8 Comments
User's avatar
Alan Unell Ph.D.'s avatar

Thanks for pointing me to texting. I responded to about 150 today related to reproductive health. Easy to do but you were right, per activism 101. A lot of swearing. Happily I knew most of the words.

Expand full comment
Jess Craven's avatar

hahaha I told you! And thanks for doing it!

Expand full comment
Adelia Moore's avatar

As one of the activists in CD19 canvassing to get out the vote for Pat Ryan, polls weren’t really relevant: we still knockef on doors to get voters to vote - in this case mostly Dems, sometimes “unaffiliateds,” aka independents. In our small town, we knocked in about 300 doors during the six week campaign. How many votes did we produce? We’ll never know but definitely some. They mount up from town to town. Postcards may be easy and satisfying; phone banks I find frustrating because as one person whose door I knocked on said, I never answer. Canvassing is the best. It is sometimes challenging but usually fun and often moving. People like to talk and tell

their stories! So give it a chance this fall. Most campaigns have a place to sign up as well as many organizations. Try Mobilize.us where Dems post their Volunteer opportunities. You’ll never regret irbid you do it; you might regret it if you don’t.

Expand full comment
Jess Craven's avatar

YESYESYES! It was folks like you who did it! CONGRATS and thank you!! And I agree, canvassing is the gold standard--I say it every time I do a workshop. And really it is so fun. Bravo! I hope it's OK if I quote this in today's newsletter?

Expand full comment
Adelia Moore's avatar

Of course. Please correct my typos! I was pecking it out in my phone in the dark!

Expand full comment
Joan Friedman (MA, from NY)'s avatar

Good news, but - President Biden announced his decision to cancel $10k of student debt, means-tested, and double that for Pell Grant recipients who are effectively pre-secreened as lowest income. Payments start again in January. Much better than nothing, but does nothing about predatory interest, and does nothing about the racial wealth gap - which cancelling $50k would have done.

Here is my suggestion for going forward: urge President Biden to combat predatory interest by declaring a maximum interest cost of 5% of the original amount borrowed, on existing and future loans. Anything interest beyond that maximum that has already been paid, gets re-assigned to payments against principal.

Expand full comment
Joan Friedman (MA, from NY)'s avatar

Biden's plan is better than I thought, and better than the headlines suggest. Anyone who makes their monthly payments - which will be income adjusted and lower than before - will not be charged further interest on their loan. After a large but fixed number of years of payments in this way, any remaining balance will be forgiven. It's still less generous than I had hoped, but it's more generous than I realized.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/24/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-student-loan-relief-for-borrowers-who-need-it-most/

Expand full comment
Jess Craven's avatar

Yup I'm glad you read it through. It's pretty fantastic. Of course it's not 50K, but considering the heat he's taking on the right for even this much I think it's amazing and will genuinely help an enormous number of people. And the small details, like the ones you found, will help many more than most thought at first glance.

Expand full comment