Happy Friday! What a week, as over a million youth across the country spoke out about the urgent need for gun safety. We're so inspired by their leadership, and we vow to stand with them in the fight to make our schools and communities safe.
This week's #5Actions lineup includes a pledge to stand with these students, as well as hot actions around the Berks County Family Detention Center, healthcare, Facebook's Messenger Kids app, and more.
As always please share with friends and family, too! It's an all-hands-on-deck kinda year. Thank you!
1. Make Your Mark -> Say "I'm With the Students!"
BACKGROUND: On March 14, 2018, the one-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting, young people kicked off a series of nationally coordinated events. MomsRising is proud to be a partner organization for these three important actions where students are leading the way in the gun safety fight — and we, the adults of America, want to show these powerful students that we stand with them so we’re pulling together a map that all can see.
Here are the next two student-led actions:
1--> Saturday, March 24th: #March4OurLives - Student survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School called for this march on Washington, D.C. and also in cities across our nation.
2--> Friday, April 20th: #NationalSchoolWalkout - On the anniversary of Columbine, students and educators are calling for a national day of action against gun violence in schools.
If you are encouraging, helping, or supporting students in any of the above events, or want to cheer them on virtually, make sure you’re counted! Sign on to our message, “I’m with the students,” make your mark on the map, and leave an encouraging message. MomsRising will share the map and your messages with student leaders to show them we’re with them! We’ll also show your support and build energy for this movement by sharing highlights from this campaign on social media and on our website.
2. Tell Facebook: Pull the Plug on the Messenger Kids App!
BACKGROUND: Why is Facebook trying to lure young and younger kids onto its platform with its new Messenger Kids app, the first app that Facebook has specifically designed for kids under 14? Let’s be clear: Young kids aren’t ready to navigate online relationships. How many times have you as an adult seen or experienced something odd online? More than once, right? Kids don’t have the maturity level to manage online interactions, and/or understand what’s private or appropriate. Indeed research shows that social media use by teens is linked to significantly higher rates of depression, and adolescents who spend an hour a day chatting on social networks report less satisfaction with nearly every aspect of their lives. Eighth graders who use social media for 6-9 hours per week are 47% more likely to report they are unhappy than their peers who use social media less often. And a study of girls between the ages of 10 and 12 found the more they used social networking sites like Facebook, the more likely they were to idealize thinness, have concerns about their bodies, and to have dieted.[4] Teen social media use is also linked to unhealthy sleep habits. Join us to tell Facebook to pull the plug on the Messenger Kids app!
3. Tell the Trump Administration: NO to Discrimination in Health Care!
BACKGROUND: When it comes to health care, the patient should always come first. But a harmful and discriminatory rule proposed by the Trump Administration is opening the door to widespread discrimination toward women and LGBTQ+ people. Not okay. This new proposed rule would allow providers (hospitals, doctors, nurses, and other individuals and institutions) to deny patients standard medical care based on the providers’ personal beliefs—not based on what is best for the patient. Truly a prescription for discrimination! Sign our open letter to the Trump Administration and Congress (and write a comment of your own!) to say: “Put patients first, not discriminatory beliefs!”
4. Raise Your Voice to Shut Down the Berks County Family Detention Center!
BACKGROUND: Babies are being held in detention. Families seeking asylum - many of which are led by moms - are being held in prison-like facilities. Human rights abuses in the name of immigration enforcement are not okay. This is not the America we seek to build. We can do, and be, better. Our voices are needed. Pennsylvania is home to the Berks County Family Detention Center (BCRC), a facility where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds immigrant and asylum-seeking families. The Berks facility is currently one of three family detention centers in the United States where children as young as two-weeks-old are being held. Join us to raise our voices as parents from around the country calling on Pennsylvania Governor Wolf to Shut Down the Berks County Family Detention Center!
BACKGROUND: Join us in telling D.H.S. Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen that we strongly oppose the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed inhumane policy of separating parents from their infants and children at the border! ICE has already agreed to the policy, and it is now up to the new D.H.S. Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen to sign it, formally making it DHS policy. Ripping children from their mothers’ arms and sending them off to a different facility is unfathomable and should never become policy.
Thank you for all you do.
Related Posts
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of MomsRising.org.
MomsRising.org strongly encourages our readers to post comments in response to blog posts. We value diversity of opinions and perspectives. Our goals for this space are to be educational, thought-provoking, and respectful. So we actively moderate comments and we reserve the right to edit or remove comments that undermine these goals. Thanks!