Posts Categorized: Civic Engagement
Alabama Works to Get Voters to the Polls
They organized a trick-or-vote dorm storm, a political action fair, and a phone bank to remind students about voting.
El Paso Registers Over 700 Voters in One Day!
They continued to register until the Texas deadline and racked up a grand total of 1200 registrations.
REPORT: URGE Organizers Contribute to “Youth Wave” in 2018 Midterms
Download this new report from URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity: “The Young People’s Election: Casting Votes. Building Power. As the dust settles on the 2018 midterm elections, there’s no question that young people had an impact. One-third (31%) of young people (18-29) turned out to vote in the 2018 midterm election, up from 21% in 2014, representing the highest level of participation among youth in the past quarter-century. In a year of narrow margins, young people (18-29) tipped the scales and used their voices and votes to build power and address the issues that matter most to them. The 2018 midterm election victory belongs to the organizers- to the young people and people of color who, through grit, gumption, and guts, registered and turned out young and new voters… Read more »
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) (created in 2012) grants two-year protection from deportation to undocumented young people who were brought to the US as children and allows them to apply for a work permit. The program was rescinded in September 2017 by President Trump.
Keeping All Families Together Is An RJ Issue
The recent and mainstream reproductive rights conversation in the United States has been narrowly limited to the discussion of reproductive “choice” and abortion access. However, the media and legislative attention on the topic of abortion fail to convey all the issues encompassed by reproductive justice. While abortion and “choice” are extremely important topics for individuals with the ability to become pregnant, only looking at abortion access restricts conversation about another significant aspect of reproductive justice: the right to family life. The right to family life, which can be loosely defined as the right of an individual to have and keep a family, is included across various pieces of international law, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you can’t have your family recognized, have or parent your children,… Read more »
Reflecting on the 2018 Texas Election Results as Queer Latina Canvasser
Election results came around the same time that 5,200 U.S. military troops were deployed along the border of my home, the Rio Grande Valley. The Rio Grande Valley is the southernmost tip of Texas along the U.S./Mexico border. The area, aka the RGV, is the poorest area of the country with a Latinx population of over 90% and a poverty rate at over 68%. One in three people are food insecure and one in two children are food insecure. This deployment is costing us $220 million dollars. I know for a fact that, instead of creating unnecessary hysteria by deploying over 5,000 troops into my home, this money could have been used to help my community. This militarization is going to hurt the RGV a lot. This will make the… Read more »
Alabama Amendment 2 and Other Trigger Bans: A Poem
They’re coming They’ll say they don’t want to control our bodies They just want to protect the innocent The pure, the precious, the untouched, unborn The hardworking, the virtuous, the God-fearing men They’re here, If they’re “woke” they’ll preach protection But he calls my “protection” “abortion-inducing pills” He who lays the law of the land, the law of my body Spits out the words like they are venom Calling our trauma “a joke, a farce” Commanding a gold star commendation From our ever faithful commander-in-chief But how did it come to this? They’ve always been this way, Preaching “abstain” From such a young age, Don’t distract him! His natural male urges Are pushing too hard against his zipper of self control “He doesn’t know any better, You know boys will… Read more »
Freedom and Power – A Scary Combination
In honor of Halloween, I want to dive into a particular idea presented in Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I started watching the show expecting it to use the idea of witches and using magic as some sort of metaphor for feminism while also vilifying people of color (spoiler alert: I was half right). But I want to address another aspect of the show that focuses on the price of magic, or the price of having power when you live in a patriarchal society. Just to recap part of the plot of the show, Sabrina must decide on her sixteenth birthday to give up her human life and join the witches or give up her magic and stay with her human friends. It’s a big choice, and even though her whole family… Read more »
Call (Out) Your Senators
When Elizabeth Warren released a statement on her recent DNA test to confirm her Native American heritage, it took me back to elementary school, middle school, high school, really even today, to all the times white people would claim similar heritage: “I’m 5% French, 60% Scottish, 12% Native American, blah, blah, blah…” Even as a young person with no clear understanding of heritage and culture, it always bothered me to hear these long, meaningless percentages. Growing up as a brown person, I’ve always been brown. And they, no matter how many percentages they’ve got up their sleeves, have always been white. Let’s forget about how this is a simple tactic to show that Senator Warren can stand up to Trump, as anyone with an even passing familiarity with American media… Read more »
Kava-nope.
The appointment of Kavanaugh is an injustice. He is not a man of the people. He is a major enemy of LGBTQ folks, women, workers, immigrants, all people of color, and the environment. This man wants to eradicate me. He hates everything that I am: a strong, queer, Latinx woman. I oppose him because he opposes me and everyone I know and love. Kavanaugh and the Trump administration are going to do everything they can to make life hell for all of these marginalized groups. We are living in a time where an Anti-Choice, women-hating, sexual predator is allowed to be appointed to the Supreme Court, despite strong public opinion against it. This is the time for us all to unite because we have the creativity, strength, and compassion to… Read more »