​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?

​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.

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.

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. 

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.  ​