Senators Susan Collins – Mitt Romney – Lisa Murkowski – Lamar Alexander
The truth matters. That’s why it’s important that the U.S. Senate trial include space for witnesses and new evidence. Please call the following seven Republican Senators. Urge them to vote that new witnesses be allowed to testify at President Trump’s impeachment trial. Those Senators are: Romney, Murkowski, Collins, McSally, Alexander, Gardner and Capito. (Leaving a message on all their phones took me less than 10 minutes.)
The vote on allowing witnesses and allowing new evidence to be heard at the trial could happen this week. Recent polling (by SurveyUSA) documented that 71% of Republicans, 81% of Independents and 93% of Democrats agreed that Mitch McConnell should call new witnesses during the trial. Click HERE for more information.
Even if you aren’t a resident of their state, please call the following Senators and say:
Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network is a statewide network of 3,000 people that includes activists from many faith and humanistic perspectives. The “Free and responsible search for truth and meaning” is one of Unitarian Universalists’ seven principles. Click HERE
The Michigan UU Social Justice Network (MUUSJN) joined many peace, justice and faith organizations, to urge the U.S. House of Representatives to adopt a War Powers Resolution to reign in #45’s ability to declare war on Iran. The House voted 224-194 on January 9th to adopt this Resolution. Now the Resolution (Senate Joint Resolution 63) goes to the Senate. It directs the President to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran no later than 30 days after the Resolution is enacted absent a declaration of war by Congress.
Even though there has been some recent de-escalation of tensions, the President’s continued economic pressure and his reckless use of our Country’s military force, could set off a war between the U.S. and Iran. The U.S. Constitution states that only Congress has the power to declare and authorize war. The U.S. Senate now must step up to its responsibility to adopt a War Powers Resolution. We need thoughtful diplomacy to prevent war in the middle east.
Thank you for taking action. The Michigan UU Social Justice Network has congregations in 26 Michigan communities and works with many coalitions. Let’s continue to raise our voices for justice!
The Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network (MUUSJN) joins a chorus of peace, justice and faith organizations calling for protest of President Trump’s assassination of a top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Qassim Suleimani. This is an act of war with a country that #45 has been provoking since he withdrew from the Iranian nuclear arms reduction treaty.
Call your U.S. Representative. A vote in the U.S. House is expected on January 9th on a resolution that would require President Trump to get approval from Congress (an Authorization of the Use of Military Force) before declaring war on Iran.
Tell your U.S. Representative:
a. I want my Representative ______________ to vote for a resolution requiring approval of Congress before launching a war with Iran. According to our Constitution, only Congress can declare war.
b. Speak against President Trump’s assassination of Iran’s top military commander.
c. Do everything possible to stop a war with Iran.
d. What are you planning to say about this situation to your colleagues or to the Administration?
Thursday, Jan. 9, 11:00 AM
Islamic House of Wisdom,
22575 Ann Arbor Trail, Dearborn Heights
Nationwide, hundreds of demonstrations are being held, including at least eight in Michigan. They are being co-sponsored by Win Without War, MoveOn, Indivisible, Vets About Face, National Iranian American Council and others:
Click HERE for more information on demonstrations, go to a No War With Iran website.
Thank you for taking action. The Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Network has congregations in 26 Michigan cities. Let’s flex our progressive power for justice.
On December 23rd, Michigan Right to Life (RTL) submitted 379,418 signatures on petitions to the Michigan Secretary of State to criminalize dilation and extraction, the most safe, commonly used method of abortion in Michigan. The petition is intended by anti-choice activists to go to the Michigan legislature and avoid a certain veto by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Under Michigan law, this petition drive must get 340,047 valid signatures to go to the Michigan legislature.
Here are four reasons this petition is just WRONG for Michigan women and Michigan families:
If the proposal is adopted by state legislators, the MI ACLU has said it will challenge it in court.
The Michigan Bureau of Elections has several weeks to review the signatures to determine their validity. Planned Parenthood of Michigan is looking for volunteers to help check and challenge RTL abortion ban signatures. This work involves “high level, data and detail driven volunteers who will be willing to be part of a rapid response team that will be tasked with going to Lansing, on short notice, over the course of several days in January to do the important work of checking signatures and petition sheets turned in by Right to Life”.
Volunteer Requirements:
Tell Trump’s Health & Human Services what you think about a rule that would allow federally funded contractors to turn away people in need because of their religion,their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Need a home delivered meal and you are gay? Sorry about that!
Need to enroll in Headstart and you are a gay couple? Sorry about that!
Need to buy birth control pills and you are a single mother? Sorry about that!
Are you Jewish and need a subsidized apartment? Sorry about that!
The Trump administration has issued an alarming proposal that would give power to taxpayer funded programs through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to undermine human rights of women, people from LGBTQ communities and people from minority faiths. The new proposal would roll back protections that prohibit discrimination in HHS grant-funded programs based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.
This new proposal comes as part of the Trump administration’s concerted effort to empower people who discriminate in the name of religion throughout the federal government. In HHS alone, there have been proposals to strip anti-discrimination protections in healthcare and to allow hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices to refuse care based on the provider’s religious beliefs. The administration is also seeking to allow discrimination in housing, in workplaces with federal contracts, on college campuses, and against immigrants who have disabilities.
But we can and we must fight back. The government is accepting public comments on the proposed rule until December 19. Click HERE to submit your own comment using the ACLU template, Explain in your own words why you oppose this discriminatory new rule.
In January 2018, MUUSJN and other advocates urged the public to submit comments on a rule that would “protect conscience” in health care services. This rule would have allowed the religious right to exercise their objections to providing health care services e.g., abortions and birth control to women, while taking away the freedom of women and other people of faith. The final rule was adopted in May 2019, almost 17 months later. However, in November 2019 — before this rule became effective — a federal court vacated the rule so that it’s not being put into effect. While this case could come back to the courts, it show that giving comments paid off. It delayed implementation until courts could challenge a rule that clearly violated women’s rights.
Prescription drug companies charge Americans three, four or even 10 times what they charge people in other countries for the same drugs. These companies subject Americans to unjustified drug price hikes that are far above the rate of inflation.
The soaring cost of insulin is an example of out of control prescription drug prices that are crying for a solution. More than 100 million people are diabetic or pre-diabetic. Diabetes is reportedly the highest cost disease in the U.S., more than $300 billion per year. Insulin was invented almost 100 years ago in 1922. Yet, between 2012 and 2016 insulin costs have nearly doubled ($2,864 to $5,075) according to the Health Care Cost Institute.
Seniors and families are struggling to buy prescriptions they need to stay healthy. Three in 10 adults reported not taking their medicines as prescribed during the last year due to the cost.
The big pharmaceutical companies are raising prices on prescriptions not so they can do more research and development to find new cures and treatments, but to pad their profits. According to analysis done by the Washington Post, nine of the 10 big pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing, sales and overhead than on research.
Rep. Frank Pallone and 106 other U.S. Representatives co-sponsored H.R. 3. This includes four Michigan Congresspersons: Rep. Dan Kildee, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Rep. Haley Stevens and Rep Debbie Dingell. This bill has the support of House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
The proposed bill would:
The fate of this bill is uncertain in the Senate, where Senators have introduced their own drug price reduction bill that was co-sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden (D- Oregon) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). It’s been passed out of the Senate Finance Committee and President Trump has said he’ll sign it. However, it is being blocked by Senate Mitch McConnell. What’s new? Right now MUUSJN wants to make sure a drug price reduction bill gets adopted in the House. So we’re asking you to call your U.S. Representative.
Boycott buying things for 24 hours from 7 p.m. EST on November 28th to 6:59 p.m. on November 29th (EST). Students, workers and adults everywhere, walk away from a system that is destroying the planet.
Participate in one of the 5 climate strikes in Michigan (Traverse City, Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids and Allendale.)
“We young people can contribute to a larger fight and that can make a huge difference. But we can’t do this without you and everyone you know.”
Climate strikes, rallies, protests, grassroots action and current events in the U.S. and around the globe are being organized by Fridays for Earth, Youth Climate Strike, U.S. Climate Strike, the Sunrise Movement and other organizations. If you would like to organize a climate strike in your community or to see if someone else has organized one, go to: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/climatestrike
One of UU principles calls for the protection of our environment: “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
For more information on UU environmental perspectives and resources go tothe UU Ministry for Earth: uumfe.org
MFE created a new web platform called Create Climate Justice Net that includes opportunities to join specialized groups, get resources for action and exchange ideas with other activists. Go to: createclimatejustice.net
2019 was another tough year under the current right wing political leadership.We faced threats of cuts in domestic programs, attacks on women’s and LGBTQ rights, cruelty toward immigrants and people of color and indifference toward our environment and poor people.
THE GOOD NEWS: In partnerships with progressive allies, MUUSJN sent over 40 action alerts to our statewide network of almost 3,000 people to call elected officials, to educate and protest. We won several battles!
We are grateful to continue to be a partner with the Economic Justice Alliance of Michigan (EJAM), an organization started by African American women. It’s funding has supported all of our justice priorities and it has provide a coalition for collective action.
Take a look at our ACCOMPLISHMENTS in 2019! You and your congregation are invited to renew or become a new member of MUUSJN. Donations now are tax deductible and count for a membership in 2020.
Tell your Representative to call for a hearing on HB 5139 in the Government Operations Committee to Expand Ethnic Intimidation Law to Protect LGBTQ People
On October 23rd, State Representative Tim Sneller introduced HB 5139, a bill to provide protections against ethnic intimidation to persons based on their gender identity and their sexual orientation. On October 29th, MUUSJN’s Interfaith Reproductive Justice Coalition voted unanimously to issue this alert to call for hearings on HB 5139. Ethnic intimidation involves maliciously seeking to: intimidate or harass another person; physically contact a person; ordamage their property.
Right now Michigan’s Ethnic Intimidation law protects people based on their: race, color, religion, gender or national origin. According to an April 2019 study from the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, “The impact of Stigma and Discrimination against LGBT People in Michigan”,”Michigan’s legal landscape and social climate put the state’s 311,000 LGBT adults and its 61,000 LGBT youth at risk of discrimination and harassment”. Click HERE for more information.
According to “A Statewide Study of LGBTQ Attitudes and Experiences: Challenges and Concerns” (Morrison and McComack, 2012), 55% of LGBT and LGBT allied Michigan residents reported experiencing some form of discrimination based on their sexual orientation. A 2017 GLSEN National School Climate Survey (2017) documented that 72% of Michigan middle and high school students said they had experienced verbal harassment based on their sexual orientation at school.
Not only is discrimination a significant problem that affects the well-being of LGBTQ communities, but majorities of the American public across all both political and geographic lines support laws that protect LGBT people. See report (Daniel Greenberg, Et al, 3/12/19) “Americans Show Broad Support for LGBT Nondiscrimination Protections”. Nearly 7 of 10 (69%) of all Americans favor laws that would protect LGBT people from discrimination in the job market, public accommodations and housing. Click HERE for study. More than three-quarters of younger Americans (18-29) favor such laws. Self identified moderate Republicans (69%) and 53% of self-identified conservative Republicans favor non-discrimination protections for LGBT people. Solid majorities of all major religious groups in the U.S. favor state laws that protect LGBT people from discrimination in housing, public accommodations and the work place.
So the majority of people Michigan’s LGBTQ community reported experiencing discrimination based on their sexual orientation. And a majority of the American public, including Democrats and Republicans and including all major religious groups, report that they support state laws that will protect LGBT people from discrimination. Supporting HB 5139 is an important step toward addressing this problem that should be taken seriously. This bill was sent to the House Government Operations Committee. It needs to be discussed and acted upon.
With an anti-choice majority on the Supreme Court, our reproductive rights are under a clear and direct threat. Passing the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) will protect abortion rights from many state restrictions and bans.
The WHPA (HR 2975) introduced by Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) now has 213 co-sponsors. Your support can move the more friendly U.S. House to take action on this bill. This bill can pass the House. A sister bill in the Senate (S. 1645) already has 42 co-sponsors.
This important legislation would protect abortion access from:
The public may not realize that the majority (73%) of American voters do not want Roe v. Wade overturned. Two thirds (67%) think abortion should be legal in “all” or “most” cases. It’s also a misunderstanding that the majority of religious people oppose abortion. According a study from the Pew Research Center that more than 50% of people from the following religious groups say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases: Unitarian Universalist; Jewish; Buddhist; Episcopal; United Church of Christ; Hindu; Presbyterian; Evangelical Lutheran Church of America; African Methodist Episcopal Church; National Baptist Convention; Anglican Church; Muslim; and Orthodox Christian. Among Catholics, slightly more (48%) felt abortions should be legal vs. 47% illegal.
The WHPA is currently in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill was introduced in May. Now the House needs to hold hearings on this bill!
CALL Your U.S. Rep. and members of the House Energy Committee. TELL THEM:
