On Tuesday, Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021. In 1965, a bipartisan majority in Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to protect the right to vote in America. That law was reauthorized on a bipartisan basis as recently as 2006.
Yesterday I talked to my neighbor and found out that most of her adult kids aren't vaccinated. Sad, her husband has cancer and they are looking to operate and try to remove it and then he will start chemo.
I told her that if my kid wasn't vaccinated, he wouldn't be allowed inside my house because my first job is to protect my husband.
What's even sadder is that I talked to one of her kids and asked why she wasn't vaccinated.
She gave me the same ole song about how she wasn't sure about side effects and then went on some rant about vacinated people giving blood and people having the vaccine get into their blood and do some kind of harm.
I have come to realize that you just can't talk to these people. While you are explaining the facts, they are already thinking about another excuse.
I just told her that I'm sad she's not vaccinated and that she won't be allowed in my house and next time I'm wearing a mask around them cause I have to protect my husband.
And it's not that I'm worried he will get sick and die, it's the fact that mentally he can't handle being sick. Having dementia makes normal things so much harder to deal with.
Politicians like Mo Brooks always speak in vague inflammatory buzz phrases — “I understand citizenry anger directed at dictatorial Socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom and the very fabric of American society.” Does anyone ever observe them offering specifics? What liberties and freedoms have they lost? They've lost NOTHING. I have never seen a group behave so threatened, so aggrieved in my long life. Yet, they're the ones guilty of seeking to rob people of the right to vote and free and fair elections. And seeking to deprive minorities of equal protection under the law.
Those of us in North Carolina who are not part of the cult of the former guy apologize for the enablers of these antidemocratic attacks; we are embarrassed by the association with the tRump brand/family, Miller, Meadows, Cawthorn, DeJoy, and the domestic terrorists of Edgar Maddison Welch (Atomic Pizza/Pizzagate) and Floyd Ray Roseberry (Capitol Facebook Live streamer who claimed to have a bomb). Sadly, our state GOP continues to hook their wagon to the guy who created the Big Lie.
I hope that the state that produced the Greensboro Woolworth sit-ins of 1960,
SNCC and Ella Baker,
Pauli Murray who in some ways is the "Forrest Gump" of social change in the 20th Century,
the Rev. Dr. William Barber II who is continuing King's Poor People's Campaign,
Bree Newsome who took down the South Carolina Confederate flag after the Mother Emanuel Nine massacre,
the state that is the birthplace of George Floyd,
and went Blue in 2008 for Barack Obama
can once again show a progressive movement to combat the gerrymandering of its politics.
Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC's The Last Word, reported that TX Gov Abbott has been given Regeneron. (Abbott said he's also had a 3rd COVID vaccine. He's tested daily.) O'Donnell went on to report that Ken Griffin a hedge fund manager heavily invested in Regeneron is a big donor to FL Gov DeSantis who plans to open 15-20 Regeneron treatment sites in FL offerring up to 300 treatments per day. Pay back? Wouldn't mask be much cheaper & more effective?
Vaccine hesitancy doesn’t really get at the motivational roots for why people don’t want to get vaccinated,” Taylor told the Guardian.
CDC data showing that urban and rural rates of Covid-19 transmission closely shadow each other, and broad availability of vaccines across much of the western world, suggests denser psychological complexities around “hesitancy” than described by political or economic orthodoxies to explain why 90 million adult Americans remain unprotected by any vaccine.
A preferable term, Taylor writes, and one that has been used by psychologists for close to 60 years, is psychological reactance – a motivational response to “rules, regulation, or attempts at persuasion that are perceived as threatening to one’s autonomy and freedom of choice”.
“Psychological reactance has been an issue around any public health guidance, whether that’s increasing the intake of more fruit and vegetables, good dental hygiene or vaccinations and masks,” Taylor said. “The you’re-not-the-boss-of-me kind of response is seen particularly in people raised in cultures that take pride in freedom and individualism.”
The harder you try to push and persuade psychological reactive people, the more they are likely to push back because they perceive their freedoms are being threatened. While they may be a minority, they are also highly vocal, and so we see many different types of people joining in because they perceive their freedoms are being threatened.
That in turn, leads to what psychologists term “motivated thinking”, otherwise fantasy-thinking in which Covid-19, or climate change, are seen as hoaxes so people can tell themselves positive stories that everything is going to be fine and their freedom is not threatened.
What has often been depicted as conservative individualistic intransigence is in fact a stand-in for diverse groups comprising conspiracy theorists, white evangelicals, some historically traumatized communities of color, new-age believers in natural immunity and others who believe that vaccines are a con by big pharma to maximize profits. The list goes on.
Good morning everyone. Here in looney tunes Missouri, the AG Eric Sch[m]i[d]t (I think it more appropriate to reveal his true name by removing the m and the d) has decided to sue not just Kansas City, but also Jackson County--both places where the governing bodies have approved mask mandates and extended them to the end of September (they have to renew them every 6 weeks evidently)--because the f***er has nothing better to do, as he runs for the Rethuglican nomination to replace Roy Blunt, than to wage nuisance law suits on regions in MO where the political leaders are trying to protect the populace. The St Louis County Council apparently capitulated and removed the mask mandate the county executive is still trying to keep in place, but we are made of tougher stuff here on the western border, apparently. All the local school systems--including those on the KS side--are requiring masks. So is the U of Missouri System. But only a few public schools are requiring that the staff and faculty be vaccinated. Sharice Davids, the lone Dem congresswoman from KS, just posted that she has breakthrough covid. She very sensibly has stated that the vaccine "did what it is supposed to do": protect her from the worst ravages of the disease. She probably got it because she had to have surgery and so was in the hospital for a bit. Unlike the death-eaters All-About-Me-Abbot and DeathSantis, she is using this as an opportunity to get the people in her district to vaccinate and mask up.
Reality is more surreal than a Dali painting. The dog and I are hunkering down. And I am thankful at this point that I don't have a cricket bat handy because the number of people I would love to dope-slap with one is growing.
"So it’s time to stop being diffident and call out destructive behavior for what it is. Doing so may make some people feel that they’re being looked down on. But you know what? Your feelings don’t give you the right to ruin other people’s lives."
Astonished. At this point I'm not sure what is the difference between the Taliban and many republican Governors. The best I can tell, it's how they dress and the hats wear.
I think there will be a point when those like Mr. Brooks who probably thinks they can control the mob they have created may find the monster will come for them. During the French revolution, many of the aristocrats who sided with the revolutionaries found themselves at the guillotine as well as many of the leaders of the revolution. Never ends well.
Great as always. However, I would like to note one thing on Walmart’s vaccination mandate. They have mandated the vaccine for their employees at their headquarters and managers who travel, but they have not for their front line workers, who account for the vast majority of their 1.6 million employees. While it is a step in the right direction, I don’t think that they deserve the credit they have been getting in a lot of the media.
"In the midst of a growing insurgency of a minority that is illustrating its willingness to sacrifice our children on the altar of ideology..."
Anyone who is surprised by this has not been paying attention. Case in point, the gun lobby. They'd rather sell guns to teachers, and kevlar backpacks to students than to put any limits whatsoever on gun sales to individuals.
This makes it all the more imperative to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.
Floyd Ray Roseberry (a three word synonym for "Bubba") claimed he was upset that he and his wife couldn't get health insurance and she was injured by the treatment they ultimately received. His now ex-wife of ten years, interviewed today, said "Well, he's never done anything like that before." And then said that the reason for their divorce TEN YEARS AGO was his "temper."
In other words, Bubba strikes (out). Again.
This clown may have been delusional about everything he said - he didn't have an operational bomb, there weren't four other "patriots" with bombs around the city - but remember "Clowns with flamethrowers - still have flamethrowers."
These redneck white trash ignoramuses are an embarrassment that they can claim membership in the species. Why an I unsurprised to find Bubba was a "good ol' farm boy" (in the words of his son's intended) from the South?
It really and truly is nuts out there summed up by Heather's words "its willingness to sacrifice our children on the altar of ideology ..." That is exactly how totally insane the republicans have become and there is the utmost urgency to make sure they are stopped at the ballot box. We've been forewarned . . .
"In the midst of a growing insurgency of a minority that is illustrating its willingness to sacrifice our children on the altar of ideology, stopping those extremists from manipulating the machinery of elections to seize control of the country has become imperative."
"In the midst of a growing insurgency of a minority that is illustrating its willingness to sacrifice our children on the altar of ideology, stopping those extremists from manipulating the machinery of elections to seize control of the country has become imperative."
We're going to be quoting HCR a lot on that.
But don't wait for Congress. Start with California. Get your friends in California to send in their ballots to vote NO to recall Gov. Newsom. Simple majority wins. If the vote on Part 1 is yes, then there are 46 candidates on the ballot to replace Newsom: 9 Dems, 24 Repubs, 13 other. Plurality wins, and they are all bad options. Yet another opportunity for tyranny of a minority through exploitation of an outdated law.
This morning we see the brave and beautiful face of John R. Lewis. Braced for the difficulties and opportunities before us as Americans, let us remember John's face and the faces of the Afghan people. With everything you may be going through and want to accomplish , please consider the Afghan children, the women and girls, the fathers and sons and the elderly.
The following is a list from which you may select one or more organizations, which are helping the Afghan people. I am sorry that I cannot provide any more information at this time.
Please be patient, You will find repeats, need to do some pruning. Links are sometimes within the copy, at other times the organizations' functions are described without any links.
Your generosity affirms our solidarity with the people of Afghanistan. Thank you.
Many organisations have launched emergency aid appeals since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on Sunday. Major international NGOs, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Rescue Committee, and the UN Human Rights Committee, are seeking donations to support their front line work in the country.
It’s possible to show support wherever you’re based; appeals have been established across the globe. The Australian organisation Baba Mazari Foundation has committed to distributing $100,000 in emergency aid to internally displaced refugees, while the U.K.-based charities Afghanaid and Turquoise Mountain have launched crisis funds.
Other organisations are working to improve particular aspects of the current conflict. Afghan startup Ehtesab is scaling their technology which provides civilians with live security updates. The Danish organisation, International Media Support, are calling for donations to support Afghan journalists who might be particularly vulnerable to Taliban violence. Miles4Migrants accepts donations in air miles for individuals with legal approval for travel who cannot afford the costs.
Many smaller crowdfunding campaigns have also sprung up online in the past week: this campaign, organized by a German human rights activist, is sourcing basic necessities to be distributed through local organizations on the ground, while this fundraiser launched by filmmaker Kyber Khan is offering urgent cash in hand relief. Other networks, such as this campaign organized by Afghan activist Samira Hamidi, are focussing their efforts on local volunteers helping vulnerable families.
Be sure you are confident your money is going where it is needed before making a donation: the not-for-profit network AFG Diaspora Hub has created a directory of verified organizations to help individuals make informed decisions about their giving.
Support refugees
Countries including the U.S. and Canada have launched special visas and pathways for Afghans who assisted Western forces during the war. Activists have published resources to explain the immigration requirements and processes, while other organizations are seeking volunteers to help with relocation procedures.
On Aug. 2, the U.S. The State Department announced an expansion of the refugee criteria to include at-risk Afghans who are not eligible for Special Immigrant Visas.
In anticipation of the wave of asylum claims expected in Western countries, you can support organizations which help refugees in their new countries. The U.K.-based Afghanistan and Central Asian Association needs volunteers to teach English and offer mentorship, while the Refugee Council U.S.A unites a coalition of charities helping refugees in the country.
Support women
Prominent women figures, from activists to judges, are now at risk of persecution and violence in Afghanistan. There are women-focussed organisations calling for donations, such as the Women’s Regional Network and Women for Afghan Women.
Many women journalists have continued to report on the conflict despite the risk to their personal safety. Rukhshana Media, an independent outlet committed to spotlighting Afghan women’s voices and stories which has collaborated with TIME, needs help to support its journalists. You can read work by local women reporters on education and healthcare in the country in TIME’s partnership with The Fuller Project.
In the last twenty years, women’s access to education has improved dramatically since the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule. The fall of the country to the Taliban risks reversing the progress which has led to over half of the students attending Herat University, in the west of the country, being women. To invest in initiatives focussed on women and girls’ education, support organisations like Malala Fund, Sahar and Afghan Women’s Educational Centre.
Reach out to lawmakers and sign petitions
Pressuring politicians and lawmakers to open safe, legal pathways of migration might help ensure the safety of Afghan refugees. In the U.S., there are useful letter templates, forms, and contact information for Senators and Representatives which call for greater support to those who helped military forces.
You can also sign petitions to lobby the government in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia to expedite the resettlement of interpreters who aided allied forces and media organisations. Follow campaigns such as the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants’ push to provide safe, legal routes for asylum seekers into host countries.
This list is not comprehensive, and TIME has not independently confirmed the veracity of every source listed here and in related link.
Yesterday I talked to my neighbor and found out that most of her adult kids aren't vaccinated. Sad, her husband has cancer and they are looking to operate and try to remove it and then he will start chemo.
I told her that if my kid wasn't vaccinated, he wouldn't be allowed inside my house because my first job is to protect my husband.
What's even sadder is that I talked to one of her kids and asked why she wasn't vaccinated.
She gave me the same ole song about how she wasn't sure about side effects and then went on some rant about vacinated people giving blood and people having the vaccine get into their blood and do some kind of harm.
I have come to realize that you just can't talk to these people. While you are explaining the facts, they are already thinking about another excuse.
I just told her that I'm sad she's not vaccinated and that she won't be allowed in my house and next time I'm wearing a mask around them cause I have to protect my husband.
And it's not that I'm worried he will get sick and die, it's the fact that mentally he can't handle being sick. Having dementia makes normal things so much harder to deal with.
Sad.
Politicians like Mo Brooks always speak in vague inflammatory buzz phrases — “I understand citizenry anger directed at dictatorial Socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom and the very fabric of American society.” Does anyone ever observe them offering specifics? What liberties and freedoms have they lost? They've lost NOTHING. I have never seen a group behave so threatened, so aggrieved in my long life. Yet, they're the ones guilty of seeking to rob people of the right to vote and free and fair elections. And seeking to deprive minorities of equal protection under the law.
Those of us in North Carolina who are not part of the cult of the former guy apologize for the enablers of these antidemocratic attacks; we are embarrassed by the association with the tRump brand/family, Miller, Meadows, Cawthorn, DeJoy, and the domestic terrorists of Edgar Maddison Welch (Atomic Pizza/Pizzagate) and Floyd Ray Roseberry (Capitol Facebook Live streamer who claimed to have a bomb). Sadly, our state GOP continues to hook their wagon to the guy who created the Big Lie.
I hope that the state that produced the Greensboro Woolworth sit-ins of 1960,
SNCC and Ella Baker,
Pauli Murray who in some ways is the "Forrest Gump" of social change in the 20th Century,
the Rev. Dr. William Barber II who is continuing King's Poor People's Campaign,
Bree Newsome who took down the South Carolina Confederate flag after the Mother Emanuel Nine massacre,
the state that is the birthplace of George Floyd,
and went Blue in 2008 for Barack Obama
can once again show a progressive movement to combat the gerrymandering of its politics.
Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC's The Last Word, reported that TX Gov Abbott has been given Regeneron. (Abbott said he's also had a 3rd COVID vaccine. He's tested daily.) O'Donnell went on to report that Ken Griffin a hedge fund manager heavily invested in Regeneron is a big donor to FL Gov DeSantis who plans to open 15-20 Regeneron treatment sites in FL offerring up to 300 treatments per day. Pay back? Wouldn't mask be much cheaper & more effective?
An interesting read. From The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/19/book-psychology-pandemics-steven-taylor
“
Vaccine hesitancy doesn’t really get at the motivational roots for why people don’t want to get vaccinated,” Taylor told the Guardian.
CDC data showing that urban and rural rates of Covid-19 transmission closely shadow each other, and broad availability of vaccines across much of the western world, suggests denser psychological complexities around “hesitancy” than described by political or economic orthodoxies to explain why 90 million adult Americans remain unprotected by any vaccine.
A preferable term, Taylor writes, and one that has been used by psychologists for close to 60 years, is psychological reactance – a motivational response to “rules, regulation, or attempts at persuasion that are perceived as threatening to one’s autonomy and freedom of choice”.
“Psychological reactance has been an issue around any public health guidance, whether that’s increasing the intake of more fruit and vegetables, good dental hygiene or vaccinations and masks,” Taylor said. “The you’re-not-the-boss-of-me kind of response is seen particularly in people raised in cultures that take pride in freedom and individualism.”
The harder you try to push and persuade psychological reactive people, the more they are likely to push back because they perceive their freedoms are being threatened. While they may be a minority, they are also highly vocal, and so we see many different types of people joining in because they perceive their freedoms are being threatened.
That in turn, leads to what psychologists term “motivated thinking”, otherwise fantasy-thinking in which Covid-19, or climate change, are seen as hoaxes so people can tell themselves positive stories that everything is going to be fine and their freedom is not threatened.
What has often been depicted as conservative individualistic intransigence is in fact a stand-in for diverse groups comprising conspiracy theorists, white evangelicals, some historically traumatized communities of color, new-age believers in natural immunity and others who believe that vaccines are a con by big pharma to maximize profits. The list goes on.
When did Public Safety become "Socialism"?
Good morning everyone. Here in looney tunes Missouri, the AG Eric Sch[m]i[d]t (I think it more appropriate to reveal his true name by removing the m and the d) has decided to sue not just Kansas City, but also Jackson County--both places where the governing bodies have approved mask mandates and extended them to the end of September (they have to renew them every 6 weeks evidently)--because the f***er has nothing better to do, as he runs for the Rethuglican nomination to replace Roy Blunt, than to wage nuisance law suits on regions in MO where the political leaders are trying to protect the populace. The St Louis County Council apparently capitulated and removed the mask mandate the county executive is still trying to keep in place, but we are made of tougher stuff here on the western border, apparently. All the local school systems--including those on the KS side--are requiring masks. So is the U of Missouri System. But only a few public schools are requiring that the staff and faculty be vaccinated. Sharice Davids, the lone Dem congresswoman from KS, just posted that she has breakthrough covid. She very sensibly has stated that the vaccine "did what it is supposed to do": protect her from the worst ravages of the disease. She probably got it because she had to have surgery and so was in the hospital for a bit. Unlike the death-eaters All-About-Me-Abbot and DeathSantis, she is using this as an opportunity to get the people in her district to vaccinate and mask up.
Reality is more surreal than a Dali painting. The dog and I are hunkering down. And I am thankful at this point that I don't have a cricket bat handy because the number of people I would love to dope-slap with one is growing.
[From the Cutting To The Chase department]
The Quiet Rage of the Responsible
Paul Krugman
"So it’s time to stop being diffident and call out destructive behavior for what it is. Doing so may make some people feel that they’re being looked down on. But you know what? Your feelings don’t give you the right to ruin other people’s lives."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/opinion/covid-masks-vaccine-mandates.html
Astonished. At this point I'm not sure what is the difference between the Taliban and many republican Governors. The best I can tell, it's how they dress and the hats wear.
I think there will be a point when those like Mr. Brooks who probably thinks they can control the mob they have created may find the monster will come for them. During the French revolution, many of the aristocrats who sided with the revolutionaries found themselves at the guillotine as well as many of the leaders of the revolution. Never ends well.
Great as always. However, I would like to note one thing on Walmart’s vaccination mandate. They have mandated the vaccine for their employees at their headquarters and managers who travel, but they have not for their front line workers, who account for the vast majority of their 1.6 million employees. While it is a step in the right direction, I don’t think that they deserve the credit they have been getting in a lot of the media.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/8/19/22629327/employee-vaccine-mandate-walmart-uber-lyft
"In the midst of a growing insurgency of a minority that is illustrating its willingness to sacrifice our children on the altar of ideology..."
Anyone who is surprised by this has not been paying attention. Case in point, the gun lobby. They'd rather sell guns to teachers, and kevlar backpacks to students than to put any limits whatsoever on gun sales to individuals.
This makes it all the more imperative to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.
Floyd Ray Roseberry (a three word synonym for "Bubba") claimed he was upset that he and his wife couldn't get health insurance and she was injured by the treatment they ultimately received. His now ex-wife of ten years, interviewed today, said "Well, he's never done anything like that before." And then said that the reason for their divorce TEN YEARS AGO was his "temper."
In other words, Bubba strikes (out). Again.
This clown may have been delusional about everything he said - he didn't have an operational bomb, there weren't four other "patriots" with bombs around the city - but remember "Clowns with flamethrowers - still have flamethrowers."
These redneck white trash ignoramuses are an embarrassment that they can claim membership in the species. Why an I unsurprised to find Bubba was a "good ol' farm boy" (in the words of his son's intended) from the South?
It really and truly is nuts out there summed up by Heather's words "its willingness to sacrifice our children on the altar of ideology ..." That is exactly how totally insane the republicans have become and there is the utmost urgency to make sure they are stopped at the ballot box. We've been forewarned . . .
"In the midst of a growing insurgency of a minority that is illustrating its willingness to sacrifice our children on the altar of ideology, stopping those extremists from manipulating the machinery of elections to seize control of the country has become imperative."
"In the midst of a growing insurgency of a minority that is illustrating its willingness to sacrifice our children on the altar of ideology, stopping those extremists from manipulating the machinery of elections to seize control of the country has become imperative."
We're going to be quoting HCR a lot on that.
But don't wait for Congress. Start with California. Get your friends in California to send in their ballots to vote NO to recall Gov. Newsom. Simple majority wins. If the vote on Part 1 is yes, then there are 46 candidates on the ballot to replace Newsom: 9 Dems, 24 Repubs, 13 other. Plurality wins, and they are all bad options. Yet another opportunity for tyranny of a minority through exploitation of an outdated law.
This morning we see the brave and beautiful face of John R. Lewis. Braced for the difficulties and opportunities before us as Americans, let us remember John's face and the faces of the Afghan people. With everything you may be going through and want to accomplish , please consider the Afghan children, the women and girls, the fathers and sons and the elderly.
The following is a list from which you may select one or more organizations, which are helping the Afghan people. I am sorry that I cannot provide any more information at this time.
Please be patient, You will find repeats, need to do some pruning. Links are sometimes within the copy, at other times the organizations' functions are described without any links.
Your generosity affirms our solidarity with the people of Afghanistan. Thank you.
https://womenforafghanwomen.org/
https://womenforafghanwomen.networkforgood.com/projects/123748-20-years-of-afghan-women-strong
https://www.refworld.org/publisher/AIHRC.html
https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/afghan-womens-organizations-key-actors-rebuilding-afghanistan-and-assisting
https://www.afghanaid.org.uk/
https://www.rescue.org/country/afghanistan
https://www.savethechildren.org/us/where-we-work/afghanistan
https://www.networkforgood.org/topics/international/afghanrefugees/
TIME MAGAZINE
Many organisations have launched emergency aid appeals since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on Sunday. Major international NGOs, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Rescue Committee, and the UN Human Rights Committee, are seeking donations to support their front line work in the country.
It’s possible to show support wherever you’re based; appeals have been established across the globe. The Australian organisation Baba Mazari Foundation has committed to distributing $100,000 in emergency aid to internally displaced refugees, while the U.K.-based charities Afghanaid and Turquoise Mountain have launched crisis funds.
Other organisations are working to improve particular aspects of the current conflict. Afghan startup Ehtesab is scaling their technology which provides civilians with live security updates. The Danish organisation, International Media Support, are calling for donations to support Afghan journalists who might be particularly vulnerable to Taliban violence. Miles4Migrants accepts donations in air miles for individuals with legal approval for travel who cannot afford the costs.
Many smaller crowdfunding campaigns have also sprung up online in the past week: this campaign, organized by a German human rights activist, is sourcing basic necessities to be distributed through local organizations on the ground, while this fundraiser launched by filmmaker Kyber Khan is offering urgent cash in hand relief. Other networks, such as this campaign organized by Afghan activist Samira Hamidi, are focussing their efforts on local volunteers helping vulnerable families.
Be sure you are confident your money is going where it is needed before making a donation: the not-for-profit network AFG Diaspora Hub has created a directory of verified organizations to help individuals make informed decisions about their giving.
Support refugees
Countries including the U.S. and Canada have launched special visas and pathways for Afghans who assisted Western forces during the war. Activists have published resources to explain the immigration requirements and processes, while other organizations are seeking volunteers to help with relocation procedures.
On Aug. 2, the U.S. The State Department announced an expansion of the refugee criteria to include at-risk Afghans who are not eligible for Special Immigrant Visas.
In anticipation of the wave of asylum claims expected in Western countries, you can support organizations which help refugees in their new countries. The U.K.-based Afghanistan and Central Asian Association needs volunteers to teach English and offer mentorship, while the Refugee Council U.S.A unites a coalition of charities helping refugees in the country.
Support women
Prominent women figures, from activists to judges, are now at risk of persecution and violence in Afghanistan. There are women-focussed organisations calling for donations, such as the Women’s Regional Network and Women for Afghan Women.
Many women journalists have continued to report on the conflict despite the risk to their personal safety. Rukhshana Media, an independent outlet committed to spotlighting Afghan women’s voices and stories which has collaborated with TIME, needs help to support its journalists. You can read work by local women reporters on education and healthcare in the country in TIME’s partnership with The Fuller Project.
In the last twenty years, women’s access to education has improved dramatically since the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule. The fall of the country to the Taliban risks reversing the progress which has led to over half of the students attending Herat University, in the west of the country, being women. To invest in initiatives focussed on women and girls’ education, support organisations like Malala Fund, Sahar and Afghan Women’s Educational Centre.
Reach out to lawmakers and sign petitions
Pressuring politicians and lawmakers to open safe, legal pathways of migration might help ensure the safety of Afghan refugees. In the U.S., there are useful letter templates, forms, and contact information for Senators and Representatives which call for greater support to those who helped military forces.
You can also sign petitions to lobby the government in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia to expedite the resettlement of interpreters who aided allied forces and media organisations. Follow campaigns such as the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants’ push to provide safe, legal routes for asylum seekers into host countries.
This list is not comprehensive, and TIME has not independently confirmed the veracity of every source listed here and in related link.
THANK YOU ALL.
PS, More is on the way.