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What Part of “All God’s Children” Will We Ever Observe?

5/25/2022

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​Editor's Note: Since Libby wrote this piece last week, following the mass murders in Buffalo, we have been horrified to learn of more horrific mass murders at Robb Elem
entary School in Uvalde, Texas.  When will people of faith move beyond "thoughts and prayers" to take substantive action?
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​by Elizabeth Sholes, Director Emerita Public Policy

The mass murder of 10 Black Americans Saturday May 14 was sickening to all people of conscience. The shooter left massive evidence of his deliberate and calculated intent in his car and on his electronic gear. This was not an act of a mentally-ill person but one who carefully and deliberately planned the attack to get rid of as many Black people as possible.
 
We by now have read that he embraced the “replacement theory” propagated by extremists. It is the fear, that has been around since at least the 1960s, that the white race (as if it’s one solid block of people) is being replaced by people of color, especially immigrants.  Why that led the shooter to target Black Americans is unclear, but extremism is rarely rational. 
 
The shooting at a supermarket, TOPS, on the East Side has more than general horror for me. I lived in Buffalo for many years and was the originator of an effort to get a community-owned supermarket into that neighborhood.  “Our Market” was its name.  It did not succeed for a lot of reasons, the TOPS finally came to this food desert area. 
 
I’m glad of that, but the effort to build a community owned store was wonderful; it put me in contact with many community members and especially with the Masden District then-Council Member, David Collins who was a man of extraordinary vision and concern for his constituents.  He had a civil rights legacy second to few, and his actions were always principled and concerned for people and their needs.
 
Thanks to David’s friendship, I was involved in his campaigns, his activism for social justice, and through him met other good people, some of whom became friends. For years they were my “warmth of other suns”, anchors in my city to what was good, righteous, just, and downright fun.  I associate all we did as passionate justice coupled with raucous laughter, hard work followed by dancing, unending campaigning and delicious food.  It just doesn’t get better than that.
 
To have this area the target of such hate is incomprehensible. To have these people, these good, decent, hard-working, and loving people, cut down so disgustingly is almost more than I can bear.
 
How do we end these horrors?  For those of us who are white, where is our voice in all this?  How do our congregations and our voices matter?  
 
When do we make manifest that “All God’s Children” does not have qualifiers?  When we hear a congressional representative say children refugees at the border don’t deserve infant formula, when we read of hate crimes on the rise against everyone but especially Asian Americans blamed for COVID, when we see LGBTQ people targeted for simply being who they are, we see that too many professed Christians have “exception clauses” in their hearts.  When people die for the color of their skin, we have well and truly lost our way. 
 
It is up to us. We have to bear witness against hate.. We cannot be silent.  These are not political issues – these are the most profound values of faith and democracy. It takes courage, no doubt about it, but we will not honor either our faith or our nation is we are silent.  Silence is assent. And it is a moral cowardice we can no longer accept.
 
We have to challenge bias, prejudice, hate rhetoric, and acts of violence. We have to call out our elected officials who engage in such disgusting lies. We need to write to them, we need to challenge the media both locally and nationally to stop promoting “replacement theory” or any other biased and inhumane propaganda that serves to dehumanize anyone.
 
When Asian women were shot to death in Atlanta, the chief of police said the shooter was “having a bad day”.  A bad DAY?  The public outcry led to an apology from the chief and a renewed effort to investigate the hate-based murders.  
 
Here in Sacramento at a public meeting a city council member blamed the meth epidemic on Latin American immigrants. That is absolutely not true; meth is a local “cottage industry” in white communities around the Bay Area per the Department of Justice. I called him out on it for inflaming both anti-immigrant and anti-homeless views here in Sacramento. 
 
Word got back to me that he hates me. Fine. Oddly, I can live with that. Who would I be if that had gone unchallenged?  He can hate me. I bet he never says that again.
 
If we are going to sit in our pews on Sunday, we have to live the Word the remainder of the week. No one will stop this hate but us. We must do it with courage and without returning the hate.  But we must do it. 
 
We can be silent no more.
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New podcast giving diverse voices a "seat at the table" by CA Controller Betty Yee

9/9/2020

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Dear Friends,

We became very aware during the pandemic shutdown how essential our unseen working people were to our lives.  They are too often the voiceless whose work, lives, necessities, and solutions go largely unheard.

CA State Controller, Betty Yee, is bringing us a new podcast, something you may listen to on your computer with just a click.  "A Seat at the Table" gives an outlet for those voices.  As we approach Labor Day, those earning a living from the restaurant industry will be featured and heard.  We look forward to future podcasts from Controller Yee. This is a potentially major contribution to the full inclusion of omitted people in our civic conversations - and, we hope, solutions.

From Controller Betty Yee:I am excited to announce the launch of my podcast, The California Table!

LISTEN TO EPISODE 1: On the High-Road: Righting the Restaurant Industry




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I have been moved by so many throughout California who have stepped forward, before and during the COVID-19 public health crisis and recession to give voice to the needs and experiences of their communities --- communities often lacking a seat at the decision-making table.


Join me in meeting some extraordinary Californians who are creating their own tables to tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time.

I hope you will find these podcasts informative and inspiring as they call upon us to act and make a difference.

Thank you for listening to The California Table.

Sincerely,

Betty

We at California Church IMPACT hope this has been insightful and that you will join future podcsts of "The California Table".  Thank you.

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Poor People's Campaign Invitation - June 20

6/17/2020

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Dear Friends,

This Saturday, June 20th, is the date of the online “Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington: A Digital Gathering.” NCC is one of the partners for this important event, which will challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy and militarism, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted morality. We hope you will join us. More information and registration can be found at https://www.june2020.org/.

Please register today and share this information with your networks as soon as possible. You can use the Social Media Toolkit to help get the word out about this important gathering.

Here is the moral agenda for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival:
​ https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/about/our-demands

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Avoiding consumer/healthcare scams in the Age of Pandemic - you're invited to a webinar

6/17/2020

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Dear Friends,

We always appreciate ingenuity and intelligent responses to our world's crises.  The current crisis is no exception. Families are uniting via conference calls, Zoom, Skype, and other social media.  Classes and even concerts are being offered the same way.  These are wonderful offerings to break isolation, learn something new, share a moment of collective joy.  

What also arises are efforts to exploit people, to extract money from people with big hearts wanting to help others.  New cottage industries of scams have arisen, and it can catch even the most computer and social media savvy people off guard.  Rather than putting energies to good, too many spend that effort trying to maximize their own benefits at the cost of your well being.

Through our allies at Consumer Action, we are posting an invitation for a Webinar you might find useful.  There are many scams that have appeared along with the Coronavirus. This webinar will help people wade through what is real and what is fraudulent to avoid harm in already stressful times.  
Dear Community Partner,

It’s the same old story, but this time it has a scary twist. Whenever disaster hits, greedy scammers and fraudsters begin to pounce on unsuspecting victims. Even during these strange times, nothing has changed. As the coronavirus spreads throughout our communities, disrupting our way of life and instilling fear among us, we must remain vigilant. If not, enterprising criminals will take advantage of that fear to perpetrate consumer fraud.
 
Scammers are expert at shifting tactics and changing their message to catch consumers off guard. They are using phone, text, mail, email and fraudulent websites to tout everything from fake COVID-19 test kits to miracle cures. Their schemes also take advantage of the fact that medical supplies and equipment for combatting the virus, along with basic living essentials, have become difficult or nearly impossible to obtain.
 
On Wednesday, July 15, Consumer Action will host an informative “COVID-19 Scams and Healthcare Fraud” webinar to address fraud that seeks to exploit consumer confusion and fear in the coronavirus era. The webinar will be led by Micki Nozaki, director of the Senior Medicare Patrol project at California Health Advocates.
 
The webinar will cover:
  • Scams that are flourishing during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • COVID-19-related investment scams
  • How charitable giving scams work
  • Healthcare scams and fraud
  • Consumer warnings and safety tips
  • How to complain
Register to participate:
Wednesday, July 15, at 10:00 a.m. PDT/ 11:00 a.m. MDT/ 12:00 p.m. CDT/ 1:00 p.m. EDT
Register here

There will be a live encore presentation the same day, at 1:00 p.m. PDT/ 2:00 p.m. MDT/ 3:00 p.m. CDT/ 4:00 p.m. EDT.
Register here

Tweet chat: You’re invited to join us on Twitter (follow us @consumeraction) for a live chat during the webinar. Follow the hashtag #CAWebinars to participate.

If you have any questions, please contact Linda Williams at linda.williams@consumer-action.org or 800-999-7981, Ext. 766. We look forward to your participation.




We at California Council of Churches hope this helps.  Please feel free to share with your congregations, family, friends.

Thank you.



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California Budget in this, the Plague Year

5/29/2020

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Dear Friends,

While emailing a friend about various crises we face in our state, I was asking his opinion of the upcoming state budget.  He wrote back with a typo calling it the state "bidget".  I think he's onto something. 

At about the moment that Governor Gavin Newsom was to announce the May Revision of the 2020-21 budget, the bottom of our economic world dropped out.  With a shortfall of about 37% in revenues from all sources - personal and corporate income plus sales taxes - we face almost unprecedented cuts that will have to be parcelled out to every program and service in the state.  With other demands and lack of federal revenues, California is about $54 billion short of where we were last year.

That's not a budget.  It's definitely a bidget.

Right now both houses, the Assembly and Senate, are hammering out allocations of limited funding.  Governor Newsom calls the overall economic debacle equivalent to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Even with the generous reserves we accrued over the last few years, we don't have enough money to cover all we desire.

The original January 2020 budget from the Governor's Department of Finance, now requires the federal "HEROES Act" financing pending in Congress.  This second wave of federal help would allow California and other states to stabilize existing programs and keep services moving to those who need them. Without that federal money, drastic cuts will have to be made.  It does not appear the HEROES Act is in fact going to pass.  It is a sad and anguished time. 

Who will get cut? What programs have legal guidelines that still have to be maintained?  What debt repayments and debt services have to be paid?  For over a decade the people taking the greatest hit to their supports have been the poor, those on CalWORKs, the limited welfare/work program that offers bare maintenance to those in need. People with disabilities have also seen resources and supports dry up, supplies and equipment cut.  Special programs for targeted populations have been reduced. We are, in the time we lift up the role of essential workers who have been keeping us operating during shutdown, once again offered the choice of harming the working and absolute poor - or finding other means to allocate funds.

We by no means have the answers. What we are being called to do is raise our voices for those people who are both out in the pendemic-ridden workplaces serving us and who also need supports via Medi-Cal, child care, tax assistance, and so on. Those who are hightest risk with pre-existing conditions from poor health or disabilities are facing cuts to their medical and life supports.  Children may lose programs for their care. Schools need more money for their virtual on-line teaching equipment and organization just as those funds are drying up. 

We cannot remotely begin to advocate for every program from Court Services to food supply inspection.  We therefore have taken up what we think are critical issues around which we need to raise our voices.  

- We advocate for increased state Earned Income Tax Credits for the working poor.

- We advocate for a stabilization of Medi-Cal services especially for those with disabilities.

- We advocate for the Senate plan to retain increased funding for the retention of Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented income-eligible seniors regardless of documentation status.

- We advocate for the stabilization of SSI disability income expansion with no cuts.

And we adopt and support the Senate plan to use the Budget Stabilization Act revenues and income to help cover essential programs as well as other resources currently not targeted for use. Further we call for reducing other administrative budgets for even our two university systems - not instruction and student services but administration operations and incomes for high level officials.  

We are supported in this by Senate Budget Chair, Holly Mitchell. We urge everyone to contact their own state Senators via our link here To contact the Senate Budget Committee for comment, email Joe.Stephenshaw@sen.ca.gov.  To send a FAX TO Senator Mitchell,  the number is 916-323-8386 or phone the Budget Committee staff at  916-651-4103

Then contact your Assembly Member and urge him or her to follow the Senate budget guidelines. These help preserve funding for those in need of essential services and income supports.  Again, use our link above to connect with your own Assembly Member. 

In light of the degree of human suffering we now have, we need a Budget not a Bidget.  People's lives are at stake. We must be the voice in support of and with those who sometimes cannot speak for themselves.  

Let Justice Flow Down Like a River...Amos 5:24   And let us be the force behind the current.

Thank you. 

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Remember the PPP loans-to-grants?  It's already out of money

4/17/2020

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Dear Friends:

We told you last week about the PPP  Paycheck Protection Program, that would convert the Small Business Association loans to grants if used to protect the income of your employees.

Today we have to tell you to wait on this; the entire program is out of funds.  There have been no explanations why.  We are waiting for someone to explain where the money has gone and why there wasn't enough.  If you started a loan, there's no telling where it stands.  Best bet is to check with your lender.

However, Congress is demanding an explanation, and we think you deserve one as well.  Please work with your House Representative, never mind the party, to insist on both an accounting of the funding and to equally insist the program be extended and sufficiently well funded.  This is money for small business, for profit and non profit, and for employees.  It's not disposable but essential.

To contact your Representative and Senators, go to IMPACT activism pages here

The Senators are taking turns being in Washington DC, so contact the local office near you to see whether to call the national capitol offices.  House district offices will, however, help you with the status of loans and advocacy, and they are a great place to start.  You will find local phone numbers on the IMPACT links.

If and when we learn anything more, we will let you know.  ​
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Take Action for Immigrant Families in the next Recovery Funding!

4/15/2020

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Dear Friends:

As many of us await the small support from our federal government for us, immigrants are getting nothing.  These people are risking their lives working in our fields, preparing our food, doing the work of keeping our supermarkets and other retail going, and many bring us the goods we have ordered.  They deserve the help, too.

You can help by advocating for them in the next round of funding.  Protecting Immigrant Families has an action page where you can write to your House and Senate members asking for equality for all families.

Just click here

Send a message to your Representatives and your Senators insisting on fairness for all people.  Immigrants are important parts of every workforce and every community, and their health is our health.  Already some meat producers, often reliant on immigrant labor, are shutting down in the East and Midwest due to the pandemic, and their employees are not only at risk but face layoffs with few to no resources.  This is a time for unity, for fairness, and our are the voices that can articulate this to our federal leaders.

Thank you!

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Tell Governor Brown to outlaw "junk insurance".  It's a disaster!

8/22/2018

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Dear Friends,

When Washington "allowed" Americans to buy 3-year, short-term health insurance.  They are often far less expensive than even the Affordable Care Act coverage with subsidies (that are being revoked slowly as well.). Well, of course they are.  They don't remotely provide the coverage and guarantees that the ACA required for all insurance before this "reform".

These polices are "junk insurance".  The don't have to cover people with pre-existing conditions; they can have annual and lifetime caps that are very low;  they can and do eliminate coverage of maternity care, mental health coverage, prescription drugs.  By enticing people with lower premium prices, they add to the destabilization of the real insurance markets and are chock full of hidden surprises for those who have bought in.  It's health insurance in name only.  It doesn't do the job, but you might not know that until you use it, and then it's too late.

SB 910 (Hernandez) has now passed both houses.  It bans junk insurance from being sold in California.  The bill is now headed to Governor Jerry Brown for his signature.  

Please call, email, or write Governor Brown telling him to keep California health insurance standards high.  Please sign SB 910 so that we who are patients can know full well that we have real health care coverage, that we won't be victims of undisclosed limitations, and that those in need of real insurance have access to it, not to the snake oil this new market would unleash on the unsuspecting.

To email the Governor, click here
To call Governor Brown or send a FAX, please go to the IMPACT link here

It's important that all Californians have access to real insurance that is accessible, affordable, accountable, and inclusive.  No one should be left holding a worthless piece of paper that lets them down in their most critical time of need.

Urge Governor Brown to sign SB 910!

Thank you!

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Challenge the state Budget: Make room from our surplus to RAISE the cash grant!

5/25/2018

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Dear Friends, 

As you may remember, Senator Holly Mitchell is calling for California to raise the cash grant for families on CalWORKs,  our state welfare-to-work program.  To alleviate the deep poverty of nearly 1 in 12 families, she is asking that we make the cash grant - the money for rent, utilities, supplies - 50% of the Federal Poverty Level family income.  SB 982 would raise the cash from $741 to $1,046 for a family of three.  That's still a hardship, but it would go a long way toward helping make ends meet in pricey California rental and cost of living communities.

We just learned the state has $9 billion more than the Governor's projection.  Yes, anti tax people say it means we're "overtaxed", but what it means in fact is that we are doing well.

Why should the poor, whose cash grants we cut to balance the budget in lean times, not do well, too?  If not now, when?

The state Senate has approved this as part of the May Revision, and now we need the Assembly to do the same. 

The Budget Committee members are:

Philip Ting - Chair (D-San Francisco)
Jay Obernolte - Vice Chair (R-Big Bear Lake)
Travis Allen  (R-Huntington Beach)
Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno)
Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica)
Anna Caballero (D-Salinas)
Rocky Chavez (R-Oceanside)
David Chiu (D-San Francisco)
Steven Choi (R-Irvine)
Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove)
Fong (R-Bakersfield)
Matthew Harper (R-Huntington Beach)
Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Sr. (D-Los Angeles)
Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale)
Monique Limon (D-Santa Barbara)
Devon Mathis (R-Visalia)
Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento)
Jose Medina (D-Riverside)
Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore)
Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco)
Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance)
Patrick O'Donnell (D-Long Beach)
Jim Patterson (R-Fresno)
Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park)
Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley)
Randy Voepel (R-Santee)
Shirley Weber (D-San Diego)
Jim Wood (D-Santa Rosa-Humboldt)

To write them as a constituent or to your non-Budget Committee Assembly Member who will ultimately take a floor vote, please go to:

http://www.churchimpact.org/take-action.html

You will find the local as well as Capitol connections by which to contact them.  Phone, write a FAX, or email to them now.

To send email or FAX letters to the Budget Committee staff to pass on, please FAX Chief Consultant Nicole Vazquez at 916-319-2199 or email her at Nicole.Vazquez@asm.ca.gov

Our message is simple:  Raise the California cash grant to help pull our families from dire poverty.  Protect our state's children from the dire harm of unmet needs.  Share the state's bounty with those in want and assure a better future for the children we cherish. 

We have the money.  We need to make restitution to those, the poorest of the poor, whose income was sacrificed in the lean years.  Now we need to take care of our children and families in need.  There is no better investment in our future. 

Thank you!
 

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Guard our people against poverty - days of action this week!

4/23/2018

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Dear Friends,

As part of the California Interfaith Coalition, California Church IMPACT is supporting Senator Holly Mitchell's pathbreaking bill, SP 982.  

This would insist that when people receive Temporary Aid to Needy Families (CalWORKs here), their cash grant, whatever the source,  would have to provide enough money itself to lift them to at least 50% of the federal poverty level (FPL).  Cash grants go for rent, utilities,  non-food necessities such as soap, toilet paper, and school clothes for kids.  It has become the budget target over past years to help balance the budget by cutting that resource leaving current average grants at a scant 44% FPL.  With the cost of living, especially rents, skyrocketing, people are being forced into substandard accommodations or into the streets unable to keep up with costs..

Since CalWORKs families also get Medi-Cal and nutrition help (used to be food stamps), raising the cash grant gives them a fighting chance of finally renting an apartment vs. being homeless and of bringing in enough resources to BE statistically even with the federal poverty designation. Now they don't even have that much overall income. That is something we have not faced squarely over the past years - how can one of the richest states in the union allow so many people to live in dire poverty?

By linking the cash grant to the FPL, it will not have to be revisited yearly.  This bill, SB 982, sets the policy for the future.  We will have to fight this out with the annual budget, but the directive is quite clear. 

From tomorrow through Friday, please call your state Senators urging support for SB 982.  We cannot leave families without adequate resources while their expenses rise and the overall cost of living soars.  This is a small but essential step, one that will not harm the budget that is, at minimum, our declaration of how we treat our most imperiled citizens.  We need to make them whole.  They cannot get out of poverty if they're mired in it even further by bad policy values.

To be taken to your Senator's web page, please go here:  http://www.churchimpact.org/take-action.html  You may FAX, call, email - but please take action this week.  

Remember "Faithful Fridays" as a way of contacting your Senator when he or she is back in the district.  Calls, visits, email are very effective when they are from you or a group who are all constituents!

Thank you!

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