Cosmetologist are essential to the community. We provide hair care for all ages. Even the elderly that depend on their weekly trips to the salon to maintain their own hygiene. Please consider signing this so stylists can get back to work and our communities can get proper personal care.

The survival of the independent beauty professionals is at risk. These professionals are facing a grave financial hardship.

It is important to help essential workers, especially those with very physical jobs, continue to work for their communities. These workers are very susceptible to repetitive stress injury. Massage therapists are considered healthcare workers and therapy is essential to many people for their health and well-being.

Independent Beauty Professionals rely on income from clients. We cannot perform salon services online. While the Beauty Industry is deemed “non essential”, the ability to practice our craft is very essential to our livelihood. We are facing grave financial hardship. Our services are also essential to our clients’ mental and emotional health as a form of self care. Salon professionals, this is a great resource for health/safety tips once allowed to reopen: salontoday.com/623817/reopening-how-to-move-forward-safely

Dear fellow MoveOn member, Donald Trump is attacking the World Health Organization - in the middle of a pandemic. He announced he is halting funding to the WHO while a review is conducted. He's been claiming that the WHO severely mismanaged and covered up the spread of coronavirus, when in fact he is the one who's mismanaged the Covid19 outbreak, downplayed the crisis, ignored warnings from members of his own administration, refused to follow the advice of scientists and experts, and has been putting thousands of lives at risk as a result. By trying to deflect blame from his own administration to the WHO, Trump is putting at risk the global response to this coronavirus. Trump's heartless, reckless decision comes in the middle of the worst global pandemic in recent history. America contributed over $400 million to the WHO last year, making it by far the biggest donor. The organization’s budget last year was around $6bn. Losing American funding would be catastrophic for the WHO's ability to shape and guide a robust global response to Covid19. If the USA cuts funding to the WHO, vulnerable health systems in low-income countries will not get the life-saving help they need. Many thousands of lives hang in the balance in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. While some reforms in the WHO might be needed eventually, now is not the time. Right now the WHO is leading vital work. We need it. Slashing its budget is reckless endangerment at best, lethal at worst. Now is the time for solidarity, for love, for compassion, and for putting faith in true experts - scientists and doctors who can help save lives. This virus does not respect passports or borders. We are all only as strong as the weakest part of our response to this virus. Now is precisely the time when we need to work together as a global community. Sign the petition to stop Trump from crippling the World Health Organization, so it can save countless lives during the biggest pandemic of our lifetime. Thank you!

the survival of the independent beauty professionals is at risk. We are facing a grave financial hardship.

Now is the absolutely wrong time to end funding for this vital organization! “In health emergencies, the World Health Organization works to identify mitigate and manage risks. They support the development of tools necessary to mitigate the outbreak. They detect and respond to acute health emergencies. They support the delivery of essential health services in fragile settings.

With our nation facing a devastating health and financial crisis, we need, in the Office of The Vice President, a woman whose intelligence, tenacity, and integrity is beyond reproach; a woman broadly respected by the Democratic Party; a woman FEARED by the usual suspects, who are already using this crisis for their own enrichment and to further dismantle the laws and regulations which protect: the working class, our most vulnerable citizens, the environment, and everyone’s right to be heard and represented. Elizabeth Ann Warren has the intelligence, heart, and grit we trust and need, at this pivotal moment in our nation’s history. No other Vice-Presidential choice will do! Joe, No matter how high we rise, our time on this Earth is limited, yet the touches of our lives may reach distant generations. The future’s faces will smile more, or less, depending upon the choices you will make as our President. Please help end the stark division in which children smile more, and which smile less. We live in an age of miracles. We can all live happier and healthier lives, and have more cherished moments, with those we love, but we need partnerships of equality and equity to arrive there. That is what we are asking Joe. Stand beside Elizabeth, and together, help heal a nation, and lead the way to more meaningful and rewarding lives for all. God bless you, Sir, the undersigned

Gov. Edwards is pushing a political agenda that goes directly against the guidelines of medical professionals. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, along with several other medical organizations, issued a statement calling abortion "...an essential component of comprehensive health care" and that the "...consequences of being unable to obtain an abortion profoundly impact a person’s life, health, and well-being." People choose to have an abortion for a myriad of reasons, all of which are valid. At a time of great financial and employment uncertainty, forcing people to continue unwanted pregnancies is a gross violations of their rights. Abortion clinics in Louisiana are open and we need to pressure Gov. Edwards to make sure they stay that way.

Update: The Essential Workers Bill of Rights is now part of the HEROES Act, which the House passed on May 15, 2020. Now it's up to the Senate to bring the HEROES Act to the floor for a debate and vote, to pass critical protections for essential workers and other urgent forms of pandemic relief. Essential workers are on the frontlines of this pandemic, and many are working in high-risk conditions without appropriate equipment, safety standards, or job protections. Workers who remain on the job without the ability to telework during this emergency include doctors, nurses, home care workers and other healthcare workers, grocery store and drug store employees, domestic workers, food service workers, federal, state, and municipal employees, janitorial staff, farm workers, delivery drivers, warehouse workers, transportation workers, and child care workers. These workers put their health on the line when they go to work every day. In New York City, 41 transit workers have died as of April 8, and reports of essential worker deaths are on the rise. There are grocery workers who are denied sick leave and whose companies won’t provide masks or allow masks to be worn in stores. And health care workers including medical technicians, orderlies, EMTs, nurses, doctors, hospital employees are working long hours to save lives while their own families are on the edge of health and financial disaster. The country has a moral responsibility to protect essential worker’s health, to create financial security for their loved ones, and to offer peace of mind during a time of heightened mortal and emotional stress. This includes policies like healthcare, paid sick leave, and workplace health standards to protect against more workers getting sick. We need hazard pay and childcare to properly compensate the risk workers are taking to benefit us, and enable them to keep coming to work. And we need to hold corporations who don’t follow these guidelines accountable because lives are on the line. Congress continues to debate more relief efforts as the coronavirus pandemic deepens the health and economic crisis hitting our nation. The next bill must meet the needs of people and our communities, with an essential worker bill of rights, and not provide more corporate bailout funds. Congress should ensure that any taxpayer dollars handed to corporations go to help workers, not wealthy CEOs, rich shareholders, or the President’s cronies. Congress should pass an Essential Workers Bill of Rights, including: 1. Health and safety protections 2. Robust premium compensation 3. Protections for collective bargaining agreements 4. Truly universal paid sick leave and family and medical leave 5. Protections for whistleblowers 6. An end to worker misclassification 7. Health care security 8. Support for child care 9. Treat workers as experts 10. Hold corporations accountable for meeting their responsibilities

The COVID-19 pandemic is tragically displaying the consequences of our world's broken relationship with wildlife and wild places. Experts believe that the current coronavirus likely originated with the close interaction with wildlife—that may have been illegally trafficked—in a live animal market in Wuhan, China. The disease may have originated in bats and moved to an intermediary host—possibly the highly endangered pangolin, the most trafficked mammal on earth—from which the disease jumped to humans. We have been here before. SARS, Ebola, and HIV all likely originated from the exploitation of wildlife, including threatened and endangered species. Now is the time to learn from our past actions. We must put an end to wildlife trafficking immediately. And, we must stop the unsustainable exploitation of wildlife more broadly. This is the second leading cause of the biodiversity crisis. The destruction of biodiversity, including the poaching and trafficking of wildlife, puts people in incredible danger in a variety of ways: it spreads disease, jeopardizes security, undermines the rule of law, and threatens local economies that depend on nature. This current situation helps to crystalize that good wildlife policy and conservation funding, including for enforcement, must be a very high priority to protect our health, communities, and future. Finally, it is essential to recognize that humans have all contributed to the biodiversity crisis we face, with a million species at risk of extinction in the near future. But this is no excuse for racial, ethnic, or other discrimination or retaliation. Cultures across the globe, including ours and yours, engage in some practices that are not compatible with protecting the diversity of life that exists on our planet and ourselves. And every culture has something to mend and contribute to global efforts to protect our gift of biodiversity that sustains us all. We applaud countries that have re-acknowledged the threats of wildlife trafficking by establishing and enforcing permanent bans on this illegal and deadly trade. Please join us in calling for the World Health Organization, UN and World Organization for Animal Health to take immediate action to close live wildlife markets and ban wildlife trafficking.

As an ordained clergy person and seminary professor, I am witness to the stories of many colleagues in ministry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clergy of many faiths have shared stories of mourning that has been interrupted by isolation and disrupted by distancing. Clergy are doing their best to provide funerals when no one can gather, and comfort families who have had to let their loved one die alone. Still, it is becoming more clear all the time that our country as a whole will need an opportunity to grieve the losses we have all felt. We especially need to honor those whose lives were taken by the virus while they were serving the common good as doctors, nurses, first responders, and other public servants. We call upon congress to provide leadership, making time and space for the nation to grieve together when the time is right. We call upon congress to close all government offices on that day, and ask other institutions to close as well. Let us be a nation that mourns together, even as we affirm the value of serving the common good. (photo: Mark Zastrow - creative commons)