Dear Progressive Reader,
The Select Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol continues its work, in spite of stonewalling from many in the former administration. Meanwhile, many of the issues that led up to the events of January 6 remain unresolved. Across the country, investigations into false claims of voter fraud continue to fuel attempts to limit the voting rights of everyday citizens. As Mike Ervin points out in his column this week, Republican efforts to restrict access to the polls for people of color are also impacting people with disabilities. In addition, as Mark Fiore illustrates, a new two-part investigation from Reuters finds court documents that show that AT&T has been the largest funder of the rightwing “news” network OAN which is best known for spreading false information about the 2020 elections (and about fake COVID-19 treatments).
Delilah Gray reports on the tragic global increase in maternal mortality. “Coronavirus-related deaths are increasing among unvaccinated pregnant people and it’s likely due to misinformation and a lack of access to health care services,” she says. Michael J. Moore, an inmate in a Washington State prison facility, sends word of increased COVID-19 outbreaks combined with a disregard for social distancing in U.S. prisons, in part due to a concern over cost savings. Meanwhile, Eric Stoner of Waging Nonviolence pens an op-ed on how the United States could, and should, take the lead in the world vaccine effort. “The United States is fully able to end this pandemic once and for all,” he notes.
Edward Hunt reports this week on calls from United Nations leaders for the world to expand the social safety net. “The pandemic exposed the extent of global inequality, and world leaders still seem to be making the problem worse,” he writes. “In July 2020, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for the creation of a ‘New Social Contract and a New Global Deal,’ ” Hunt continues. “Fearing that the pandemic was leading the world toward a bleak future where a privileged elite continue living in luxury while everyone else struggles to survive, Guterres viewed these protections as the best means of reducing growing inequality and averting social collapse.” However, as Kathy Kelly notes, another group within the U.N., at the same time, has voted to end the mandate of the group monitoring human rights in the Saudi-led war on Yemen. “The lobbyists who’ve served the Saudi government so well have certainly made a name for themselves in Washington, D.C., and beyond,” Kelly writes. “Grassroots activists committed to ending human rights abuses must uphold solidarity with civil society groups defending human rights in Yemen and Afghanistan. Governments waging war and protecting human rights abusers must immediately end their pernicious practices.”
Last weekend, the Public Schools Advocate project of The Progressive hosted an hour-long panel at the NetRoots Nation conference. You can watch it now on YouTube. As the “culture wars” around educational curriculum continue to rage, Eleanor Bader describes the story of a Rhode Island school board member facing harassment for promoting the teaching of anti-racism. As of this writing, Bader explains, “in twenty-eight states, legislators have introduced bills to restrict what students can be taught about racism, bias, and the contributions of Black, Asian and Latinx groups to U.S. history. Eleven states have enacted them.” Meanwhile, as Marco Salinas writes from Texas, “more than a year after leading the largest social uprising in U.S. history, initially sparked by the police murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement is exploring new possibilities of organizing with local activists to directly aid their communities.”
Finally, I was saddened to learn of the passing this week of civil rights activist and people's historian Timuel Black of Chicago at age 102. He lived a full and important life. In 2019 I reviewed his autobiography for The Progressive. The book was a project he undertook in part at the behest of Studs Terkel, and completed at the age of 100 with the aid of friends Susan Klonsky and Bart Schultz. In this wonderful and powerful book, Black reminds us, “There is still a lot to overcome. But we have overcome a lot, and we need to remember that. We can still do the impossible, maybe even the miraculous.”
Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
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