Each week's Activist Micro Action is something that should be able to be done in 10 minutes or less. Some actions are just the beginning of other actions that will require more time, but we have to start somewhere. What we're working on here is building the habit of taking action.

If you want a virtual high five once you've done the action, email me at info@omkariwilliams.com and I'll celebrate with you.

Hi Kim,

Last week Governors Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Greg Abbot R-TX) hit a low that should have been unthinkable. They, under false pretenses, put about 50 asylum seekers, men, women, and children, mostly from Venezuela, on a plane and then dumped them on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts. 

They had told these people that they were being taken to a place with jobs and services to help them. Instead they sent them to a community of about 20,000 permanent residents who had no idea they were coming. The asylum seekers had to walk 3 miles to get to a town with no idea of where they were. 

The people of Martha's Vineyard stepped up in amazing ways and found shelter, food, and medical attention for these people. They did what was right and decent. What DeSantis and Abbot did was abhorrent and, very possibly, illegal. As I was reading the news reports I found myself wondering, what's next? At what point will they stop demonizing these people who are fleeing violence and simply want a better life, or will they just go lower and lower until we find ourselves in the unthinkable territory of internment camps or worse?

This week I ask that you join me in sending a letter to your member of Congress asking them to request a Department of Justice investigation into the actions that Abbott and DeSantis took. The more that comes out about what was done the worse it seems to be. That these two men think they were being clever and "owning the libs" by, essentially, trafficking humans makes me nauseous. 

Here's a link so that you can find your member of Congress. And below my signature is a draft letter that you can copy and paste into an email. The slope towards fascism is growing steeper all the time. We really must pay attention and fight back. Our futures depend on it.

Thank you for all that you do.
xo, O

Dear _______________________,

I am a constituent writing to ask you to contact the Department Of Justice and urge them to open an investigation into the underhanded transporting of asylum seekers to Martha's Vineyard by Governors Abbott and DeSantis. 

This political stunt by those governors likely violated human trafficking laws as well as interfering with the asylum seeker's legal rights to proceed through the asylum process as laid out by the U.S. government.

That no one was physically harmed in the commission of this heinous action is a relief, but that these already traumatized people were used for sport, by two men who have taken oaths to both their state constitution and the U.S. Constitution, is repulsive. 

If these actions are allowed to go unpunished we are opening the door to further abuse of people based on the color of their skin and their country of origin; we are sliding further down the slope towards fascism. While this may be who some of us are right now, it must not be who we are as a country going forward. I ask that you speak for the people of good conscience of your district and insist that the Justice Department investigate this incident immediately.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. 

Sincerely,

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