The eyes of the rest of America will be on you and your state. Failing to fully correct this gap runs the risk of an indeterminate election outcome for which you will be held accountable. The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". Governor Kemp, this is YOUR purview and YOUR responsibility to insure that the residents of Georgia are represented and the residents of the other 49 states, the District of Columbia and the 16 territories are not impacted or held hostage to any disputable election outcome because of your negligence. Should you fail to insure a smooth and flawless election without incident you can expect consequences which may range from calling for your resignation, state-wide protests and/or boycotts. You are highly encourage to insure that you fulfill the responsibility of the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Black Lives Matter. This is an insult to people everywhere, but especially to black people living in Charlottesville.

Symbols of racism propagate racism. Symbols of hope propagate hope. Let's put Tennessee on the right side of history.

Because city has not met with the community and was never approved by the residents of Little Village.We are the tax payers and will not allow this company to make profit of our land.

The Confederate flag is a symbol of hate and division. It serves no place in Government buildings.

All sophomore high school students in WLWV schools are required to take a US history class. In this class, I remember learning about the civil rights movement as if racism was a thing of the past. This is far from true, and students are often shielded from this reality in insular white communities like West Linn and Wilsonville. We must do better to educate our students on the realities of racism in the country today, ask them to examine their own privilege, and teach them how to effectively join the movement against police brutality and the prison industrial complex as a whole.

In a protest situation, even though peaceful, crowds can become unpredictable placing the horse in harm's way. This was witnessed last week when a brick was thrown at a horse's face in Dallas, TX, causing injury. There are other ways to gauge crowd size that are less expensive and do not put these animals in danger (i.e., drone).

We got yet another reminder of the crying need for effective and powerful civilian oversight of the police from both the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the brutal overreactions of police departments across the country to the resulting demonstrations. But Oakland has the potential to be different and to lead the way for the rest of the country. Although we have a strong community-led police commission to oversee our police department, the City Administration’s resistance has hobbled the Commission. The Commission’s powers need to be clarified in a new ballot measure that would further amend the City Charter. The Coalition for Police Accountability has partnered with the Police Commission to create a joint Charter amendment that will allow the Commission to be truly effective in ensuring that the Oakland Police Department is firmly and permanently dedicated to constitutional policing. When this Charter amendment is enacted, we will finally be able to transition from federal court oversight through the NSA to local oversight by the Commission. Those who see political advantage in opposing progressive reform have been promoting the idea that the Commission is trying to enlarge its power and interfere with the operations of the Police Department. That is simply not true. Please look carefully at the changes we are proposing and evaluate them for yourselves. The main changes from current law that the Coalition and the Police Commission are proposing are as follows: 1. The Commission can hire its own attorneys who will report to it and not the City Attorney. 2. The Commission will be able to hire an Inspector General who will audit the police department and be able to recommend policy changes to the Commission. 3. The Commission will have access to all police department records and files. 4. The Commission will be able to impose discipline in cases where the investigations have not been completed in time or when required body camera footage has not been a component of the investigation. We want the Police Commission/Coalition draft adopted–there is strong community support for it. District 1 residents are asking Councilmember Dan Kalb and Council President Rebecca Kaplan to please move forward with these important changes. We are living through unprecedented times that demand bolder action by the Oakland City Council.

I agree wholeheartedly. He took a knee in silent protest and was blacklisted for it. Now everyone from the NFL and all his haters have remorse. His bravery, courage and activism is what has lead to where this country and other countries worldwide are at. For context he started sitting down and then was asked to take a knee, as it was felt to be so called more respectful, of which he did and still. So yes he should get it as a sign to the rest of the world that racism and police brutality is no longer acceptable in this country. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/09/646115651/the-veteran-and-nfl-player-who-advised-kaepernick-to-take-a-knee

To Posse National, Posse Alumni, Current Posse Scholars, and all friends/supporters of Posse, Pain. Grief. Hopelessness. Fury. Exhaustion. For many of us we are experiencing the full range of these heavy but familiar emotions, yet again. Even in the middle of a global pandemic, our Black family is being hunted down like animals. Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Justin Howell, Sean Monterrosa, Jamel Floyd, Freddie Gray, Korryn Gaines, Sandra Bland, Botham Jean, Jamar Clark, Dreasjon Reed, Ezell Ford, Michael Brown, Michelle Shirley, Redel Jones, Kenney Watkins, Stephon Clark, Laquan McDonald, Eric Garner, Eleanor Bumpers, Alberta Spruill, the list goes on. We Posse alumni and scholars are reaching out to rise in solidarity as “one Posse” against racial injustice. Based on the 2019 Posse Alumni Report, the Black community makes up the greatest percentage by race of our reported alumni and together with the Latinx community represents the majority. Therefore, the majority of our Posse community is facing racial injustices head-on and deserves to be supported by the organization, which quite frankly benefits from the systemic injustices that exist in this nation - specifically educational inequity. There would be no Posse without the Black community. As Debbie Bial explained in her June 2nd email, we too believe that this is precisely the time to tap into our collective capacity as an organization. But words like “leverage” and “network”, we are afraid, are performative at best, and complicit at worst. It has become evident that moral support and statements are not what drive progress. Action does. We request that The Posse Foundation publicly support, advance and adopt the three efforts below in a much needed attempt to combat racial injustice: A) NAACP’s 10 Demands We request that The Posse Foundation publicly support the NAACP’s 10 demands for all police departments. These 10 demands also align with the #wearedonedying social justice movement campaign. We believe this is a key step towards lessening police brutality nationwide and elevating the importance of Black and brown lives. B) #8toAbolition We request that The Posse Foundation publicly support the #8toAbolition campaign whose chief priorities are to “focus on concrete actions such as reducing police budgets, rather than introducing abstract procedural rules that are easily undercut by police”. Conversely, the 8cantwait campaign has already been adopted in a variety of states, yet continues to prove ineffective at curtailing the gestapo-like tactics that continually claim Black lives for sport. The #8toAbolition mission forces us to reimagine this country without police. A country that heals and nourishes communities of color rather than criminalizing and crippling them. C) Create a “Posse Peace Program” at Each Posse City Site We have seen organizations use their gifts/resources/power to put weight behind their words. Ben & Jerry’s issued a powerful statement calling for action to “Dismantle White Supremacy”. Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey donated $3 million dollars to Colin Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights Campaign.” LA Mayor Eric Garcetti cut $150 million from LAPD and is planning to reinvest in communities of color. Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian resigned from its board and is asking for his seat to be filled with a Black candidate. Even beauty companies are stepping up to the plate. Everlane is donating $75,000 to the ACLU and EJI, respectively. Anastasia pledged $1 million dollars and several others followed suit. Below are the ideas and on how The Posse Foundation can go about creating a “Posse Peace Program”: 1) Similar to PNAAC representatives, Posse city sites will work with appointed peace representatives in each city to fully support our scholars who risk their safety at protests. The representative will help disseminate protest information. They will remain peaceful at protests via adhering to a set of guidelines that scholars, alumni, and the Posse Leadership Team will have agreed upon.. 2) Allocate funding to gather/provide materials for protesters: face masks, gas masks, heat resistant gloves, protective eyewear, protective headgear, earplugs, elbow/knee pads, and water. While it pains us that protection is necessary, it is necessary nonetheless. In many states across the U.S. peaceful protesters have been met with violence, so we must take a “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst” stance. If you do not fear for your life the way we do, then your privilege allows you to do so. 3) If adopted, The Posse Foundation should publicly announce the start of the Posse Peace Program initiative to scholars, alumni, donors, employees, etc. 4) The Posse Foundation should also encourage members of its sites’ staff to be present at these peaceful protests and demonstrations. To our Posse family, we are certain we are not alone in feeling the urgency of this moment. Therefore, we have created a petition to solicit signatures from Posse scholars and alumni across the national network. Click here to sign the petition. To Posse National, we expect you to take these requests to heart & we look forward to collaborating in the very near future. #WeAreDoneDying and we are done asking. Lastly, if you would like to to share thoughts and opinions on the petition, the role of Posse in ending racial injustice, etc., click here. ---> https://forms.gle/4L2no82tDiDwcSNq5 Sincerely, and with Posse Love, Shaquille Anderson (Boston Bucknell Posse 5 and NAACP 2020 Next Gen Member) Gia Ciccolo (Boston Bucknell Posse 4) Nigel Henry Robinson (Boston Bucknell Posse 4) Alvaro J. Peters (Boston Union Posse 5)

The murders of George Floyd, Sean Monterrosa, Stephon Clark, Oscar Grant and many, many other instances of racism, brutality and murder by police, highlight the need for major reforms in law enforcement, including enhanced training, transparency, and accountability. We can no longer allow police departments to self-regulate. Too often, police misconduct gets swept under the rug, and officers are able to continue working or transfer to another department after documented instances of misconduct. Police are granted extraordinary power and authority over the rest of us and carry around dangerous weapons, yet they have less training, experience, or oversight than many others who perform valuable services to our community.

We need the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) to make a statement denouncing racism and systems of white supremacy. We ask you stand with us. Thank you to the "SLPs of Color" for drafting their original petition to ASHA. Please also directly submit feedback to AAA here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VFGBN5K AAA is the world’s largest professional organization of, by and for audiologists, representing the interests of approximately 14,000 audiologists, as well as students and faculty at the university level. Per AAA’s website, one of the core values is Cultural Sensitivity and Diversity, defined as: “to value diversity and to treat all patients fairly and equally without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, creed, religion, disability, sex, age, sexual orientation, or national origin.”  The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd are just the recent accounts of police brutality (towards Black people) and white supremacy. As a large professional organization, even if white-majority, we cannot stand idly by. Our silence speaks for us. Our silence says we are complicit. Our silence says we do not care. This silence not only affects those we serve, but also students and professionals of color within the organization.  Furthermore, intersectional identities are, by definition, not mutually exclusive. You may know of the Black students, audiologists, and faculty members in our organization, but what about those who may be Black AND d/Deaf or hard-of-hearing? Our students and professionals also serve numerous Black and d/Deaf + hard-of-hearing patients around the world, either through service trips and/or their everyday work. How can you actively choose to remain silent and not acknowledge their pain and experiences?  As a profession, we are stewards of health and communication and are charged with improving the quality of life for our patients, clients, and students. This includes our audiologists and patients that are directly affected by the systematic injustices seen in our country. We implore AAA to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and subsequently our Black students and professionals.