So much depends upon the sacred act of voting!

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At NM IPL there are several prongs to our work. Many of you are involved in one or more of these prongs.

*Education and Inspiration or prayer, meditation and rituals

*Hands on actions for energy efficiency, solar installation, food production, tree planting, supporting local agriculture

*Public policy Advocacy

Regarding the third prong we are so grateful for more and more people of faith and or conscience stepping up in so many ways. Here are a few.
  • Meetings this month with Congressional delegates as part of national IPL effort to discuss the For the People Act, HR1 and S1 getting “dark money” out of voting and supporting voting rights. We also addressed Building Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructures with the American Jobs Plan and the THRIVE Act. NM IPL folks from Gallup, Jemez, Carlsbad, and Albuquerque attended zoom meetings with leaders.
  • Thank you to a number of folks who have signed up to speak in support of EPA methane rules at a federal online EPA hearing!! We have folks from Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, and Carlsbad.
  • The Policy Advocacy Group meets monthly. The next meeting is June 2 at 9 am on zoom. Everyone is invited to be on the list to get notes and invitations for actions or attend the meetings. Just send a note to joan@nm-ipl.org.

Finally, there is a special election in Congressional District 1 now until June 1. VOTING IS A SACRED ACT. If you are in this district, or have friends and family in this district, PLEASE VOTE for the candidate of your choice because voting is a sacred responsibility for the Common Good, our neighbors and Sacred Creation!!!

Here is VOTING INFO where you can find voting locations and times:

 

Much peace and gratefulness,
Joan Brown,osf, Executive Director

 

Congress Must Act to Pass Infrastructure Legislation With Climate and Clean Energy Investments

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(Reprinted from the National IPL Blog)

By Tiffany Hartung, Field Director

It is the moral responsibility of our nation, and our sacred task as people of faith, to care for our neighbors, our common home, and protect our children’s future. We must work for environmental justice and public health while addressing the climate crisis.

From historic wildfires to record-breaking extreme weather, climate change is devastating our health and destroying our environment. Links between pollution and the pandemic have put low wealth communities and communities of color at far greater health risks than other communities. COVID-19 has also exposed hidden health care disparities, environmental injustices, and economic inequities in the United States.

These competing crises have ignited an urgent call to action to address climate change and environmental injustice together. We need Congress to pass recovery and infrastructure legislation that includes critical investments in environmental justice communities as we seek to rebuild the economy in a resilient, sustainable, and equitable way.

Congress is putting together economic recovery and infrastructure legislation this spring and summer that gives us a historic opportunity to invest in safeguarding Creation; to address the harms of climate change and pollution caused by fossil fuel extraction and related industries; and to fulfill our moral obligation to leave a thriving world for future generations.

Rebuilding America will take a transformational investment plan that delivers jobs, justice, and clean energy to communities across the country and curbs the carbon pollution that is driving the climate crisis. We need Congress to approve these investments to create new jobs and a just, equitable, and sustainable economy.

If you haven’t already, urge your members of Congress to support a plan that truly tackles climate change.

If you are a faith leader or leader of a religious community, please add your name to this faith leaders’ letter to Congress.

IPL President Rev. Susan Hendershot wrote in a recent op-ed to Sojourners, “In many places, it is not possible to support a family with the jobs that are available. This is a spiritual issue; one that the American Jobs Plan has the opportunity to address by creating new jobs that will renew people’s hope as well as the life of our planet. What we need today is a visionary investment in new, sustainable, and equitable infrastructure that prioritizes clean energy jobs and renewable energy.”

This is an extraordinary, historic opportunity to invest in the future with a safer climate, a fairer, more inclusive economy, and modern clean energy infrastructure that improves our daily lives.

 

NM-IPL Supports the ‘For the People Act’ (H.R. 1/S.1)

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Our democracy is sacred, and voting is a sacred act. In a democracy, it is the people who should have a voice, not corporate polluters. When fossil fuel polluters can buy the influence of policymakers through their campaign contributions, we the people lose our voice.

That’s why IPL is supporting the For The People Act, H.R.1 / S.1. The For The People Act will rein in corporate polluters’ destructive influence in political decision-making and give power back to the people. It is a chance to take money out of politics and focus on things that affect real people, like securing access to clean air and water.

This bill will:

  • Stop “dark money” from fossil fuels. The oil and gas industry spent about $140 million last year trying to get their preferred candidates elected, much of it through super PACs that disguise the identity of the giver. The For the People Act would bring this money into the light of day by requiring those PACs disclose the names of individuals giving more than $10,000. It would also set up a new system for public matching of grassroots donations, leveling the playing field for candidates funded by their constituents rather than fossil fuel CEOs.
  • Protect the rights of Black voters and Black churches. Over 40 states have introduced voter suppression laws already this year, but perhaps the most prominent example has come from Georgia. A new law there aims to limit voting access, including making it illegal for counties to allow early voting on Sundays—the day many Black churches hold “souls to the polls” drives. Many other proposed restrictions in Georgia and beyond target Black, Indigenous, and people of color voters, through discriminatory voter identification laws. The For the People Act would protect and expand early voting and vote by mail, and require states to have fair and equitable access to the ballot.

Make sure everyone’s vote counts. Valuing all people, not just the powerful, is a basic tenet of both our faith traditions and any functioning democracy. Gerrymandering, the process by which politicians draw district boundaries for unfair political advantage, is used by lawmakers to ensure that some communities have more political power than others. This For the People Act would prevent our neighbors having their votes diluted by ending partisan gerrymandering. A democracy is where voters choose their representatives, not the other way around!