News & Notes, May 2020
Upcoming state and local elections. The political and economic impacts of the Corona virus. Unemployment. Increasing demand at food pantries. Planning to reopen safely. Social distancing. Uneven impacts of the crisis. The wholesale loss of health insurance. Failing small businesses. Medicare for all. Climate change. Budget deficits. Voter suppression.
Want to write about any of these issues? We want you to write about them too! The DFA blog is interested.
DFA Task Forces
Government accountability
Tom De Loe wrote an op-ed for the Gettysburg Times on President Trump’s and Senator McConnell’s strategy to seed the federal judiciary with conservative ideologues.
He also wrote an original piece for the DFA blog, previewing President Trump’s re-election strategy. The three elements Tom identified were: 1) deflect attention from the pandemic and run on the strong economy that existed until recently, b) find someone to blame, and c) sow more division in the country.
Mark Berg wrote an op-ed, “Bernie Sanders didn’t win, but ….” commenting that “Sanders has moved progressive issues into mainstream politics.” He mentioned Medicare, education, and the minimum wage. Berg concluded that “Democrats should not pin their hopes on Biden winning the presidency just by his not being Trump,” and suggested that the Sanders and Biden camps should work together to integrate progressive concepts into the Democratic platform.
Education
Upper Adams school superintendent Wesley Doll wrote a guest op-ed for the Times on operating a school district and the challenges of remote learning.
Health care
The task force continues to keep up to date and active on healthcare issues through PHAN field calls, webinars, Zoom sessions with experts, and calls to action. PHAN is in the process of refining its priorities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, but its overarching priority remains to ensure that Pennsylvanians have access to comprehensive and affordable healthcare coverage.
As a follow-on to Dwight Michael’s April op-ed (“Ten Million Jobs Lost, Healthcare as Well?”), Jeanne Duffy wrote a particularly timely op-ed that examines specific options for people who lost healthcare through their jobs and where they can turn for help.
Currently, the best options lie with states that have their own Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges and can set their own rules for enrollment, and/or states that have Medicaid expansions. Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN), which trains among the best healthcare navigators in the state, can guide individuals to their best option given their circumstances. Ultimately, everything will depend on the continued viability of the ACA, which the President is determined to destroy one way or another. If the ACA goes (to be determined by the outcome of the Texas lawsuit sometime after the Presidential election), so too will state-run ACA exchanges and Medicaid expansions as they lose their Federal funding.
Friends and Allies
Census Complete Count Committee. The committee switched from its planned focus on community meetings and encouraging people to use places like the library to use of online sources to get our message out. Through May 17, Pennsylvania’s self-response rate is 62.4%, 3 percentage points ahead of the national average. Adams County became the 7th Pennsylvania county to cross 69% response and is approaching its final 76.7% self-response rate from the 2010 census.
Draw the Lines. The deadline for the spring “draw the lines” competition has been extended until August 31. Information on the competition is available at https://drawthelinespa.org/draw-a-map. DTL also pointed out that the delays in the Census will affect the schedules of state redistricting.
Gettysburg Rising. Gettysburg Rising has launched a project to monitor activities of local school boards, notably GASD and UASD. It staged a fundraiser to purchase grocery store gift cards for people in need. With an initial goal of $2500, the fundraiser raised more than $4500. The organization had a meeting via Zoom on May 14 and identified priorities for next year.
Gettysburg for Gun Sense. Because the pandemic has brought increases in gun suicides and domestic violence, Gettysburg for Gun Sense has especially focused on publicizing needed hotline numbers. WellSpan Behavioral Health reports that the National Suicide Prevention Hotline number has sometimes been overwhelmed at this time of unprecedented mental health needs, so it’s good to also know local hotline numbers. The national hotline number is 800-273-8255; the WellSpan Crisis Intervention numbers are 717-673-2496 or 717-851-5320; True North also has a crisis hotline at 866-325-0339. The local domestic violence hotline number for the YWCA Hanover Safe Home is 717-632-0007.
It is crucial to store all firearms locked and unloaded, with ammunition stored separately. And, to keep firearms from those who are a threat to themselves or others, GGS urges passage of Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO). The PA ERPO Bills are still bottled up in committee, so legislators need to hear about our need for SB90 and HB1075, especially at this dangerous time. The federal ERPO Bills are S506 and HR1236.
This year GGS does not plan a June 2 rally on the square for National Gun Violence Awareness Day, but the group invites everyone to wear orange on June 2 and June 6, the following Saturday. GGS has ordered orange t-shirts for the occasion, available in all sizes. These t-shirts can be purchased from Judy Young for $20/shirt, at gettysburg4gunsense@gmail.com, where people are also invited to email photos of themselves wearing orange!
Profile: Green Gettysburg. Green Gettysburg Book Club convened last February 14, Valentine’s Day, with about thirty members on our list and has continued since with about fifteen members participating actively each week and others following along on Facebook. The group met about five times in person, but now has shifted to Zoom.
The group has two missions. First, the members hope to train themselves to be effective advocates for action on environmental issues, especially climate change. This means not only becoming well informed on the science but also gaining a better understanding of the dynamics of climate change denial and of strategies for communicating effectively on environmental issues.
Secondly, the members see themselves as participants in a major cultural shift in the way people think about our relationship with the natural world, helping to move from a model of domination and exploitation to a recognition of our interdependence with the natural systems that sustain us. Along with the science, the members are committed to exploring alternative ways of understanding nature and the human relationship with other living things.
The club’s first selection, What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming, by Norwegian Per Espen Stoknes explored the dynamics of climate change denial. Stoknes argued that “identity eats reality for breakfast” time after time, by which he means that the things we believe depend as much or more on what our friends and family believe as on the facts of the matter. Believing is really a social act and changing one’s mind can be painful and involve the loss of friends. The readers also learned a great deal about the power of stories and new ways of framing a problem as tools for communicating a new perspective on climate change.
Currently, the group is reading Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. As a botanist and college professor, a member of the Citizen Potowatomi Nation, and a mother raising two daughters, Kimmerer is able to weave together the scientific, the mythical, and the practical and in the end often let the plants themselves do the teaching.
As Kimmerer says, “…while expressing gratitude seems innocent enough, it is a revolutionary idea. In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition. Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires. Gratitude creates an ethic of fullness, but the economy needs emptiness. The Thanksgiving address reminds you that you already have everything you need.”
More information about the Green Gettysburg Book Club can be obtained by writing wlane@gettysburg.edu.
Prison Society. During the pandemic, members of the Prison Society are not able to visit in the Adams County Adult Correctional Complex (ACACC), but the group continues to provide help with various needs, including some transportation help. Rev. Angel Perez, representing the Adams Christian Prison Ministries, is allowed into the jail, but also has limited access to inmates. There are no known cases of Covid-19 in the jail currently, but the entire community of inmates and correctional officers is under extra strain, because of the challenges of an environment where social distancing is all but impossible. The population in the ACACC, normally around 330, has been now reduced to the 250 range, through policies addressing the increased danger currently associated with prison sentences. For further information on the work of the Adams County PA Prison Society, email prisonsocietygettysburg@gmail.com
Project Gettysburg Leon reported that after a long drawn-out bureaucratic process, PGL received the necessary, official government approval of PGL's finances, plus its formal registration as a recognized NGO. Also good news: The water project that will provide fresh water for the residents of the hillside community of Talolinga is moving forward strongly, with materials purchased (over $20,000), a contract signed with an experienced, local-work foreman, Manuel Gutierrez, and a community meeting May 1 that included the organization of community work squads and their training. Gutierrez, who was at the meeting, was impressed by the enthusiasm of the residents and he thinks the project could be finished by the end of July, depending on the rainy season and the pandemic.
The pandemic has had a great impact on the educational programs supported by PGL, since fewer students are attending. For example, five after-school programs are on hold. Two of them, however, are using their resources to prepare and deliver meals to youth reliant on school meals. For example, Las Tias, the program for youth at risk, is providing meals for youth for about 80 families.
Stay safe and we’ll be back next month!