Author Archives: Communication Team

Immigration

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Immigration Team’s Key Issues:

  • Support Church World Service Lancaster – End the Furlough

  • Monitor and Resist ICE actions in Lancaster County (churches, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods).

  • Support Refugee Programs – spread information to counter disinformation. Provide physical, educational, emotional and other support to refugees who are already here. Defend the human rights of asylum seekers

  • Support Immigrant Rights – migration across borders for work is a fake “crime” conjured by xenophobes, resist and call out the scapegoating and othering of migrant workers on whom our economy depends, point out this hypocrisy at every opportunity, demand human rights for every person

Volunteer your time, talent or resources locally:

Parish Resource Center Immigration Clinic https://connectprc.org/

IU13 Community Education tutoring: https://www.iu13.org/community/community-education/volunteer/

Church World Services Lancaster: https://cwslancaster.org/get-involved/

Immigreat (financial donations only): https://www.immigreatlancaster.com/

Neighbors Community Center: https://www.neighborslancaster.org/

 

Stay informed:

Immigrant Legal Resource Center: https://www.ilrc.org/

ACLU: https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights

National Immigration Forum: https://immigrationforum.org/

https://www.aila.org/library/daily-immigration-news-clips-march-6-2025

USCIS: https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status

 

Protecting Democracy

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We’re not going to pretend otherwise — the current situation is bleak. While Donald Trump is the dominant current story, even if he stepped down tomorrow, the root problem would remain, which is the increasing role of money in politics unleashed by the Buckley v. Valeo and Citizens United v. the FEC Supreme Court decisions. In simple terms, the Supreme Court declared that corporations are people and money is speech. Combined with the first amendment, which guarantees people free speech, that opened the floodgates for unlimited spending on politics (a.k.a. bribery) — which is overrunning our democracy. While the fight won’t be easy, we’ve identified a list of four key issues (which may evolve as we go), and each month we plan to focus on actions for a different one. We’re starting with supporting journalism because we can’t fight what we can’t see, and quality journalism is how we know what’s going on.

Protecting Democracy Team’s Key Issues:

    • Supporting journalism, especially local and investigative

    • Opposing the influence of big money in politics

    • Opposing the concentration of power in government (nationally, this would be the increasing dominance of the executive branch, but this is also an issue on the state level where leaders in the legislature (who generally got to leadership by being big fundraisers) have way too much power over rank-and-file members

    • Supporting each other so that we don’t let discouragement or divisiveness get in the way of our being prepared to stand up for democracy as opportunities arise

Action items for supporting journalism (in priority order and to the extent you’re financially able):

      1. Subscribe to high-quality investigative journalism:

        • Spotlight PA – an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom dedicated to high-quality investigative and public-service journalism about the PA state government and urgent statewide issues

        • The Lever – a nonpartisan, reader-supported investigative news outlet that hold accountable the people and corporations manipulating the levers of power (founded by an award-winning journalist who’s also a former Bernie Sanders speechwriter)

        • ProPublica – an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism that shines a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust

        • Wired – Wired is a part of Condé Nast, which is a global mass media company (unlike the previous three recommendations), and they’re included here despite their big-corporateness because they have shown a remarkable ability to repeatedly be the first to expose important details about the inner workings of the Trump administration

      2. Subscribe to anywhere else you appreciate getting political news from (The Atlantic? Substack? Associated Press? CNN? Guardian US? NPR? The New York Times? Politico? The Intercept? More Perfect Union? your favorite political podcast?

Write a letter to the editor for your local paper

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Click on the picture below to  submit a letter to the editor to LNP.

 Click on the picture above to submit a letter to the editor to LNP.

Tips on how to write your letter:

1 – Identify the motivation for the letter in one or two sentences.

  • A loss of federal funding for public education would be devastating to the quality of education we have come to expect in Lancaster County.
  • A common way to start: I read/saw/watched with interest about the issue that caught your attention.  For example:
    • I read with interest the article in LNP on Thursday 3-6-25 about the impact cuts to federal education funding would have on Lancaster County school districts, OR:
    • I attended a forum on Saturday 3-29-25 with concerned citizens to learn more about the impact cuts to federal education funding would have on Lancaster County school districts.

2 – Explain the issue(s) that underlies this situation.  Offer clear examples whenever possible.  Keep the 250 word limit in mind.  Shorter is generally better.  You can use information from the presentation today or personal anecdotes about the importance of public education to you.

3 – Offer a solution, but make it a call to action.  For example:

  • It’s time to stand up for our students and our public schools.  Contact Rep. Smucker and Sen. Fetterman and McCormick to urge them to fight back against cuts to federal funding and to the Department of Education.  OR:
  • It’s time to stand up for our students and our public schools.  Contact Rep. Smucker and Sen. Fetterman and McCormick and urge them to vote no on any federal voucher program.  OR:
  • It’s time to stand up for our students and our public schools.  Attend the Power Interfaith Town Hall at Apostles UCC on 4/27 at 4 p.m. to take action in support of equitable state funding for our public schools, because the federal government may fail them.