#lennox yearwood jr.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jack Jenkins at RNS:

(RNS) — A diverse group of Christians is throwing support behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ White House bid, organizing fundraisers and Zoom calls in hopes of helping catapult the Democrat to victory in November — and, they say, reclaiming their faith from Republicans in the process. Their efforts come on the heels of similar campaigns aimed at specific constituency groups, such as the recent “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom call that featured celebrities and grabbed headlines. John Pavlovitz, a liberal-leaning Christian author and activist, was on that call when he hatched the idea for a Christian-centric version and texted his friend Malynda Hale, a singer, actress and fellow activist. “We had a conversation about how, specifically on the Democratic side of the political spectrum, you don’t hear a lot of people talking about their faith,” Hale told Religion News Service in an interview. “We wanted people to know that there are progressive Christians, there are Christians on the Democratic, left-leaning side, so that they didn’t feel alone.”

The result was Christians for Kamala, a part-fundraiser, part-virtual roundtable livestreamed event on Monday (Aug. 12). Featured speakers cited their faith as they praised liberal policies and personally endorsed Harris — who recently entered the presidential race after President Joe Biden bowed out — and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Over the course of the nearly three-hour event, the group raised more than $150,000 for the Harris campaign, a number that has climbed to just shy of $200,000 in the days since. “It’s been really difficult to keep up with the flood of comments and connections that have been coming in,” said Pavlovitz, who said the only formal help he received from the Harris campaign was in setting up a donation system for fundraising. A number of Christian groups — including evangelicals, a constituency key to former President Donald Trump’s base — have assembled similar calls in the lead up to next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Most have had little to no assistance from the official Harris-Walz campaign, which, barely a month old, has yet to announced a dedicated faith outreach director. The emerging grassroots coalition vies not only to bolster Harris but also to push back on what organizers say is a false assumption that to be Christian is to be a Republican — or a supporter of former President Donald Trump.

[...] That diversity was on display during the Christians for Kamala call, which included a mix of faith leaders such as the Rev. Jacqui Lewis, of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, and the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., head of the nonprofit Hip Hop Caucus; activists like environmentalist Bill McKibben and LGBTQ+ rights advocate Charlotte Clymer; commentators such as CNN’s Van Jones; and politicians, including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Texas State Rep. James Talarico. The speakers linked their support for specific policies, such as working to blunt the impacts of climate change or passing immigration reform, to their faith and Christian Scripture. Some rebuked conservative Christianity’s ties to the GOP, calling it a form of Christian nationalism. “My faith in Jesus leads me to reject Christian nationalism and commit myself to the project of a multiracial, multicultural democracy where we can all freely love God and fully love our neighbors,” said Talarico, a Presbyterian Church (USA) seminarian who has been vocal in his condemnation of Christian nationalism in his state. “That same faith leads me to support Vice President Harris to be the next president of the United States.”

Although a member of a mainline denomination, Talarico was also a speaker on a separate “Evangelicals for Harris” Zoom call assembled on Wednesday evening. Organized by Faith Voters, a 501(c)4 organization, the effort was geared toward conservative Christians who have disproportionately sided with Trump. The call struck a different tone than Christians for Kamala: some speakers noted they had never endorsed a candidate before, and at least one pastor suggested he was risking friendships and relationships with his congregation by participating.

[...] The calls add to a slate of organizing efforts launched in recent days aimed at specific religious groups. Nearly 500 faith leaders have signed on to a letter endorsing Harris, a “Latter-day Saints for Harris” call was convened last week and multiple separate calls have been organized for Jewish Americans — including one on Thursday that targeted Jewish women and featured singer Barbra Streisand. A separate “Catholics for Kamala” call, facilitated in part by the Harris campaign, was also slated for this week but organizers rescheduled it until after the Democratic National Convention, citing scheduling conflicts. According to Pavlovitz, his group is already partnering with others, such as Catholics for Kamala, Christian Democrats of America and Vote Common Good. What form their collaborations take remains to be seen, but Pavlovitz said he is hopeful for whatever comes next.

Christians fed up with the religious right’s monopolization of what it means to be a Christian rallied to support Kamala Harris on multiple recent calls, such as Christians For Harris and Evangelicals For Harris. Christians need to vote for the REAL Christian in the race, and that’s Harris (and not antichrist Trump). #HarrisWalz2024

[reasoningdaily]

A large choir sings as the Rev. Otis Moss III, senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ, leads the service, January 15, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois.

(RNS) At Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, members and neighbors buy fruits and vegetables from a black farmers market and work in an organic garden named after botanist George Washington Carver.

They recycle their church bulletins, plan to renovate their building with a “green” roof and have purchased 27 acres for a community project that will include an urban farm.

“By any greens necessary,” the Rev. Otis Moss III, the church’s pastor, likes to say.

When it comes to African-American churches and a focus on the environment, Moss and his congregation are the exception rather than the rule.

Moss said many of his black clergy colleagues are less interested in conservation and tell him: “That’s your thing.”

Black congregations have tended to focus on their members’ basic needs — getting jobs, rearing children, pursuing higher education.

Environmental matters have been a lower priority, said the Rev. Dianne Glave, author of “Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage.”

But although often reluctant to get on board, African-American churches are being encouraged to be advocates for conservation and environmental policy. And some have already answered the call. At a White House event this week (Feb. 25), three black clergy spoke at panel discussions on environmental justice and climate action.

The Rev. Lennox Yearwood, CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, which works to engage young minorities on policy issues, takes part in marches on the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that challenge the fossil fuel industry. As churches were once urged to stop divesting in businesses supporting apartheid in South Africa, he encourages congregations to divest from oil, gas and coal industries and invest in clean energy instead. In early March, he’s the speaker at a Washington church event linking climate change and civil rights.

“There’s always many African-American leaders who are vocal,” he said. “I think the question is how we get the base of the congregations as vocal.”

He and other experts — many who are in the younger generation that has followed civil rights veterans — say they are working to bridge a gap between environmentalists and African-American churchgoers. They counter notions about lack of money and time to deal with seemingly esoteric issues by emphasizing how attention to the environment can reduce energy costs and lead to healthier eating habits in neighborhoods with no grocery stores.

The Rev. Ambrose Carroll introduced a 10-minute video on black churches and environmental issues at his Berkeley, Calif., church in early February. It linked climate change to adverse affects on the black community, such as children with asthma. A fellow of Green For All, which fosters diverse networks to support green industries, Carroll hopes the video will be a tool to reach out to denominational leaders and seminarians.

He also plans to connect with environmental groups that have more successfully brought white churches on board with their efforts.

“They haven’t really been able to translate that message to why it’s important to people of color,” said Carroll.

That’s why GreenFaith, a national organization that builds environmental leadership through congregations, drafted Yearwood to lead a Black History Month webinar to discuss “eco-leadership and divestment” with African-American churches.

“We have found that the best ways to engage African-American congregations on these issues is through the lens of financial stewardship and health,” said the Rev. Fletch Harper, executive director of GreenFaith. His organization recently enlisted an African Methodist Episcopal congregation in New Jersey that it expects will be the first black church to complete its certification process, which includes making the buildings, worship and programs more environmentally friendly.

Since 2008, the Rev. Michael McClain, a National Baptist Convention, USA, minister, has worked in five Southeastern states, building black congregations’ awareness of climate change and its adverse effects on poor people and people of color. As the regional field coordinator of Creation Justice Ministries, a spinoff from the National Council of Churches, he’s organized trips to Capitol Hill so clergy can lobby for cleaner air and a reduction in carbon pollution.

At local, regional and national gatherings of black churches, he has sounded this warning: “An unhealthy congregation would soon be no congregation.”

Moss, the pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ, said some are beginning to listen when he talks about the economic payoffs from connecting with farmers and reducing the costs of operating a church building.

Last year, the megachurch cut down on thousands of bulletins it prints for Sunday services by getting congregants to start using a mobile app instead.

“We’re trying to make all the connections,” Moss said. “Green is an act of social justice.”

[yasbxxgie]

How Hip-Hop Brings Green Issues to Communities of Color The environmental movement has largely failed to connect with people of color and marginalized urban communities. By confronting issues from contaminated water to climate change, Hip-Hop music has helped bridge that divide and bring home the realities of environmental injustice. 

When I was diversity director at North Carolina State University, part of my job was to recruit young people — often from communities of color — into the College of Natural Resources. It could be a struggle; these were talented and creative kids, but often they didn’t see how environmental or sustainability issues were relevant to their lives.

Then, a mentor who knew that I was a hip hop artist, made a suggestion: Why not try to reach them through your music? “Whatever comes naturally to you always captures peoples’ attention,” he said. On the next recruitment trip, I took his advice.

After introducing myself, I told the kids in the auditorium, “OK, when I pause, I want you all to say, ‘Come on.’” Then I began.

Here’s my minority report. About what’s going on with the poor. No clean water, got liquor stores…

Suddenly these kids were listening.

No banks, good housing can’t afford. Got drugs, got guns, got more. Dope boys, no books, gym floor. Deadpool, can’t swim, lead in my pores Contaminated mentally challenged, I’m sore…

Now I had their attention. As we went through the lyrics again, the students started to make the connections between access to natural resources and community health, between representation and environmental justice. This wasn’t just about going to college, I told them – this was about having a voice, about doing something about these injustices, such as unsafe drinking water and lead contamination. And they got it.

Hip hop [Hip-Hop] has been speaking to peoples’ struggles since it came out of South Bronx in the 1970s, whether it’s been about poverty, racism, or gun violence. Why shouldn’t it be about environmental justice, too?

Ever since, I’ve been using hip hop — or a philosophy that I call “hip hop forestry” or “hip hop sustainability” — to create a bridge for young people to environmental issues.

That bridge is sorely needed. Although people of color in the United States face elevated risk from environmental harms — including air pollution, hazardous waste, and flooding — their voices are often neglected in important discussions about environmental policy. In many cases, they simply aren’t at the table. A 2014 survey of environmental nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies, conducted by Dorceta Taylor of the University of Michigan, found that while people of color make up 36 percent of the U.S. population, they constitute no more than 16 percent of the workforce of any environmental organization. The result, Taylor argued, was the emergence of a disproportionately white “green insiders club.”

This isn’t because environmental professionals do not want to speak to people of color or that people of color don’t want a seat at that table. Too often, I believe, it’s that these different groups are simply speaking different languages. Those in the environmental fields are accustomed to speaking to small audiences that understand a specialized language that does not resonate with people of color.

Too often people in these communities dismiss environmental concerns because they have other pressing issues in their lives — in many cases, they’re in survival mode — and they believe “the environment” is disconnected from their experiences. We need to find forms of communication that resonate with those affected by climate change, pollution, food insecurity, contaminated water, and toxic exposures, and that speak to their values.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, which works to bridge the gap between communities of color and environmental advocacy, has seen this play out in the larger climate movement. His organization has a project called People’s Climate Music that issued a 2014 climate-inspired album. “Within the movement we have a tendency to make this much harder than it needs to be,” Yearwood said. “Climate change is definitely a scientific issue, but if we come at the discussion strictly from that direction it limits the ability to grow [the movement] and invite more people to be a part of it.”

“We want to break down the silos,” he said. “Sometimes people feel like they have to be invited to the movement or invited to the conversation. We’re trying to create new things that people can see themselves in.”

This is where hip hop sustainability can make a difference. Hip hop is a form of expression created by the marginalized communities of color I am trying to reach.

Popular hip hop artists have brought attention to the challenges facing impoverished communities in cities across America.

If you listen closely, you’ll hear in the music stories about the environment and how it affects communities. In his 1999 song “New World Water,” Brooklyn native Yasiin Bey (then known as Mos Def) breaks down the challenges some communities face in getting clean water, especially in the urban environment.

It’s the new world water, and every drop counts You can laugh and take it as a joke if you wanna But it don’t rain for four weeks some summers And it’s about to get real wild in the half You be buying Evian just to take a f___in’ bath Heads is acting wild, sippin’ poor, puffin’ dank Competin’ with the next man for higher playin’ rank See I ain’t got time try to be Big Hank, F___ a bank; I need a twenty-year water tank ‘Cause while these knuckleheads is out here sweatin’ they goods The sun is sitting in the treetops burnin’ the woods And as the flames from the blaze get higher and higher They say, ‘Don’t drink the water! We need it for the fire!’

In the 1995 Goodie Mob song “Soul Food,” Cee Lo Green writes:

Smoke steams from under the lid that’s on the pot Ain’t never had a lot but thankful for The little that I got why not be Fast food got me feeling sick Them crackers think they slick By trying to make this bullshit affordable I thank the Lord that my voice was recordable

Now I don’t think Cee Lo would say he’s speaking about an environmental issue. But he sure was speaking about food justice and food deserts.

For that matter, I wouldn’t call myself an environmental rapper. I’d say I am a rapper who happens to be environmentally conscious and who is aware that, like everyone else, my decisions can hurt the planet and what happens to the planet can hurt me. In one song I write about poor air quality and how the absence of trees and green spaces — and the abundance of concrete in public housing projects — affects human well-being. In another I touch on the role trees play in promoting clean air and clean water.

Forestry’s the practice, hip hop the religion Both made by humans, both imperfect make a new tradition This hip hop forestry, our trees are not a commodity They are our teachers showing how to live on troubled land and live in harmony This hip hop forestry because both rose from the underground One changed landscapes, the other changes the landscape of sound… Hip hop forestry, emissions we don’t do carbon copies We cross-pollinate culture and we respect our water of bodies

Clearly, many young people, like those teens in North Carolina, might not be putting much thought into these issues. Which is why hip hop [Hip-Hop] can serve as such a valuable entry point. I want kids to think about the environment, to write about the environment, to rap about the environment. Not just because it will strengthen their artistry — and may even create some new poets — but because it will increase their awareness of environmental injustice. And if we do that, there’s every reason to believe some will dig in deeper, want to learn more about the facts and the science, and discover how interconnected all these issues are. Some may even decide to go into an environmental field where they’re so badly needed.

I always tell young people: If no one hears you, then how will your concerns be heard? You know what’s happening in your communities, and you should be able to articulate this. But first you have to get into the room and make your voice heard. Otherwise no one will know.

If they do get into that room, they’ll probably find that few people at the table look like them. But if we have any chance at resolving the environmental threats facing so many of our communities, they’re going to have to be at that table.

[v]

Photograph:

Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, at a climate rally in Washington, D.C.

[laurastudarus]

In 1916, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill declaring Yellowstone the nation’s first national park, thereby placing it under government protection for preservation of its wildlife. Just last year, Greta Thunberg took a zero-carbon yacht across the Atlantic to meet with elected officials to demand action to halt climate change. On the surface Conservationism seems like a fairly straightforward proposition: protect the natural world, and assure that we leave a world behind for our ancestors. But, as the countless environmental warriors that have come since Grant, join Thunberg in calls for action, and continue to fight for green justice prove, protecting our planet takes more than a good guiding principal.

(via The Courage to Combat the Climate Crisis)

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this Op-Ed in the New York Times, written by Lennox Yearwood Jr. and Bill McKibben:

We want people to understand that the money inside the vaults of banks like Chase is driving the climate crisis. Cutting off that flow of cash may be the single quickest step we can take to rein in the fossil fuel industry and slow the rapid warming of the earth.

JPMorgan Chase isn’t the only offender, but it is among the worst. In the last three years, according to data compiled in a recently released “fossil fuel finance report card” by a group of environmental organizations, JPMorgan Chase lent over $195 billion to gas and oil companies.

For comparison, Wells Fargo lent over $151 billion, Citibank lent over $129 billion and Bank of America lent over $106 billion. Since the Paris climate accord, which 195 countries agreed to in 2015, JPMorgan Chase has been the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels by a 29 percent margin.

This investment sends a message that’s as clear as President Trump’s shameful decision to pull America out of that pact: Short-term profits are more important than the long-term health of the planet.

There are few financial institutions untouched by these climate change-causing investments. Amalgamated Bank, Aspiration and Beneficial State Bank are notable exceptions. Local credit unions rarely have major investments in fossil fuels.

JPMorgan Chase, in contrast, has funded the very worst projects — projects that expand the reach of fossil fuel infrastructure and lock in our dependence on fossil fuels for decades to come.

[multipleservicelisting]

Capitol Rioters Walked Away. Climate Protesters Saw a Double Standard.

The relatively small number of arrests after a mob stormed the Capitol left many environmental activists shaken on Thursday — and wanting answers. Why did so many people who brought destruction into the home of American democracy simply walk away after doing so much damage, not just to a building but to the nation’s sense of itself?

The Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., a minister and community activist who heads the Hip Hop Caucus, a civil and human rights group, called the sight of the rioters being led out of the Capitol seemingly without repercussions “heartbreaking.” Mr. Yearwood has a long history of protest on a range of issues and has been arrested, and even beaten, as a result.

“We know we’re going to go through that punishment” as part of fighting for cleaner energy, for environmental justice, for a better world, he said. “Up until yesterday, I thought, ‘This is how it’s done. You stop business, you’re going to be arrested, you’re going to be treated this way,” he said.

“Yesterday changed all that,” he said. Some rioters carried weapons, injured police and committed acts of vandalism, and “certain police allowed them to walk away.”

“There’s two worlds,” he said. “And we’ve got to fix that.”

Jacquelyn Gill, a scientist at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, said on Twitter that “More people were arrested in the nonviolent 2018 climate change protests at the Capitol than were arrested in the violent insurrection at the Capitol in 2021.”

Washington protests have long been a part of climate change activism and other movements, and so have arrests.

In the fall of 2019 and into January 2020, the actress Jane Fonda attended weekly protests known as Fire Drill Fridays to bring attention to climate change. Ms. Fonda was arrested five times, as were other celebrities including Sam Waterston and Martin Sheen. In all, more than 600 arrests occurred over the course of those protests alone, from 16 at the first demonstration to more than 300 at the final demonstration on Jan. 11, 2020.

Those numbers pale in comparison to the more than 10,000 arrests last year related to protests over racism and police brutality around the country, as counted by The Associated Press, many on minor charges such as failure to disperse or curfew violations.

Bill McKibben, a writer and activist who said he has been arrested four times in Washington alone, and a half-dozen times at other protests, called nonviolent civil disobedience based on the examples of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and the suffragists “one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.”

“At its best, it catches people’s hearts,” he said.

And central to the idea of peaceful civil disobedience is the willingness to accept a penalty, including arrest.

By comparison, he said, the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday involved violence and vandalism, and some members of the mob carried weapons and zip-tie handcuffs. “These guys were intent on inflicting suffering and punishment on other people — it’s the opposite of civil disobedience,” Mr. McKibben said. “And oddly, it was met with the opposite reaction.”

Of course, confronting a violent, potentially armed mob is not the same as dealing with orderly protesters who may intend to get arrested, and the police might well be reluctant to escalate confrontations that could easily lead to bloodshed and loss of life.

“It is incumbent upon all of us,” she said, to compare the images from the Capitol riot with the images of the treatment of past protesters “and ask probing questions about the difference.”

Many states, she added, are trying to stiffen charges for protests involving infrastructure, “all aimed at deterring people expressing messages that those in power do not like.”

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. made a similar observation on Thursday. “No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” he said. “We all know that’s true, and it is unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.”

Mr. Yearwood was arrested last year in Washington along with Mr. McKibben for a sit-down protest in a Chase Bank; they were trying to draw attention to the financial pipeline between major financial institutions and the fossil fuel industry. Always, he said, the goal is “being nonviolent, being as peaceful as possible,” and working with the police, “recognizing the job they have to do” in restoring order.

The comparatively lenient response to the overwhelmingly white protesters on Wednesday, he said, “was the epitome of white supremacy,” and a dangerous precedent for the future of protest in the United States. He said he feared that in the future, young activists would tell him when he advised a nonviolent path that “all the peace stuff you talk about, Rev and Bill, that doesn’t work.”

“And that leads to destruction,” he said.

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[orbemnews]

Capitol Rioters Walked Away. Local weather Protesters Noticed a Double Commonplace. The comparatively small variety of arrests after a mob stormed the Capitol left many environmental activists shaken on Thursday — and wanting solutions. Why did so many individuals who introduced destruction into the house of American democracy merely stroll away after doing a lot harm, not simply to a constructing however to the nation’s sense of itself? The Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., a minister and group activist who heads the Hip Hop Caucus, a civil and human rights group, known as the sight of the rioters being led out of the Capitol seemingly with out repercussions “heartbreaking.” Mr. Yearwood has an extended historical past of protest on a variety of points and has been arrested, and even overwhelmed, consequently. “We all know we’re going to undergo that punishment” as a part of combating for cleaner vitality, for environmental justice, for a greater world, he stated. “Up till yesterday, I assumed, ‘That is the way it’s completed. You cease enterprise, you’re going to be arrested, you’re going to be handled this fashion,” he stated. “Yesterday modified all that,” he stated. Some rioters carried weapons, injured police and dedicated acts of vandalism, and “sure police allowed them to stroll away.” “There’s two worlds,” he stated. “And we’ve acquired to repair that.” Jacquelyn Gill, a scientist on the College of Maine’s Local weather Change Institute, stated on Twitter that “Extra individuals had been arrested within the nonviolent 2018 local weather change protests on the Capitol than had been arrested within the violent revolt on the Capitol in 2021.” Washington protests have lengthy been part of local weather change activism and different actions, and so have arrests. Within the fall of 2019 and into January 2020, the actress Jane Fonda attended weekly protests often known as Fireplace Drill Fridays to carry consideration to local weather change. Ms. Fonda was arrested 5 occasions, as had been different celebrities together with Sam Waterston and Martin Sheen. In all, greater than 600 arrests occurred over the course of these protests alone, from 16 on the first demonstration to greater than 300 on the ultimate demonstration on Jan. 11, 2020. These numbers pale compared to the greater than 10,000 arrests final yr associated to protests over racism and police brutality across the nation, as counted by The Related Press, many on minor costs comparable to failure to disperse or curfew violations. Invoice McKibben, a author and activist who stated he has been arrested 4 occasions in Washington alone, and a half-dozen occasions at different protests, known as nonviolent civil disobedience based mostly on the examples of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and the suffragists “one of many best innovations of the twentieth century.” “At its greatest, it catches individuals’s hearts,” he stated. And central to the concept of peaceable civil disobedience is the willingness to simply accept a penalty, together with arrest. By comparability, he stated, the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday concerned violence and vandalism, and a few members of the mob carried weapons and zip-tie handcuffs. “These guys had been intent on inflicting struggling and punishment on different individuals — it’s the alternative of civil disobedience,” Mr. McKibben stated. “And oddly, it was met with the alternative response.” In fact, confronting a violent, probably armed mob isn’t the identical as coping with orderly protesters who might intend to get arrested, and the police may effectively be reluctant to escalate confrontations that would simply result in bloodshed and lack of life. “It’s incumbent upon all of us,” she stated, to match the pictures from the Capitol riot with the pictures of the therapy of previous protesters “and ask probing questions in regards to the distinction.” Many states, she added, try to stiffen costs for protests involving infrastructure, “all aimed toward deterring individuals expressing messages that these in energy don’t like.” President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. made an analogous remark on Thursday. “Nobody can inform me that if it had been a bunch of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been handled very, very in a different way than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” he stated. “Everyone knows that’s true, and it’s unacceptable. Completely unacceptable.” Mr. Yearwood was arrested final yr in Washington together with Mr. McKibben for a sit-down protest in a Chase Financial institution; they had been making an attempt to attract consideration to the monetary pipeline between main monetary establishments and the fossil gas trade. At all times, he stated, the purpose is “being nonviolent, being as peaceable as potential,” and dealing with the police, “recognizing the job they should do” in restoring order. The comparatively lenient response to the overwhelmingly white protesters on Wednesday, he stated, “was the epitome of white supremacy,” and a harmful precedent for the way forward for protest in the USA. He stated he feared that sooner or later, younger activists would inform him when he suggested a nonviolent path that “all of the peace stuff you speak about, Rev and Invoice, that doesn’t work.” “And that results in destruction,” he stated. Supply hyperlink #Capitol #Climate #double #protesters #rioters #standard #Walked

[globalnewses]

Capitol Rioters Walked Away. Climate Protesters Saw a Double Standard.

Capitol Rioters Walked Away. Climate Protesters Saw a Double Standard.

The relatively small number of arrests after a mob stormed the Capitol left many environmental activists shaken on Thursday — and wanting answers. Why did so many people who brought destruction into the home of American democracy simply walk away after doing so much damage, not just to a building but to the nation’s sense of itself? The Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., a minister and community activist…

[rjhamster]

With Denis Hayes, Jenny Odell, Jedediah Britton-Purdy, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr., and Jamie Margolin

[javierpenadea]

"Want to Do Something About Climate Change? Follow the Money" by BY LENNOX YEARWOOD JR. AND BILL MCKIBBEN via NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/36FGH6h

[izayoi1242]

Want to Do Something About Climate Change? Follow the Money

By BY LENNOX YEARWOOD JR. AND BILL MCKIBBEN Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Bank of America are the worst offenders. Published: January 12, 2020 at 01:00AM from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/36FGH6h via IFTTT

[dizzedcom]

Trump bailed on Paris Agreement. D.C. goes green anyway

Trump bailed on Paris Agreement. D.C. goes green anyway

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is the president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund. He is a minister, community activist, and organizer, and one of the most influential people in hip hop political life. Find out more about the Hip Hop Caucus and follow him on Twitter @RevYearwood.

On June 1, 2017, President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Climate…

[nedsecondline]

Peoples Climate March Will Show the World Americans Care about Climate Change

Peoples Climate March Will Show the World Americans Care about Climate Change

By Abigail Dillen | Thursday, April 27, 2017

Marchers in the 2014 Peoples Climate March. Saturday’s Peoples Climate March in Washington, D.C., will be an expression of solidarity, determination and hope for the future.

Joe Brusky/CC BY-NC 2.0

The first People’s Climate March in 2014 was the largest climate change mobilization in history, and it made a difference. The 2017 Peoples Climate March tomorrow can be an even brighter beacon in this dark moment.

For years in the U.S., there was an inverse relationship between the urgency of the climate threat and the intensity of public concern. For all the hard work that smart, committed people were doing to fight climate change, there was no organized, broad-based insistence on climate action. In 2010, Democrats, who overwhelmingly favor climate action in polls, had control of both Congress and the White House. They passed bills on health care and Wall Street reform, but climate legislation died in the Senate. Clean power didn’t have enough people power behind it.   

Then, on September 21, 2014, the people hit the streets.

Then, on September 21, 2014, the people hit the streets. Four hundred thousand of us turned out in New York City for the People’s Climate March—exceeding all expectations—and we were joined by an estimated 200,000 people in 162 other countries. Thanks to inspired organizing and the vision of every single person who showed up, that march proved to the world that there is a powerful movement to protect the planet.

More mobilization and even more progress followed, including the Obama administration’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, the establishment of the Clean Power Plan, the signing of the Paris climate agreement, a moratorium on federal coal leasing, the first ever limits on methane pollution from the oil and gas industry and a pause on construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline—in short, concrete climate action.

Yes, President Obama understood profoundly the climate threat we face. But remember that he was also a pragmatist who endorsed “clean coal” and a rush to drill for natural gas when it helped politically. We, the people in the streets, created the political space for him to act.   

The climate movement has grown even stronger since that march two and a half years ago.

The climate movement has grown even stronger since that march two and a half years ago. Just in time because the mountain we are climbing just got higher. Or maybe it’s just that the mists at the top have cleared and we now have a crystal clear view of the folks who are making a killing on oil, gas and coal. No longer content to simply buy influence, they’re now running the government.

In these times, when the fundamentals of democracy, justice and the future of the planet are all in jeopardy, each of us is a historical figure. There are few relatively easy moments to stand on the right side of history—but Saturday is one of them.

Here are my three wishes for this year’s Peoples Climate March:

1. Let the turn-out be huge!

Huge enough to give the world hope that our carbon-crazy nation is not turning its back on the planet. Huge enough to alert the authorities that we, the people, won’t settle for less than climate security and climate justice. Please show up in whatever way you can on Saturday. If, like me, you can’t be in Washington, D.C., join a sister march and bring the change wherever you are! Talk to your friends and family about the climate movement; we talk too little to the people we love most about this terrifying reality and how we can help fix it. 

2. Please, make solidarity real.

Climate change is the existential example of how inequity plays out in our society. And that inequity extends to the experience and safety of marching, which depend on your skin color and your privilege. We won’t prevail without courage, awareness and deep solidarity. To see what I mean, please read this blog post by a great climate leader, Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr., who was racially profiled and assaulted by police at the March for Science last week. We all need to look out for one other on Saturday and every day. 

3. Let this be just the start.

Let this march galvanize enough resistance to take us beyond the Trump administration and transform the whole public discourse and system of political accountability around climate change.  

White paper birds soar above the crowd at the 2014 Peoples Climate March.

Joe Brusky/CC BY-NC 2.0

If you need to get your outrage on, check out the many ways this president and Congress are working to pollute your air and water for the benefit of fossil fuel interests. Or just read the text of the President’s recent executive order on climate change and its rejection of every single good idea for federal action in the face of this unprecedented crisis. 

And then, if you need a nice pick-me-up, check out Earthjustice’s feature “Bright Spots from the Resistance: Why there’s Hope for Climate and Clean Energy Progress.” We will spur the rise of clean energy state by state, as long as we can defend the basics—strong environmental laws, strong courts and a powerful will to address climate change. That’s where all of us come in.

Click here to learn more about the Peoples Climate March and find out how you can join the march in Washington, D.C., or a city near you. Download and print your own signs for the march here. (Pósters en español.)

Tags:  Air, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Trump Administration