The pandemic offers Americans a chance to look hard at the ways in which government has failed society—but also a chance to do something about it.

As Judt said and then wrote, 11 years ago, “Why do we experience such difficulty even imagining a different sort of society? Why is it beyond us to conceive of a different set of arrangements to our common advantage? Are we doomed indefinitely to lurch between a dysfunctional ‘free market’ and the much-advertised horrors of ‘socialism’? Our disability is discursive: we simply do not know how to talk about these things anymore.”  Read it here.

New Jersey Star Ledger  Editorial Board: 
The virus has turned NJ prisons into death houses. The governor must act now

New Jersey Together: The governor and his 'team' delayed a full month after we pressed them to test in the prisons.  Every day cost lives.  We agitated like crazy, and they finally began testing about ten days ago -- too late for many.

In response to my latest piece in the New York Daily News, a few top leaders have asked me to talk about ‘creativity.’  I think we’ve tried to discuss this in the distant past once or twice.  The phrase I think more accurately describes what I try to do is ‘play of mind.’  So, what does THAT entail?  

For the recent Daily News piece, an early aspect of the play of mind was my re-reading of Caro’s great book, Power Broker, particularly the remarkable chapter, One Mile.  Last year, Matthew Marienthal and I attended a talk by Caro, not long after his short book, Working, was published.  So Caro and that single mile and the East Tremont neighborhood in the Bronx were on my mind.

So were the themes of change and what I call our ‘hidden history’ – the many stories of impact by a wide range of groups and institutions, including our own, that never make it as ‘super stories.’  One of those stories was the SBC/Metro IAF effort to imagine, design, and align the forces necessary to create the Mott Haven Campus.

Finally, the current crisis was the intense context for the thoughts, readings, experiences, and intuitions swirling around.   So that’s the first phase of my work.

"But what about another story of change — change generated by organized citizens who have their own vision of what would improve or enhance their community and their lives? Why do we so often forget to tell this story?"   Story by Michael Gecan in the NY Daily News.

Another Win for Colorado workers! An additional 30,000 Coloradans working in the food and beverage manufacturing industry now qualify for emergency paid leave - including thousands of UFCW Local 7R members! Read more HERE

HOUSTON – Alba Garcia, 51, has a decision to make. Does she pay rent Wednesday or does she buy food for her 7-year-old daughter?
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“Maybe I should try and pay my rent because I can’t bear for me and my daughter to be on the streets. I can beg for food but I can’t lose my apartment," she said in Spanish. Joe Higgs, an organizer for The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) acted as a translator. TMO works with Holy Ghost Catholic Church where Garcia is a member.  Story here

AS THE BLACK MARKET TRADE of its N95 respirator masks has continued to swell, pressure is mounting on 3M, which manufactures the masks and other protective gear, to crack down on price gouging among its distributors.

Tuesday, amid widespread reports that vendors of medical supplies are wildly overcharging for the desperately needed protective devices, the Minnesota-based company insisted that it is committed to combating the inflation of prices for its products used during the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement about both price gouging and the sale of counterfeit masks, which also appears to be a problem, 3M promised that it “will aggressively pursue third-parties that seek to take advantage of this crisis. We are working with law enforcement authorities around the world — including, in the U.S., the U.S. Attorney General, state Attorneys General, and local authorities.”
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But some civic groups are asking the company to do more. The Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, or Metro IAF, a Queens-based nonprofit, responded to 3M’s statement yesterday with a letter to the company’s CEO, Mike Roman, insisting that Roman make it clear to the company’s distributors that if they take advantage of the desperate need for protective gear they won’t be able to sell 3M’s products in the future.  Intercept story here.

Immigrants in the Dallas area mask their symptoms so they can continue to work, according to Josephine López Paul, lead organizer with Dallas Area Interfaith.

“We’ve seen our service industries obliterated,” said Ms. López Paul. “Immigrants are being hit the hardest right now and there’s no safety net for them."      Story

Federal officials debating whether to recommend that face coverings be routinely worn in public are responding to increasing evidence that infected people without symptoms can spread the coronavirus, according to internal memos provided to the White House by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

​Simple cloth masks that cover the mouth and nose can prevent virus transmission from such individuals when they are out buying groceries or seeking medical care, according to the memos obtained by The Washington Post.  Story