August 1, 2020
Dear Friends,
Our nation has great cause to mourn this week. We reached a painful milestone of 150,000 deaths to the still-mysterious novel coronavirus. We received grim economic news showing America’s biggest quarterly economic drop in recorded history. And we lost one of America’s greatest champions for liberty and justice with the passing of my friend Congressman John Lewis.
The American experiment has long been defined as one of striving, and sacrificing, to build a more perfect union. Thomas Jefferson used the phrase “all men are created equal” even as our founders established a system in which just five percent of the population could vote and where the kidnapped and brutalized descendants of African families would remain enslaved.
We have only begun the work of confronting the cruel realities that have come with 400 years of systemic racism, violence and hate. For four centuries, these insidious forces have driven themselves—often unchecked—into the foundations of our most venerated institutions.
John Lewis saw this more than most.
Growing up in the South in the heart of the Jim Crow era, John’s life was forged in struggle. Born and raised by sharecroppers on a plantation John endured racism and violence from a young age, but remarkably these experiences seemed unable to crush his spirit or make his heart bitter.
At a young age, John was inspired by the legendary figures of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend James Lawson who taught the lessons of nonviolence he learned from Gandhi.
Lawson and others rightly recognized the power of nonviolence as a tool to dismantle violent systems of oppression. He saw the people of India organize around Gandhi’s extraordinary and often simple acts of nonviolent resistance. Gandhi walked across India, 10 miles a day for 24 straight days, to reach the sea so he could bend to the ground and make salt, an act of self-determination and self-governance that had been outlawed by the British Empire. Gandhi marched, made salt, and the dominoes started to fall until India was freed from British rule and could govern itself—what Gandhi called “Hind Swaraj” or Home Rule.
Lawson saw the power of this kind of simple, nonviolent disobedience to face down a brutal oppressive government. He and others took the lessons of Gandhi and started training young champions for civil rights and racial justice in the practice of nonviolence resistance. Soon, young Black Americans quietly and respectfully sat at lunch counters, boycotted segregated bus systems and occupied “white only” spaces.
The cost of their sacrifice was grave. Many of these champions were killed, many more nearly so. John Lewis was one. He joined in a march across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama, a bridge named for a Klansman and former Senator. John was brutally beaten by police during his march and received a blow to the head that certainly could have killed him. In the face of this brutality, he never raised his fists, never struck a physical blow. Instead, he rose up and changed the course of American history for the better.
From a sharecropper’s son, to a civil rights protester, to a 17-term congressman and hero, John’s deep strength came from his unflinching belief in his cause for justice, that America can and must strive to become that more perfect union, a nation that recognizes all men, and all people, as created equal, with certain inalienable rights and among them the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He saw too that this power to achieve real self-governance starts with the right to vote.
John said, in his posthumously published op-ed:
“Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”
At his funeral service on Thursday, Former President Barack Obama called for the renewal of the Voting Rights Act. He said, “You want to honor John? Let’s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for.”
Decades after the passage of this landmark legislation that John and so many others bled for, voter suppression remains alive and well. We must heed the many warning signs before us and honor his legacy by making it our mission to ensure that every American is able to make their voice heard.
Back in May, House Democrats fought to strengthen voting access in the Heroes Act, which dedicates $4 billion to help states hold safe elections. In response to this unprecedented time, our legislation includes necessary reforms including no-excuse absentee ballots, 15 days of early voting, online voter registration and mandates for accessible polling places for people with disabilities. We need these provisions if we are to ensure a fair and safe election come November.
When John first walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, he was met by State Troopers who brutally beat him. This week, he made a final trip across that same bridge and was again met again by State Troopers, who saluted him and his fight for justice.
The same battle John fought against injustice is not over. But, like John, we should and must have faith in our nation and in the goodness of people. He believed wholeheartedly in the promise of America and in the hope of a better world. And he knew the path to get there was through the extraordinary force of nonviolence. Nothing else could at long last awaken the conscience of our nation.
We cannot fail him now. We must commit to one another, to defend the rights of every American to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous tyranny and continue to stand back up as John always did. We can be a more perfect union if we can find courage to listen to our conscience and, in the process, expose those who would never hesitate to use violence to take us down.
Last but most importantly, Brother John, I thank you for your wisdom, your courage and your strength. Most of all, I thank you for your friendship. May your light always fill the halls of our Capitol and spread across this nation in the name of liberty and justice for all. And may I, and may all of us, be worthy and humble enough to follow it. Rest in peace my dear and noble friend.
As always, thank you for reading.
Your friend,
DID YOU KNOW?
Throughout this pandemic, my office and I have worked to make sure you remain informed with the latest updates and recommendations on any and all COVID-19 related topics. With that in mind here is some information that may be of interest to you:
- The Department of Labor is extending Traditional Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits.
- Current federal law and U.S. DOL guidelines state that this is the last week to receive the $600 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), in New York. This means that when you submit your weekly certification between Sunday 7/26 and Saturday 8/1, you will be certifying for their final week of FPUC.
- In order to continue receiving UI or PUA benefits, you must continue to certify every week. You do not need to re-apply or contact the NYS DOL, unless you are specifically told to do so.
- Certify online at labor.ny.gov/signin or on the phone by calling 1-888-581-5812 (for UI) or 1-833-324-0366 (for PUA).
- Traditional Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits are now extended from 26 weeks to 59 weeks.
- Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits are now extended for up to 46 weeks:
- Under Federal law, those receiving PUA are not eligible for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) or Extended Benefits (EB)
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