Joan Graff: Facebook: Sleeping better now
I applaud the decision of the Facebook Oversight Board which is a Facebook
Appointed Board of journalists, activists and lawyers who voted to continue
the social network’s ban on Trump’s use of Facebook for the next six
months.
The ban was enacted after the January 6th insurrection in Washington.
The Oversight group stated that “the then President created an environment
Where a serious risk of violence was possible.” I watched in horror as that
Serious risk egged on by Trump’s remarks encouraged the crowd to become
A mob and invade the Congressional building while our representatives
Scurried to safety and hid for their lives.
The 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech
Not incitement to riot.
The executives at Facebook were given six months by their Oversight
Board to define a specific time period to make a final decision on Mr. Trump’s account status.
I can sleep better at night at least for the next six months!
Joan Graff
Boulder
Lila Rosenthal: Immigrants: Essential to our community
Immigrants have played a critical role throughout the pandemic in our community, putting their lives on the line in essential roles that keep our children and families healthy, and keep our child care, health care system, long term care, food supply chain, and our economy running. They do all this while living in fear of deportation. The toxic stress that this creates hurts entire communities.
With mothers stepping out of the labor force at a higher rate than fathers to homeschool their kids, it’s clear that to support their return to the workforce we must invest in child care, elder care, and the whole care infrastructure. Providing immigrant essential workers, Dreamers, and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders a pathway to citizenship in the upcoming economic recovery package is an important step toward rebuilding our nation’s economy and, especially, our care infrastructure. This improved care infrastructure will create good jobs, boost economic recovery, and provide security for millions of American families and caregivers.
FACT: Nearly 23 million immigrants have been putting their lives on the line in essential roles. They often work in high-risk environments like meat-packing plants that saw alarmingly high rates of death early in the pandemic.
FACT: Since the start of the pandemic, the decline in mothers’ labor force participation has been nearly double that of fathers’ and one out of four women who reported becoming unemployed during the pandemic said it was because of a lack of child care.
FACT: The U.S. child care industry has long relied on Black, Asian, and Latina women, including immigrants, with women of color making up 40% of its workforce. We need to step up for the people who care for our kids!
Immigrants are essential to our community, our families, and our economy. Now is the time for us to unite across our differences and pass policies that help every-day people and our communities. Please contact your elected officials in Washington, DC and ask them to champion legislation that provides a pathway to citizenship for our immigrant neighbors. You can use this link to get started: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
Thank you.
Lila Rosenthal
Boulder
Marleen A. Kurschner: Billboards: Inspired by courage
I appreciate the April 15, 2021 edition of the “Daily Camera’s” front page photo and article regarding the two billboards in our community supporting gun violence prevention. Lindasue Smollen’s determination and courage will hopefully inspire many other residents of Boulder to take some very necessary ACTION to change America’s apathy regarding gun violence and to save lives. As the billboards rightly proclaim: “Thoughts and Prayers Are Not Enough.”
Isn’t it time for all of us to stand up and say enough is enough to all these senseless shootings of innocent children, men and women that have taken place in our backyard and throughout our country?
Marleen A. Kurschner
Boulder
Grace Christian: Gun control: Look to Australia
As we mourn the murders at King Soopers, we want somehow to have gun control. It is possible. Australia, culturally like ours, enacted gun-control and it worked. In ’96/’97, after a gunman killed 35, wounded 28 with a semi automatic rifle, Australia collected/destroyed roughly 650,000 privately held guns, through a mandatory gun buyback.
This was orchestrated by conservative PM Howard, head of a center-right coalition. He understood that too many guns too easily obtained were the problem. He persuaded his coalition and Australia’s states to agree to sweeping, nationwide reforms that sharply restricted legal ownership. A registry of all guns owned and required a permit for all new firearm purchases was set up. Weapons such as automatic and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns were banned.. For currently owned, they introduced a mandatory buyback: Australia’s states would take away all now illegal weapons and pay the owners a fair price, as compensation. About 650,000 legally owned guns were peacefully seized and destroyed. A Harvard study concluded the program was “incredibly successful in lives saved”: murder (declined by 42%) and suicide (declined 57%). Buying back 3,500 guns correlated with a 74 percent drop in firearm suicides. Non-gun suicides didn’t increase. In the 18 years before the buyback Australia had 13 mass shootings. Since then: ZERO.
Electing politicians beholden to neither the NRA nor the arms industry might let our country/states enact serious legislation like Australia’s. But the grip of both, and especially the military-industrial complex that so alarmed Pres. Eisenhower(R) will continue. Ergo, deep reform of campaign financing is, it turns out, the solution to a serious response to gun violence. The voter suppression legislation currently authorized by the Supreme Court and being legislated in Republican states right now, is the sure to continue status quo. Suppression must be stopped if gun violence is to be seriously addressed.
Grace Christian
Boulder