Mental health professionals are better suited in dealing with mental health crisis than NYPD officers who have limited training and understanding of mental health illnesses. As such, this petition is demanding that the NYPD hires mental health professionals specifically, licensed social workers, to help them deescalate situations involving people with mental health illnesses. If you're having cardiovascular trouble, you're not going to call your dentist. Because it doesn't make sense. Similarly, people in mental health crisis shouldn't have to be attended by people who aren't qualified to understand their needs. Because NYPD has not had such support, it has led to injury and death of people with mental health illness. The best preventative measure will be to hire licensed social workers to assist the NYPD officers in deescalating situations and protecting the rights and the lives of people with mental health illnesses. By practicing better preventative care, this will result in less conflict between NYPD and the community, less incarceration rates and less involvement in child welfare.

This is to MoveOn because I could not find another way to send you a message. I have been in MoveOn since it began and am pissed that you are misusing this word!

Every single state in the Northeast has non smoking bars. Pennsylvania's smoking ban is a joke. Just about any bar that isn't part of a chain restaurant can cook the books to get an exception to the PA Clean Indoor Air Act. Smoking continues in most bars in the state. Having a real smoking ban is 10 years overdue. Please act now.

A border wall is an ineffective and wasteful solution to illegal immigration.

The lack of free and affordable high- quality child care programs effect families in many ways especially when it comes to finances. Child Care programs can be very expensive especially when it is needed for more than one child. But how can one pay for child care if you do not have a job? and how can you be in the workforce if you don't have whom to take care of your child? Lack of these services also specifically target women and single mothers in the workforce. When a parent is not able to go back to work because he/she cannot afford a child care center this leaves the parent/s without any choice than to either stop working or choose low quality and cheaper child care options. With Universal child care programs all individuals would have access to this benefit regardless of income, where they live and regardless of whether they are in the paid workforce or outside of the paid workforce. Hence, there won't be any discrimination among different social statuses and there won't be any stigmatization or stereotyping to those individuals who receive or utilize this service. Establishing universal child care allows families to be able to go to work without worrying about depleting their budget plans and salaries, they can have more money to save and or spend on other needs, they can rest assure these child care programs have qualified employees which are doing a great job taking care of their child or children and they won't need to worry about being labeled or frowned upon for receiving this service. In order to establish universal child care programs, the funds for these programs need to be available and included in the countries budget plan. People also need to recognize and be educative on the importance of universal child care and its benefits. There should also be more research and comparisons done with other countries that already have access to universal child care programs. Finally, people should vote for officials that reinforce this program and advocate for universal child care.

I was among the KSU faculty members who protested the rejection of the Segal sculpture in 1978, and since then continue to stand in solidarity with many others in firm opposition to all attempts to deny, distort and/or dilute the tragic and true meaning of what happened at KSU on May 4, 1970, when government troops opened fire upon an anti-war protest, killing four students and wounding nine others. Segal's sculpture captures that meaning like no other memorial. Bringing this exiled sculpture home to KSU, if only for a year on loan, will mark an important step toward overcoming denial, enhancing enlightenment, and promoting peace. For those who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.

All of us, 8 billion of the world population, is affected because there are those who believe in superior and inferior races, deviating from science.

The EEOC gives right to sue but didn’t interview all witnesses and doesn’t help with process which is seriously affecting my health. Five years later still enduring retaliation. I’m a white woman whose career was blackballed after marrying a wonderful black man.

The DNC just reversed course on banning donations from fossil fuel companies, turning its back on those living with the impacts of climate change and fossil fuel extraction every day — as well as the more than 950 candidates nationwide that our community recruited to sign the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge. DNC executives are keeping quiet about the Friday night vote — they know taking polluter money isn’t a good look for the Party — but resistance from DNC membership is growing and the press is beginning to take notice. By ringing the alarm now, we can hold the DNC accountable to its values, and force a new vote during the DNC’s Summer Meeting in Chicago in two weeks.

Only two months after banning fossil fuel donations, the DNC is considering reversing itself and is framing their position as an "all of the above" energy strategy. Tell them to get serious on climate. We're running out of time.

There is a brilliant burst of color and creativity that brightens this small local park in downtown Rochester. Prior to it's installation several weeks ago, many crafters worked for months to create large scale knitted and crocheted artwork. Parts of this magnificent community collaboration (the tree decorations and the stop sign piece) are now being forcibly taken down after the City of Rochester backpedaled it's permission over the last week, and they want ALL the artwork gone by labor day (September 3rd). The installation brightens the community, and is a sign of what makes Rochester so welcoming and hopeful. This artwork is not in the way of anyone or hindering anything, and it should not be taken down!

Families seeking help for autism are regularly denied insurance coverage for physician-prescribed, treatment. The myth that ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) is the only scientific approach is simply not true. Families deserve to receive ANY of the evidence-based treatments their doctors believe would be helpful. A “one size fits all” method doesn’t work for every patient... SB 399 ensures that families will have choices.