[Engaged] Engaged Practice: I agree....Whats Next?

[Shoka]

Please see this post from Jundo, as a preface to this conversation and action.

From the letter:

As people of faith and conscience, we feel that it is important that we speak out clearly in defense of basic human rights at this time, calling for an immediate end to this heartless practice. In doing so, we join the voices of many religious leaders and congregations that have unreservedly condemned this policy of separation. This policy is a serious violation of the rights of the child and must be stopped today.

I have a love hate relationship with open letters calling for action. I love the fact that they often open our eyes to something, they allow us to take a stand with many others and add our name to the list. Hopefully the letter and list will go somewhere and someone will believe that if 200 or more people have signed it then it must be important and we should take note.

But what I hate is they get circulated around the internet but there often isn’t a clear path of what will happen next or steps people who agree with the letter should take.

So I’m opening the discussion… if you agree with the letter; then what’s next? What steps will you take?

Gassho,

Shoka
sattoday

[Sekishi]

Thank you Shoka.

For those of us in the United States: please PLEASE call, fax, or email your senators and tell them to encourage the President to stop this policy of separating children from their families. If you can go in person and talk to someone in your Senator's office, that would be even better!

If you do not currently know who your senator is, here is how to find out:

https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

If your senator is on the Judiciary Committee - consider encouraging them to vote for the "Keep Families Together Act" (which is currently stuck in the Judiciary Committee):

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/6/feinstein-colleagues-introduce-legislation-to-halt-separation-of-immigrant-families

For a list of Republican Senators on Judiciary Committee see:

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/members

- Chuck Grassley - IA
- Orrin Hatch - UT
- Lindsey Graham - SC
- John Cornyn - TX
- Michael Lee - UT
- Ted Cruz - TX
- Ben Sasse - NE
- Jeff Flake - AZ
- Mike Crapo - ID
- Thom Tillis - NC
- John Kennedy - LA

For a long list of resources and groups attempting to help, please see this post:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/how-you-can-fight-family-separation-at-the-border.html

Finally, keep an eye on "Families Belong Together" who organized marches last week (and hopefully will again in the near future):

https://www.familiesbelongtogether.org/

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sat

[Shinshi]

Thank you Shoka.

For those of us in the United States: please PLEASE call, fax, or email your senators and tell them to encourage the President to stop this policy of separating children from their families. If you can go in person and talk to someone in your Senator's office, that would be even better!

If you do not currently know who your senator is, here is how to find out:

https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

If your senator is on the Judiciary Committee - consider encouraging them to vote for the "Keep Families Together Act" (which is currently stuck in the Judiciary Committee):

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/6/feinstein-colleagues-introduce-legislation-to-halt-separation-of-immigrant-families

For a list of Republican Senators on Judiciary Committee see:

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/members

- Chuck Grassley - IA
- Orrin Hatch - UT
- Lindsey Graham - SC
- John Cornyn - TX
- Michael Lee - UT
- Ted Cruz - TX
- Ben Sasse - NE
- Jeff Flake - AZ
- Mike Crapo - ID
- Thom Tillis - NC
- John Kennedy - LA

For a long list of resources and groups attempting to help, please see this post:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/how-you-can-fight-family-separation-at-the-border.html

Finally, keep an eye on "Families Belong Together" who organized marches last week (and hopefully will again in the near future):

https://www.familiesbelongtogether.org/

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sat

I agree with all of the above. I was emailing today and was really surprised that, as far as I can tell, every legislator uses forms for email. You can't just get their email address. The best site I found for contacting legislators was this one. Provides both your representative in the House and Senate.

https://www.contactingcongress.org/

the nice thing is that it also automatically provides links to their twitter and facebook feeds.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Jundo]

If you would like to sign a public petition accompanying this Letter, please do so here:

https://chn.ge/2JP3XHy

Thank you.

Gassho, Jundo

[Mp]

If you would like to sign a public petition accompanying this Letter, please do so here:

https://chn.ge/2JP3XHy

Thank you.

Gassho, Jundo

Thank you Jundo, I have signed it.

Gassho
Shingen

[Meian]

Thank you for these posts and "call to action" -- taking action on these things tonight in my neighborhood circles.

gassho
kim

[Shinshi]

If you would like to sign a public petition accompanying this Letter, please do so here:

https://chn.ge/2JP3XHy

Thank you.

Gassho, Jundo

Also signed.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Shonin]

Signed and donated.
Dave _/\_ SAT LAH

[Shoka]

Hi everyone,

So the current action I'm taking is educating myself. As is typical with hot topics there are so many news stories flying around and not everything is the most reliable. In reading several articles, I found out that the children in these cases aren't provided with a lawyers. Which for me seems like a huge problem.

Imagine being a child in a foreign country and being on your own. I remember getting lost in a store when I was like 8 or so, and I was terrified. I was only loss for a few minutes, but it was horrifying. After that my mom talked with all us kids about what to do if we were lost. But I can't imagine trying to figure out what was going on or what to do in a court or detention system.

There are many organizations which are providing free support for the children.

Some of them are below:

RAICES: This Texas-based organization offers free and low-cost legal services to immigrant children and families.

Pueblo Sin Fronteras: This organization provides humanitarian aid and shelter to migrants on their way to the U.S.

Together Rising: This Virginia-based organization is helping provide legal assistance for 60 migrant children who were separated from their parents and are currently detained in Arizona.

Al Otro Lado: This bi-national organization works providing legal services to deportees and migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, including deportee parents whose children remain in the U.S.

The Florence Project: This Arizona-based organization offers free legal services to men, women, and unaccompanied children in immigration custody.

Texas Civil Rights Project: This organization has been using legal advocacy and litigation to help families separated at the border.

Border Angels: This California-based organization supports San Diego County's immigrant population and focuses on issues related to the U.S.-Mexico border.


Visibility and Amplification are also very important in causes like this. Looking around it seems that the major protests occurred last Friday, but I would venture to guess that if the issue isn't resolved soon there will be more. Signing petitions and spreading the word will help to keep the pressure up as well.

Thanks to others who are sharing ideas of what to do.

Gassho,

Shoka
sattoday

[Troy]

Engaged Practice: I agree....Whats Next?

If you would like to sign a public petition accompanying this Letter, please do so here:

https://chn.ge/2JP3XHy

Thank you.

Gassho, Jundo

Signed. I also attempted to write the Republican Senator in my state but received an error message his website is down for maintenance. I will try again later. The democratic senator in my state already seems to be on it.


Sat2day

[Meian]

As more info comes in here, I am sharing the info to my local circles of Buddhists and interfaith activist communities. They in turn are sharing it as well.

No personal or identifying information from TreeLeaf is being posted with this info -- just the info (links and instructions) itself.

Thank you for all you (plural) are doing, and for making this possible.

Gassho rei
Kim
St lh

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[Shoka]

Hi all,

Thanks to Sekishi for the great post on government action that can be taken. I had the great pleasure of meeting with some political leaders and there was one really valuable bit of information I walked away with.... when people call, wrote or show up to talk about something they taken it seriously. Of the thousands of people they represent even few take the time, so when people do they listen.

Also here is another petition which you could consider signing:

https://www.change.org/p/department-of-homeland-security-stop-tearing-families-apart

Gassho,

Shoka
sattoday


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[Hoseki]

Hi guys,


I'm finding this so overwhelming. I feel so powerless and frustrated!

Gassho

Hoseki
Sattoday

[Jakuden]

Michael Avenatti is putting the word out that he wants to represent parents and children who have been separated at the border (Stormy Daniels ‘ lawyer) You can find him on Twitter.

Thanks for getting this going Shoka, I too have signed some online petitions but I will look into contacting senators as well.
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH


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[Eishuu]

Hi guys,


I'm finding this so overwhelming. I feel so powerless and frustrated!

Gassho

Hoseki
Sattoday

Me too. I just read that the US is pulling out of the UN Human Rights Council. The amount of trauma those kids will have is heartbreaking. I'm going to see if there are any petitions to ask UK politicians/PM to put pressure on Trump by publically condemning his actions. Maybe if we can channel the pressure through political channels it could have an impact...but he does seem to be digging his heals in.

Gassho
Eishuu
ST/LAH