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 CAMPUS HIGHLIGHT…DM AWARD…MONTHLY QUOTE & IDEAS…MONEY ON MY MIND…POLITICAL UPDATE…FACTS YOU CAN USE____________________________________________________________________________________________________ CAMPUS HIGHLIGHT: Mount Holyoke College The new Democracy Matters chapter at Mt. Holyoke is effectively using interactive tabling to inform students about critical issues and build support for the club. Recent tabling supported LBGTQ+ rights, with a petition against Florida’s “Don’t’ Say Gay” bill. DM leader Kyung Ju Lee’s article in the school paper, “Grow Your Activism,” urged students to join DM. DMers also organized a lobbying workshop, and have promoted political dialogue on campus with faculty-led discussions on current issues. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ DM IN THE NEWS: U Albany For the second year in a row, the President of the University at Albany awarded the Democracy Matters chapter, led by Abby Evans and Anjalee Modasra, the “Leadership Award for Social Justice.” Congratulations to the great members of DM at UAlbany for their hard work and their dedication to creating a democracy of, by and for all the people. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE MONTH “To save democracy, we have to show it can work at home.” Bret Stephens, NYTimes Columnist https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/opinion/ukraine-russia-biden.html ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ IDEA OF THE MONTH: The DM Week of Action This year’s annual “DM April Week of Action” will culminate on Earth Day, April 22. For five consecutive days in April, DM chapters across the country organize discussions, film screenings, lectures, poster campaigns, speak-outs, rallies, and letters and calls to elected officials. On campus, DM activists highlight problems of climate change, linking hem to democracy issues like big political money from the fossil fuel industry going to politicians that has blocked adoption of renewable energy. https://www.earthday.org/ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ MONEY ON MY MIND: Countering Putin’s Lies As the horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, Mandle advocates opening a new front in the war by providing accurate information to the Russian people. With almost complete censorship of the news, Russians remain almost totally dependent on Putin’s lies to justify their country’s aggression. https://www.democracymatters.org/money_on_my_mind/countering-putins-lies ________________________________________________________________________________________________ POLITICAL UPDATES: The Bad & The Good The Bad: The war in Ukraine is devastating the country and killiing innocent Ukrainians. But at the same time, it is also threatening a wider conflagration that could engulf us all. The Good: “The Violence Against Women Act” was recently reauthorized by Congress. Though it had been enforced for over 30 years, it was allolwed to expire under the Trump Administration. Now, with its reauthorization, it can once again help protect women from sexual violence. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/3/24/22982864/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-war-brian-klaas; https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/16/fact-sheet-reauthorization-of-the-violence-against-women-act-vawa/ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ FACTS YOU CAN USE: Our Low Voter Turnout Voter turnout in United States elections is alarmingly low. Fewer than half of eligible voters go to the polls. Difficult registration procedures, an inadequate number of polling places, long-standing voter suppression, and non-competitive gerrymandered districts all cry out for reform.Typically only about slightly more than half of registered Americans vote in presidential election years. Turnout is even lower, around 40%, in off-year Congressional elections, and fewer than 30% of American voters usually bother to vote in local or municipal elections. Even our highest turnout lags shamefully far behind other democratic countries. Recent ranking of 32 democratic countries found the US near the bottom, at number 26. That year, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark topped the list, each with more than 82% of its population casting votes. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/03/in-past-elections-u-s-trailed-most-developed-countries-in-voter-turnout/ https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/voter-turnout-by-country |