By its nature, urban design will reflect a community’s values. And a city that prioritizes cars will grow to lookquite different from one that values walkability.  In the same way, a city’s design can go further still—to express the compassion of its people. “The true measure of any society,” Gandhi said, “can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” And by this measure, Lincoln’s design today falls well short of Lincoln’s compassion. The benches we’ve placed downtown use bars to discourage loitering. They’re an example of what’s known as “hostile architecture.” They send a message to Lincoln’s homeless and most vulnerable: You are not welcome to rest here. It is a brand of civic unkindness that is considered, designed and executed with the explicit motive to exclude and harass. In disinviting the poor and the weary, hostile architecture invites shame.  In major cities across the country, people are coming forward to reject such designs. They’re demanding urban spaces that reflect openness, compassion and inclusivity. It’s important to note that dismantling hostile architecture doesn’t seek to, as some critics claim, encourage panhandling or increase homelessness. On the contrary, it is about creating public spaces that are hospitable to civility and interaction. It is about supporting the vital work of homeless service providers in their outreach to people and families. (Their work, by the way, can be far more successful absent the obstacles of hostile architecture.)  Lincoln is a wonderful city, and a welcoming one. Lincolnites deserve a downtown that is as welcoming as its people. It’s time to remove the bars on Lincoln’s downtown benches. Rather than attempt to hide our poverty, let’s embrace a downtown that highlights the richness of our values.

Jeff Bezos’s new yacht is so large that the Dutch city of Rotterdam was considering partially dismantling an historic bridge and national monument to accommodate it. Meanwhile, the United States still lacks adequate funding for education, healthcare, childcare, climate resiliency, and more. The surplus wealth that allows Bezos to think he can trample over entire municipalities abroad must be placed in service of the public good instead. Congress needs to pass a wealth tax on the ultra-wealthy!

Riverside Hospital has systematically and consistently failed to provide adequate staffing on all units leading to patients experiencing delayed or missed care, missed activities and interventions, and delays in admissions. Riverside Hospital has an obligation to its staff and community to provide the best care possible, not the most cost-efficient care possible. RN morale is at an all-time low and nurse mental and physical health is in jeopardy as they are not able to provide the care that their patients need and deserve. With the current staffing conditions RNs are “triaging” their responsibilities, potentially leading to serious consequences. The current unsafe staffing conditions will only worsen as our colleagues consider retirement or resignation in order to find better staffing and working conditions with other employers.

The most crippling sanctions on Russia would halt its export of oil & gas--a staggering 60% of its export revenues--but these items are off the sanctions table due to Europe's reliance on Russian gas and the impact that higher oil prices would have on the global economy. European homes and offices have been replacing gas-fired furnaces with electric heat pumps for years, but European manufacturers cannot keep up with demand. With the stroke of a pen, Biden could require American manufacturers to increase electric heat pump production and export these units to Europe, thereby helping Europe fast track its transition away from Russian gas and opening the door to much tougher sanctions. While it would take time before Europe is ready to inflict that crippling blow to Russia, the marketplace impact would be instantaneous, adding enormous pressure to Putin. Additional benefits: - The American production ramp would create high-paying manufacturing jobs here in the US. - Production at greater scale would reduce prices, removing adoption barriers here in the US. - Yes, replacing gas-fired furnaces with electric heat pumps increases demand for electrical energy, some of which is produced by gas-fired thermal plants. But everyday, the European grid grows greener as less expensive wind and solar generation and battery storage continue to shut down fossil fuel plants. Additional information: - This petition is based entirely on an excellent essay by the great American environmentalist, journalist and founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben, titled "Heat Pumps for Peace and Freedom", February 28, 2022, which can be read here: https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/heat-pumps-for-peace-and-freedom?utm_source=url - According to Ari Matusiak, the CEO of the non-profit Rewiring America, Europe and the UK have 75 million homes dependent on Russian gas for their heat. - Per McKibben's article, and according to energy leaders in Europe, the European grid as it is today can handle the adoption of 50 million heat pumps. - Per McKibben's article, the "Defense Production Act was used most recently by President Trump to mandate production of ventilators and President Biden, on his second day in office, to mandate production of decent masks."

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is celebrated for abolishing slavery, but what if we told you slavery is still legal?  There’s actually an exception clause in the Thirteenth Amendment that allows slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. Today, more than 150 years since its passage, incarcerated people — many of whom are Black and brown — are forced to work for little to no pay. Incarcerated people who refuse to work are often beaten, denied visits and calls from loved ones, put in solitary confinement, and even denied parole.  BUT, there’s hope! In the last six years, four states have ended this exception in their state constitutions and truly abolished slavery. In 2018, Colorado became the first state since Rhode Island—the only state to have fully abolished slavery prior to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment—to end the exception and abolish slavery. Utah and Nebraska followed in 2020, and Nevada in 2024.  In all three states, the ballot initiatives were the result of unanimous, bipartisan legislative votes. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the social awakening of many people across the U.S. to the horrifying reality of anti-Black racism, more than 20 states are organizing to abolish slavery in their state constitutions. Tennessee, Vermont, Oregon, Louisiana and Alabama will all be on the ballot this year and several others are expecting to be. The time to act is now.

No pedestrian on the UMass Amherst Campus should be be worried that their life is in peril because of poor lighting, inadequate crossing paths and the lack of other protective measures.

Every one of the students who were told to evict has the potential to do good in this world. And the key to unlocking that is exiling them from the Collin College Student Housing Community? That is mental! That has no place in a just society. Compassion does. And this arbitrary decision is absolutely unjust and shortsighted. Collin College is tangibly harming everyone involved in their decision to evict for a single, unprosecuted event.

Because innocent people (Russians and Ukrainians), who have nothing to do with a madman elite's decision, matter. Because Ukraine and all countries have a right to decide their own fate. Because people are dying and there is yet another refugee crisis. Because Ukraine is full of a deep, rich cultural history. Because access to facts and information matters. Because they are people.

There are currently next to no regulations on the collecting and sale of our personal data by websites and advertisers. That leaves us vulnerable to all kinds of surveillance and abuse. The Biden administration is finally taking steps towards stopping this abuse by regulating the surveillance advertising industry, but the ad lobby is gearing up for a fight. The White House and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) must resist their efforts and protect Americans’ privacy! We need protection from surveillance advertising! The FTC must resist corporate lobbyists and finally regulate the ‘interactive advertising industry’!

During the Trump administration, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner announced his plan to partially privatize Medicare coverage. Kushner tapped his former roommate Adam Boehler to pilot the program in January 2019.[1] Under the traditional Medicare program, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services directly reimburses providers for patients’ medical care. But under Kushner’s so-called “direct contracting model,” the government pays Wall Street-backed startups and private insurance companies, who in turn reimburse providers. By paying corporate middlemen to administer our public option for older Americans and people with disabilities, Kushner’s “direct contracting” model props up the corporate health care industry. President Biden can — and must — stop this attack on Medicare now. Stop enriching private corporations at the expense of our health care!

The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate parents, medical professionals, and teachers among others if they are affirming trans kids as who they are, labeling it as “child abuse." We’re exhausted. Trans kids deserve the right to lead happy lives with space to pursue their dreams, regardless of where they live. A majority of Texans believe people should be able to be themselves, support their families and live freely. It’s ridiculous that trans youth continue to be threatened here in Texas and across the country by their state government, the very same leadership that’s supposed to advocate and care for them. The DFPS is already facing crisis levels in Texas, attending to credible reports of actual child abuse. DFPS doesn’t need the additional burden of investigating reports that parents seeking to affirm their child through treatment are engaging in child abuse.

President Biden has just announced his nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court. We’re encouraged to see Biden select someone with a strong record of upholding accountability in government and fighting for equity in the criminal legal system – a nominee who can end the historical shame of going more than two centuries without a Black woman on the Supreme Court. But unfortunately, we must take immediate action to ensure that Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans can't abuse their power to block her nomination, like they did to Judge Merrick Garland in 2016. McConnell has already shown that he’ll try every dirty trick in the book to rig the process and secure a Supreme Court majority that’s in line with his extremist agenda. If you recognize how high the stakes are for the future of our nation, add your name to demand a fair hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson today.