Last month, WE CAN paused from our usual Mobilize Monday call to action and featured African-American, Asian-Pacific Islander, Latinx, and Native American-American Indians sister activists who have blazed a trail for effective advocacy that we can all admire. As we continue to honor their courage, tenacity, and wisdom, we must not forget that our work is not yet complete.

While we celebrated women of color, several things happened to threaten our well-being and that of our families, communities and our nation:

• Republicans launched yet another attack on health care with Attorney General William Barr saying the Justice Department didn’t go far enough when it challenged the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Now instead of attempting to kill some aspects of the ACA, the Justice Department, with broad Republican support, vows to seek a total repeal of the ACA on legal grounds leaving health coverage for tens of millions of Americans in jeopardy.
• Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia have weakened reproductive health and rights by essentially banning abortion. The most recent attack on reproductive rights says that abortion is illegal after a fetal heartbeat can be detected; typically at 6 weeks after conception. Medical science is firm that most women do not even know they are pregnant this early, so there is no possible way for a woman to have a right to choose because her choice is taken away before she even knows she needs to make a choice.
• The Department of Education indicates they will eliminate funding and supports for children with disabilities as outlined in the President’s budget proposal. The President’s budget calls for sweeping cuts to supports for children with disabilities (including developmental disabilities). When you consider that students of color are disproportionately represented in the number of students receiving special education services, this move represents yet another attack on children of color.
• The wage gap persists and is getting worse. New data from the National Partnership for Women and Families exposes the growing divide for Black women citing that closing the wage gap would allow Black women to pay for things such as 2.5 years of child care or more than 2.6 additional years of tuition and fees for a four-year public university, or the full cost of tuition and fees for a two-year community college. The wage gap is similar (or worse) for other ethnic and racial minority women and has life-long consequences to our economic security.
• Gentrification continues to plague cities with large populations of people of color. New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Diego and Chicago were hardest hit, with 20,000 African-American families being displaced in Washington, DC alone.
• Body cam video reveals that yet another defenseless Black man was shot and killed. Vallejo California police murdered Willie McCoy while he was SLEEPING in his vehicle. The all-out war on Black and Brown bodies continues in the United States.
• Special Counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation and Congress doesn’t have access to the full report. The failure of the Justice Department to release the entire report, without delay, demonstrates the ongoing disregard for the rile of law and common decency that is lacking with the current Administration.

WE CAN didn’t provide this list to make you angry. Instead, we hope to inspire you to even greater action. Now more than ever we must stay focused and advocate for ourselves and the issues that affect us, our families, and our communities.

For today’s Mobilize Monday, WE CAN invites you to wage an all-out assault against the forces that want to keep the findings from the Mueller investigation hidden. Every member of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and protect us against all enemies, foreign and domestic. FULL disclosure of the findings from the Mueller investigation will enable the Congress to fulfill their oath. Anything short of full disclosure, hinders their ability to protect American voters from any future acts by foreign sources seeking to weaken our democracy.

Congressional Oath of Office

[su_quote]”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”[/su_quote]

We have enough voter suppression activities taking place on our own soil to contend with and prepare for going into the next election. The Mueller investigation may not have found collusion by the Trump campaign, but something illegal happened for 34 people to be indicted or plead guilty. We must demand that the full powers of Congress and Federal and State prosecutors be used to get to the bottom of the whole sordid affair in time to enact laws that will protect our democracy from any future foreign attacks. The stakes are too high for us to sit this debate out. Please sign the petition below calling for your members of Congress to vigorously pursue the FULL RELEASE of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation.

 

Sincerely,

Stephanie