For my birthday this past week, I went through old photos and found this one of me with my cousin:

Growing up, I thought air pollution in my Detroit neighborhood was normal. I would never have guessed that decades later I would be fighting against the corporate polluters in the background of this photo. They disregarded our public health then and they still do it now.

States including Michigan are flooding, the west is burning, and infrastructure around the country is crumbling. Our communities can't take this anymore. We are hurting. And yet, Republicans and moderate Democrats are trying to make cuts to plans for much-needed investments in our communities.

Every colleague in Congress who says no to boldly addressing our infrastructure needs and the climate crisis should hear from my residents directly. This is why I ran for Congress: because our struggling neighborhoods have been ignored for far too long.

Will you chip in what you can afford today so that together, we can keep fighting for our right to clean air and water?

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Communities of color (like mine) have long been on the front lines of environmental injustices.

Alongside environmental justice advocates, I’ve taken on big polluting companies that have treated our community like a dumping ground for years. We stood up to the Koch brothers and Marathon Oil, holding them accountable for dumping industrial waste in our majority-Black district.

We’ve forced state and federal agencies to push corporations like Fiat Chrysler to do more to protect public health and to address residents’ air quality concerns—because our community deserves better. Now, the fight for environmental justice is more urgent than ever.

My district includes the most polluted zip code in Michigan, 48217—where we hosted a field hearing so Congressmembers could hear from people on the ground. Here, dozens of industrial facilities are poisoning predominantly Black residents, who face high rates of asthma, cancer, brain damage, heart and respiratory diseases, miscarriages, and more.

These increased chronic health conditions make people even more susceptible to contracting and dying from COVID-19. Similarly, residents in my district are disproportionately affected by water shutoffs, which made their pandemic experience far more hazardous. Now, many people are facing displacement due to massive flooding.

Enough is enough. We deserve better. We can have good paying jobs AND breathe clean air AND drink clean water. But we need political will, resources, and a base of people who can keep the pressure on.

Can you chip in whatever you can afford today so we can keep fighting for environmental justice and to address our climate crisis?

Thank you so much. I know these issues are overwhelming, but my community’s resilience inspires me to fight harder in Congress. Here’s a recent photo from a rally with local advocates in support of the THRIVE Act for environmental justice:

Thank you for being by my side as we fight for a better world,

Rashida