way to live right by the law. That is why President Obama is using his executive authority to address as much of the problem as he can, and why he’ll continue to work with Congress to pass comprehensive reform.
Read More:
The first hearing on one of legislative Republicans’ Voter ID bills just started in the Assembly Legislative Operations and Elections Committee. This bill is the latest attempt by Republicans to make it harder for you to vote. Across the country, Republicans are engaged in a systematic effort to put as many roadblocks to voting as possible. The Koch Brothers and their Republican puppets now know that if they are going to win the White House and keep Republicans in power in Congress and the Nevada legislature, they need to ensure as few people vote as possible.
Humboldt County Democrats 