Tag Archives: donations

Responding with my Wallet: Donations Following House Passage of AHCA

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Image courtesy of jesadaphorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I am disgusted that the House of Representatives passed that travesty of a bill, the AHCA, yesterday. While I know it has a long way to go to passage in the Senate, it still feels like a slap in the face the Congressional reps would put something like this together and pass it.

I’ve been angry since yesterday. I live in a blue state with a very blue rep (thank goodness for @RepRaskin) and blue Senators. When I’m mad about how Congress is acting, I have no one to call who doesn’t already share my feelings.

I was even more appalled watching @RepFredUpton, who was my rep when I was younger, putting forward an amendment to this bill that he knew did not give enough money to cover pre-existing conditions, even in high-risk pools. He has voted for many other bills that I do not agree with, but this might be his most striking vote. He can stand up for the health of our Great Lakes, particularly Lake Michigan (which is a point in his favor) but he can’t stand up for the health of his constituents? Many of my family members are still his constituents. Not all of them can access health insurance through an employer. Some of them, under this bill, would face exclusion due to pre-existing conditions. This is disgraceful.

I am mad. I felt like I did not have an outlet except for ranting on Twitter and a bit on Facebook. So I decided that my monthly donations this month would go toward pushing back against the GOP politically.

I donated through ActBlue.com to campaigns in swing districts. I also donated to VoteRiders.org. I felt it was important to push back against voter disenfranchisement. VoteRiders’ mission statement is noted below:

VoteRiders is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides practical assistance and information to ensure voters have the right kind of ID to vote in their state. VoteRiders is the leading organization focusing exclusively on voter ID.

Our current priority states, which have or are poised to enact stringent laws about which IDs are acceptable to vote, are: AL, AZ, FL, GA, IN, KS, MI, MO, ND, NH, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA and WI. Some of these states’ voter ID laws leave to others’ discretion whether a resident’s vote will count, or require documentary proof of citizenship to even register to vote. (Source: http://www.voteriders.org/what-we-do/)

I’m going to keep pushing. I’m going to keep showing up to say “This is not right! This is not ok!” I will not accept these things are normal. I will not condone them.

I am mad. And I’m going to do what I can to do something about it.

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Donating to the Cause. March Edition – The Environment

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Image courtesy of anankkml at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of anankkml at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I committed to donating to worthy causes in 2017, feeling that it was necessary to put some monetary support behind efforts I feel align well with my values. I wrote a bit about the causes that I have decided to focus on in this post.

While one of my causes was protecting the Great Lakes and, by extension, promoting clean water efforts, I felt that it was imperative to focus on environmental issues this month. With reports that the Trump administration is planning to roll back critical environmental rules while also looking to severely cut the budget of the EPA, I can’t think of a better time to give to organizations focused on protecting our environment.

In the first two months of the year, I focused donations on some of the big names:

I also found an organization specifically focused on the Great Lakes, namely the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

But this month, I decided to donate to organizations specificially focused on the environment. A good article came out back in November 2016 discussing organizations to consider for donations. I chose three:

  1.  The Environmental Defense Action Fund (the active arm of the EDF to which I had previously donated; donations are not tax deductible)
  2. The National Resources Defense Council
  3. EarthJustice

I was particularly pleased by the NRDC’s website and its many calls to take action. I was able to sign a couple of pertinent petitions and get on the email list.

There’s only so much we can do, but something is better than nothing. Whether it’s calling and writing our representatives; attending town halls, forums, rallies, and marches; donating to charities; or joining local grassroots organizations, like the Indivisible movements, any action makes a difference. Even if it’s a small difference, a drop in the bucket, it’s one more than would have been there without you!