I was born and raised in Glastonbury and received an amazing, world-class education there. All throughout college, I would always wear my Glastonbury Tomahawks sweatshirt because of how proud I was of my home. During college, I befriended a girl who is Native American, and I would find myself pausing every time I wanted to put on my Tomahawks sweatshirt. This sweatshirt was a symbol of a place that I took so much pride in. I thought of my education as progressive and shedding light on the world outside of the four walls of GHS. However, how can a place that I held in such high esteem continue to ignore this offense? What lesson does it teach the students of Glastonbury to continue to use a mascot that trivializes the culture of others? Glastonbury’s community must recognize that their mascot is not appropriate. We cannot use this symbol in good conscience when Native American tribes throughout the country, and here in Connecticut, oppose the use of Native American mascots. We must listen to their opposition, and be good allies by trusting and respecting their stance on the subject. Glastonbury was a wonderful town to grow up in, and I am generally very proud to be from there. Please do the right thing: stop appropriating Native American symbols. “As documented in [...] decades of social science research, derogatory 'Indian' sports mascots have serious psychological, social and cultural consequences for Native Americans, especially Native youth." Change Glastonbury's mascot to one that we can all be proud of. (Link to quote on NCAI's website: http://www.ncai.org/proudtobe)

In the midst of a homeless and COVID 19 crisis Brian Abernathy has failed to house the poor and most vulnerable - homeless people that are the majority black and brown. They remain homeless in a COVID pandemic. Philadelphia's city budget is decreasing housing by 12 million dollars in affordable housing funding increasing Philadelphi4a Police budgets by 14 million. He ordered tear gas and rubber bullets unleashed on peaceful protesters demanding racial justice and police ending the murder of black people. He should immediately resign because in Philadelphia Black lives matter. His actions have displayed a flagrant disregard for Black lives by keeping them homeless and hiring even more police to exacerbate the issue of police violence. Removing a Frank Rizzo statue is not justice. Justice is his resignation.

We, Israeli and American citizens who care deeply about peace between Israelis and Palestinians, stand together in urging the government of Israel to abandon its plan of unilateral West Bank annexation, and to instead pursue negotiations with the Palestinian leadership to reach a conflict-ending peace accord. Annexation is antithetical to our shared values and our commitment to peace. The damage that annexation would inflict is not just a matter of values and vision. Annexation would severely hinder any prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, would jeopardize Israel’s relations with moderate Arab states, particularly with Jordan, further erode Israel’s international standing, and threaten the stability of the US-Israel relationship. Yes, Donald Trump supports annexation. And, yes, some Israeli politicians view his sharp diversion from policies followed by successive past US administrations – both Democratic and Republican – as an opportunity to take actions that would not previously have been possible. But this is an aberration. Trump will leave the White House, if not in months then in several years, and with him will vanish his short-sighted policies that compromise a peaceful future for Israel and Palestine. But the consequences of annexation will be long lasting, if not irreversible. Netanyahu recently stated that Palestinian residents of these unilaterally annexed areas will be considered “subjects” living in “enclaves” and not eligible for Israeli citizenship. What Netanyahu is describing has historical precedent and a name: apartheid. His plan means that two national-ethnic populations will live in the same area, under the sovereignty of an internationally recognized elected government, the government of Israel. One of these groups, Israeli settlers, will enjoy full civil rights, including the right to elect their government. The other population, Palestinian “subjects,” will be deprived of almost any civil right, disenfranchised, governed by a set of military occupation laws. This has been the de facto situation in the West Bank since Israel captured it in 1967. But it was, in theory and in law, a temporary arrangement. Now, Netanyahu and Trump are working ahead of the November presidential elections to turn this travesty into a permanent reality. In perpetuity. Without hope of ending the conflict. Without a horizon of peace and lasting security for Israel. And without a horizon of independence and statehood for Palestinians. Israelis, Americans, and concerned citizens worldwide should not sit idly by as two irresponsible leaders, wielding tremendous power but showing little regard for the future of Israel and its Palestinian neighbors, take measures the Israeli public itself is deeply divided on that would wreck Israeli democracy and condemn Palestinians to perpetual subjugation. A joint US-Israeli committee, armed with maps and aerial photos, is already working to chart the contours of the occupied land that Israel would call its own. But annexation is not a done deal. It can be avoided and, if not, must be reversed. We urge Prime Minister Netanyahu not to take a step that Israelis, their friends in America, and people around the world will regret for years to come. We urge President Trump to maintain the decades of bipartisan US policy that supports a two-state solution and a peaceful end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hadar Susskind President and CEO Americans for Peace Now and Shaqued Morag Executive Director Shalom Achshav

To remove the symbols of the Confederacy which traumatizes people of color. The monuments of an evil leader who fought to continue to enslave African Americans and treat them less than human. This action will give empowerment of true equality to black folks. BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!

Facial recognition technology can't tell the difference between people of color, and that’s a huge problem. In the hands of law enforcement agencies, which are eager to get their hands on and use this technology, facial recognition has an alarming tendency to misidentify people with darker skin. In essence, facial recognition technology codifies racial profiling into advanced AI systems. Last week IBM made the correct and moral decision to abandon their facial recognition technology, but they weren't the only tech players in the game. Amazon announced a pitiful one-year moratorium on selling facial recognition, while Clearview AI, one the more aggressive pushers of facial recognition, continues their ties with alt right-wing extremists.

Stop using black faces in hoodies on ads for your services as it implies that drug addition is a BLACK problem. It is especially important in mostly white neighborhoods to NOT use these kinds of ads because it reinforces racist view unintentionally. At a minimum use both white and black faces in same ads so that it does not automatically cause people to think that the drug problem is a black problem. It reinforces stereotypes that we need to reverse in today's human societies.

Because as U.S. citizens we have a right to peaceful protests which can be seen in the wearing of our face masks. In a time of civil unrest, with thousands of people and hundreds of companies speaking out against the racial inequality imposed on African Americans, we as a people should be able to wear what ever kind of mask we so choose as long as it doesn’t go against someone’s religion, ethnic background, and doesn’t have obscene graphics or language.

It’s Important because a lot of us don’t know our history or what Juneteenth is about. I want this to educate my community because I didn’t really know what Juneteenth was about until I was an adult. I want my community to be celebrated because we built this country.

It's important to let the management of WFMU know that it is not ok to exploit it's volunteer DJs. We should be able to keep our show title and all content that we provided to the station, should we decide to leave. Please let me keep my name, Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban

Our request to the City: As citizens of West Linn, we believe that our City should be a place where all people feel welcome to live, work, and visit. Michael Fesser and his community in North and Northeast Portland have expressed a genuine desire to have an open and honest dialogue with West Linn to build trust and relationships. The present circumstances provide a leadership opportunity to advance this goal, but the window of opportunity is closing. We believe it is important that this dialogue is spearheaded by the City leadership. Demonstrating a willingness to engage in conversation is the starting point for meaningful understanding and change. We strongly support engagement with Michael Fesser and his community, and we urge the City to take the following actions: 1) Invite Michael and community members to engage in an ongoing dialogue, with the first meeting by or before July 20th 2) Commit to active listening in order to build trust and understand the goals, aspirations, and barriers that impede connections between our communities. 3) Take the initiative in coordinating and hosting the conversations. We look forward to the City acting quickly on this opportunity to build bridges between our communities for a more inclusive and equitable future. We understand that there are other issues on the City leadership’s agenda, but we feel this dialogue should have a top priority on your list. The conversations we are advocating for are not dependent on the outcome of any ongoing investigations, the current City equity audit, the task force for proposing a police oversight body, or any other initiatives by the city. Rather, we have an opportunity to gain an understanding that will inform us and help with ongoing decision making. We invite you to join us in this effort to create an open and welcoming place for all to live, work, play, and engage with businesses.

Those of us with privilege must use our platforms to speak up and stand up for our black and brown siblings whose livelihoods are threatened by violent racism. This conversation desperately needs to happen everywhere -- including and especially in quiet, wealthy, predominantly white communities like Jamestown. We are fortunate to live in a kindhearted, close-knit island town, peaceful by design and by luck. But justice and peace depend on each other. Without true justice, there can be no true peace. And as long as black Americans continue to be systematically robbed of both, we must heed the moral obligation to disrupt our own uneasy peace and to speak out. This will require grappling with discomfort, fear, and shame. But the end result - justice - will be more than worth it. The commitments made here are deliberately broad, intended to herald the coming change we will pursue. Accordingly, Jamestown for Justice will follow up to support the development of a specific anti-racist agenda. By signing this statement, you call for Jamestown to come together as a unified front, not only against racism itself, but actively in pursuit of anti-racism. This is only the beginning. The road before us is long, and it will be challenging to navigate. But we are stronger as a unified community, and will be able to make more significant progress than any one of us could on our own. So let us be loud and clear as we say, as proud Jamestowners: Black Lives Matter.

During this time of incredible upset, the Trump Administration has decided to finalize a rule rolling back protections for Transgender and Trans* people. President Trump has taken our outcries for equality and spat on them, dragging the LGBTQ community into the series of horrific events unfolding this 2020. The night of the four year anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, a shooting in Orlando Florida that ended with hundreds of members of the queer community dead, was the night the Trump Administration chose to tell the queer community that they are not worth health care. That if a doctor or hospital refuses to treat them based on their sexual or gender identity, that the law doesn't care about them. It feels as if he does not care about the marginalized, making it very clear to America that if we saw Black Lives Matter, he will say QUEER LIVES DON'T. The Trump Administration has been working tirelessly to narrow the definition of gender in order to LEGALLY deny health care to Transgender people and eventually the entire queer community. Queer people, especially QUEER PEOPLE OF COLOR are so much less likely to seek medical care when they need it, precisely because of the ignorance and disrespect with which the health care system sees them. We are already fighting the global pandemic of Covid-19, along with the national pandemic of POLICE BRUTALITY. The Trump Administration is shoving down our throats the reality that they would rather we all just die. We must not allow this message to be heard without a FIGHT. We must STAND UP TO INJUSTICE and not allow Trump's distracting disregard for queer life to end our fury and demand for change. This is only a stepping stone towards changing the way AMERICA SEES EQUALITY. If we don't stop this law, next it will be legal to not give health care to any queer person, or to a person based on their race, or religion. If a person has no protections based on their gender identity, what is to stop hospitals from turning away cis men or women based on their preference of gender identity. This erasure of gender related protections is DANGEROUS. This has the potential to affect every single person in America, regardless of your political standpoint. ALL PEOPLE DESERVE HEALTH CARE no matter how they identify. ALL HUMANS ARE CREATED EQUAL UNDER GOD, says the constitution. It is our job to uphold this precedent.