Members of the community should sign the petition to protect our library because it is a vital resource that promotes education, fosters a sense of community, and enhances the quality of life for everyone. Signing the petition sends a strong message to the Village Board, urging them to prioritize the preservation of our library, its services, and the values it represents. Together, we can make a difference and ensure that future generations have access to a thriving library in our community.

Google boasts about supporting its LGBTQ+ employees, stating “authenticity should always be embraced.” Yet they were quick to cave to bigots who claimed that their optional Pride drag performance was “a direct affront to the religious beliefs and sensitivities of Christians.” If only a few hundred signatures could result in them canceling their sponsorship for a Pride event, what else might they be willing to roll back in an attempt to align themselves with anti-LGBTQ+ extremists? LGBTQ+ people and allies need to show up LOUDLY and STRONGLY in support of LGBTQ+ employees at Google and make it clear that we won’t allow Big Tech to cave to discrimination.

First, some of you have asked, why boycott Marriott after the fact. Because we need to send them a message that aligning with this radical hate group "has a cost" and also send a message to all other corporations that might align with or donate to Mom's for Liberty that there "will be a cost." Moms for Liberty is an organization that has been labeled an anti-government, anti-student inclusion and a radical group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The organization has ties with the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, sovereign citizen groups, QAnon conspiracies, Christian nationalists, and in one case, with the founder of the AK-47-worshiping Rod of Iron Ministries church in Pennsylvania. The organization quotes Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin in their materials. Marriott needs fumigate the Philadelphia Downtown Hotel because once you let "roaches" in, it's hard to get rid of them Marriott's diversity policy is nonsense! Marriott's LGBTQIA+ policy is total BS! Instead they chose: Profits over diversity! Money over morality! Cash over conscience! Send them a message that if they accept hate, they don't get our business. Some of you have also mentioned that in order to sign the petition, moveon.org requests your email so they can send you email blasts. This may be true, but unlike change.org, they don't sell your information and you can immediately unsubscribe as soon as you get the first email. Additionally some of you have indicated that you have a problem with moveon.org because they have supported "extremists." Please note that when you sign our petition you are not supporting moveon.org, you are supporting our petition. If you know of a better website to host our petition, we will gladly consider it. SIGN THIS PETITION AS YOUR "PLEDGE" THAT YOU WILL NOT VISIT OR STAY AT A MARRIOTT OR AFFILIATED PROPERTY (LISTED BELOW) UNTIL MARRIOTT DISAVOWS MOM'S FOR LIBERTY! STAND STRONG AGAINST HATE! Michael "Mike" Gottesman, Attorney (Retired) Founder, New Jersey Public Education Coalition www.njpecoalition.org www.facbook.com/groups/njpec [email protected] Twitter @njpecoalition TikTok @njpecoalition

Time and time again, the far-right majority of the Supreme Court puts special interests and politics ahead of people and above delivering justice under the law. But we will not be silenced. Millions have had to wait in economic limbo for nearly a year—we will not accept a return to the failed status quo. It’s up to President Biden and his administration to ensure we finally receive promised relief another way. Student debt fuels economic, gender, and racial inequality. Our persistent racial wealth gap means that students of color, especially those who are Black and brown, are more likely to have student debt, borrow in higher quantities, and face more struggles in repayment. A higher education should be the key to a better future, instead of a lifetime debt sentence that limits borrowers’ ability to buy homes, start small businesses, and save for retirement, cutting into opportunities for wealth-building over their lifetimes. This is why student loan cancellation is so important. Republicans and Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices cannot have the last word. We won’t let them win. We have to push back and be in solidarity with each other. Together, we can keep getting loud to show the Biden administration that we need them to use every single tool in their toolbox to give millions of Americans the relief they need.

In Illinois, pain patients are a very marginalized and stigmatized community. Pain medicine prescriptions continue to decrease, as doctors become afraid of legal reprisal, while we have a record number of overdose fatalities. Previously stable patients on long-term pain therapy have taken their lives or, in desperation, been forced to resort to the illicit market, which has caused even more overdoses. Illinois has one of the lowest prescribing rates in the US but the 14th highest number of deadly overdoses. Recent data reveals that not a single overdose fatality is attributable to prescription pain medicine. The state agencies are substituting their judgment for doctors and destroying the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship. Many people are unaware of the toll that restrictive state policies have taken on Illinoisans. Oncologists have decreased prescriptions by 50%. Children with terminal illnesses are denied pain relief. Veterans, who became injured serving our country, have lost access to their medicine—to such an extent that suicides increased by over 1/3. Millions of Illinoisans are one accident away from being a chronic pain patient, and even palliative care and hospice specialists are turning people away because they’re afraid of legal consequences. The American Pain & Disability Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that tries to protect the pain community. We have to fight with hospitals who won't give terminally ill children pain medicine, veterans who served us but are now in terrible pain from combat injuries, and more---but we can't protect doctors and patients as they need to be protected without legislation. The current policies are harming one of the most vulnerable communities in the state. You can visit our website for more information, at www.4APDF.org. Please support HB 2046 to protect pain patients and their healthcare providers—countless lives depend on it! Sign the petition to help get this bill passed now!

Moms for Liberty's national convention will bring hundreds of dangerous extremists to Philadelphia and feature right-wing politicians who are a threat to our democracy, including Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The Museum of the American Revolution should never have agreed to host the Moms for Liberty national convention welcome reception. Employees and patrons of the museum agree and have called on the museum to cancel, with over a third of staff signing an internal petition against hosting. The rest of the convention will take place at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown hotel. And unfortunately, this isn't Marriott's first go at enabling Moms for Liberty—they also hosted their convention last year in Tampa, Florida. Our freedom to learn—and to make decisions about what our students and children can learn—is being stripped away by concerted attacks from right-wing parents like Moms for Liberty and Republican legislators dead set on politicizing our schools. It’s no surprise that Moms for Liberty targets LGBTQ+ books and books about race and racial diversity. It's the right wing's latest tactic designed to eradicate conversations students have in the classroom around genocide, white supremacy, gender, and sexuality. The Museum of the American Revolution and Marriott must do the right thing and refuse to host Moms for Liberty.

“The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession’s history, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective: -service -social justice -dignity and worth of the person -importance of human relationships -integrity -competence.” (NASW) Social Work Core Competencies: Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice Competency 3: Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice Competency 4: Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities The links between human-animal violence have long been evidenced and recorded. The white supremacist patriarchal capitalist colonial machine objectifies and commodifies the living Earth through processes of social stratification, hierarchy, and psychological wages. Between factory farming, food deserts, social-economic inequities, health disparities, social determinants of health, environmental racism, colonial and patriarchal constructs of medicine, rape-culture, human-trafficking, drug-trafficking, wildlife-trafficking, global climate change, intimate partner violence, family violence, intergenerational abuses and traumas, urbanization, industrialization, housing injustices, genocide, displacement, and political-economic constructs of kyriarchal conglomerates of the Earth(ling) industrial complex, spawning from a culture of toxic masculinity, white supremacy, patriarchal, and imperialist senses of entitlement to the exploitation, abuse, domination, and possession of Earth(lings’) bodies, perpetuating cultures of exploitation and violence, the empirical evidence of the interconnectedness is irrefutable. The recognition of sentience and life in all beings is critical for fostering empathy and compassion for a harmonic and peaceful society and OTH animals deserve rights of their own. Several of our human clients’ main social support and sometimes only trusted social support, consists of their interspecies families. This ranges from the child who is bullied in school with little to no human friends, who cannot wait to go home to their canine family member, the cat being burned alive by the youth who feels helpless and enraged identifying with dad who is beating his mom while he is intoxicated as he learned it from his dad, and then that young person grows up to beat his partner, people experiencing poverty where there closest confidant and sometimes only confidante is their OTH companion or family member, the person who doesn’t attempt suicide and holds on, because of the love and connection they feel with their companion or family member, the examples are endless. The more-than-human world and re-connecting with our “roots” is essential for collective and individual healing, with more access to Our shared Nature as belonging to Earth, embracing values of connection, reciprocity, reverence, and compassion for all living beings. For more information on OTH animals in social work: https://socialwork.du.edu/humananimalconnection/about-institute-human-animal-connection https://www.routledge.com/Post-Anthropocentric-Social-Work-Critical-Posthuman-and-New-Materialist/Bozalek-Pease/p/book/9780367677855 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/janimalethics.7.1.0096 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10560-020-00697-x https://socialworksynergy.org/2014/12/03/social-work-beyond-human-rights/ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230306868 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137372291 For more information about the links between human-animal violence: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/animal-oppression-and-human-violence/9780231151887 https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742517769/Animal-Rights-Human-Rights-Entanglements-of-Oppression-and-Liberation https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-19201-2 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvxhrmr1 https://burningbooks.com/products/racism-as-zoological-witchcraft http://blackyouthproject.com/three-ways-black-veganism-challenges-white-supremacy-unlike-conventional-veganism/ https://www.routledge.com/Gender-Violence-in-Ecofeminist-Perspective-Intersections-of-Animal-Oppression/Hunnicutt/p/book/9780367776916 https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786606464/Critical-Animal-Studies-Towards-Trans-species-Social-Justice https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/the-link-between-animal-cruelty-and-human-violence#:~:text=Animal%20cruelty%20is%20a%20predictor,and%20sexual%20abuse%20of%20children. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246522/#:~:text=Often%2C%20companion%20animals%20can%20become,43%2C44%2C45%5D. https://nationallinkcoalition.org/what-is-the-link https://vetsocialwork.utk.edu/ https://www.fordham.edu/info/20361/gss_continuing

Starbucks workers will not be silenced. Just this weekend, Starbucks Workers United striked over Starbucks’ hypocritical treatment of LGBTQIA+ workers and their illegal union-busting campaign. 21 stores temporarily closed, including the flagship Reserve Roastery in Seattle. This is historic – there has never been a strike on queer and trans workers rights. Starbucks has built its business on claims of being a progressive company. Yet all too often, its actions don't live up to these proclaimed values. Reports and videos of managers refusing to allow rainbow flags are not the first attacks on the queer workers and customers who help drive their stories. Let's hold Starbucks accountable and make it clear that we're not buying their empty claims to be a good company.

A recent State Department report details significant human rights abuses that have occurred under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s near-decade in power, including cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, unjustified arrests, and the targeting of religious minorities, dissidents, and journalists. Despite these alarming trends, the United States continues to seek to strengthen its partnership with India — and the Modi government — to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars in U.S. “security” assistance and weapons deals. We can’t let President Biden ignore India's human rights record, and that’s why we need you to speak up for peace and justice TODAY. The partnership between our two countries cannot come at the expense of turning a blind eye to India's human rights abuses. Prime Minister Modi arrived in Washington yesterday, so the time to speak up is now — and luckily, you’ll be far from alone when you do. Dozens of human rights groups, more than 70 members of Congress including Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, and activists here in DC and around the country are already speaking out — can you join them to call on the White House to go further toward justice and accountability?

A father, a mentor, and an innovator - Jordan Ricks' story is one of resilience and the fight for justice. In 2019, he turned to the Vestavia Police Department for help during a car trouble, only to face a harrowing ordeal: he was subjected to a brutal beating, rendered unconscious by a taser, and wrongfully arrested. The trauma from this incident left him scarred, haunted by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Fast forward to 2021, and Jordan Ricks found himself a victim of racial profiling once again by the Vestavia Police Department. The deep-seated PTSD, stemming from the 2019 incident, resurfaced and tragically led him to flee, resulting in the accidental death of Robyn Herring-Naftel. Despite the circumstances, he took responsibility for his actions and pleaded guilty to Reckless Manslaughter. Remarkably, the forensic psychologist who diagnosed him with PTSD was silenced and barred from testifying during the trial. Alabama's stance on PTSD as "Diminished Capacity" denied him the chance to present his diagnosis as a valid defense. Currently serving a 17-year sentence, Jordan Ricks has been incarcerated for only 2.5 years. His record stands devoid of prior convictions, while his contributions as a respected mentor, coach, and teacher have made him a pillar within his community. Notably, he engaged in the Black Technology Mentorship program based in Silicon Valley, both as a mentor and mentee. He tirelessly advocated for greater representation of Black voices and minds in the rapidly evolving technology sector. Jordan Ricks' quest for justice and a reduced sentence is a plea for a fair chance at redemption. His story underscores the importance of signatures to bring him back to court, a chance to be heard anew. Let us rally behind this cause, helping him gather as many signatures as possible. In doing so, we contribute to a larger movement for justice and compassion. Sign the petition today to stand for the rights of a father, a mentor, and an innovator who seeks a chance to rebuild his life and continue making a positive impact on the world.

Antonio Robinson is well known in his community. He is a licensed Barber, owns his own moving company and started investing in property. Each year he gives back to families by giving out free cuts and backpacks at the start of the school year. He is a dedicated father to all his children and is very active in their lives, school, and other activities. Antonio is a black male that grew up in Monroe NC. He was taken from his parents at a young age and went from foster home to foster home. He went back to school to get his GED and then went on to college. He is a licensed barber and master educator. I am fighting for justice for Antonio because the system is not treating him fairly. I have done my research and pulled all other persons in jail with him that are of a different race and have the same or higher charges but their bonds are way lower. Also Antonio’s charges have been dismissed but they still have him under a 1.5 million dollar bond.

More than half of US states are almost certain or likely to ban abortion now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade. Several states already have abortion bans on the books, which are now put in motion with the federal government no longer protecting reproductive rights. With new and proposed abortion bans, tens of millions of people have lost access to this fundamental healthcare. We need to ensure that our Congressman does everything he can to preserve women's rights to bodily autonomy.