Fundamental Civil Rights and Individual Liberties
Presenting a Panel on our Rights and Actions
 

When: Saturday, May 24, 11 AM to 12:30 PM
Where: IN PERSON, Rhoda Goldman Plaza, Olive Room
2180 Post Street at Scott (directions below)
please RSVP by Thursday, May 22

Tanisha Humphrey is the Organizing Manager at the ACLU of Northern California, where she manages local policy campaigns in San Francisco and Vallejo, focusing primarily on criminal justice reform, police accountability, and open government.

Tanisha will be joined by a representative of the League of Women Voters (to be determined), and members of the OWL-SF Political Advocacy Committee. Together they will inform guests of the ways current U.S. Government policies and actions have eroded our rights—especially those affecting Older Women—and discuss ways we can fight to get them back, while protecting the ones we still have. 

What’s at Stake for Older Women and other seniors?
 

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The Olive Room is on the ground floor of Rhoda Goldman Plaza, look for signs directing you how to get there when you enter. 

Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP by Thursday, May 22 to:
info@owlsf.org or (415) 712-1695.

DIRECTIONS:

• Post Street is one block north of Geary Boulevard; Scott is one block east of Divisadero.
• Accessible within two blocks by Muni Lines 2, 22, 24 and 38.
• Street parking within two blocks is reasonably easy. 

SITUATION: Current law stipulates that California residential care facilities (RCFs) have a plan in place to deal with emergencies for at least 72 hours, but does not specify mandatory power supplies for that time. 

State Senate bill SB 435 would require RCFs for the elderly licensed for 16 or more residents to have an alternative source of power, to protect residents’ health and safety for no fewer than 72 hours during any type of power outage.

ACTION: Contact your State Senator today and tell them SB 435 is a no brainer: support this legislation to bolster the safety of residents in RCFs. 

ALSO: Share this message with friends, family and colleagues in California.

Click HERE to find addresses, phone numbers and email opportunities for your California State Legislators.

SITUATION: The tumultuous and chaotic stream of news coming from the White House on a daily basis makes it difficult to understand and meaningfully respond to the policies, executive orders and mandates that affect our lives daily. 

Where are our leaders who should be fighting for our priorities and concerns?
 
ACTION: Contact Senator Chuck Schumer and tell him that as Minority Leader we need him to take a more forceful role in leading the Democratic Party to respond strongly to President Trump’s policies, especially as they affect older people, their health and their financial security. Write to him and briefly describe your own personal concerns in regard to recent actions coming out of Washington.

ALSO: Share this message with friends, family and colleagus.

Senator Chuck Schumer
322 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-6542
Click HERE to email.

SITUATION: Nearly all of us are covered by Social Security because nearly all of us contributed. But we don’t all contribute equally. High earners and wealthy individuals–like CEOs and corporate shareholders–effectively pay a lower Social Security tax rate on their income. Social Security taxes are collected only on the first $168,200 of earnings this year. That tax ceiling–known as the “cap”–is inequitable and unfair. 

If we simply “Scrap the Cap”–getting rid of the ceiling altogether–millionaires would pay the same tax rate as middle-class families, which would make our economy more equitable, and dramatically improve Social Security’s long-term finances.

The Social Security 2100 Act (H.R. 4583) would not entirely scrap the cap, but is a strong step in the right direction. This legislation proposes increases in benefits across the board, plus enhanced cost-of-living adjustments, and a host of other improvements.

ACTION: Write or phone your Congress Member. Urge them to support the H.R. 4583! This would increase benefits across the board and improve cost-of-living adjustments, boosting benefits for low-income seniors and widows/widowers.

ALSO: Please share this message with friends, family and colleagues in the U. S.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
90 7th Street Suite 2-800
San Francisco, CA  94103
Phone: (415) 556-4862
Click HERE to email.

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon
1023 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515
Phone: (202) 225-2661
Click HERE to email.

Congressman Kevin Mullin
 528 S El Camino Real UNIT 307
San Mateo, CA 94402
(650) 342-0300
Click HERE to email.

Click HERE to identify and contact other members of the House of Representatives.

OWL-SF is proud to support the efforts of the California Alliance of Retired Americans (CARA) in their efforts to prevent devastating cuts to healthcare programs in the U.S.

HUGE MOMENT TO JOIN THE FIGHT
TO PRESERVE MEDI-CAL

Wanted to help but don’t know how? Now is the time to get started – right from home!

About this event

Congress is proposing to make devastating cuts to healthcare programs which could impact 15 million Californians, including children and people with disabilities! And they’re making the cuts to give huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.

To stop the cuts and save lives we need to get a handful of Republican Congress members to vote NO on the proposed healthcare cuts. CARA is making calls to voters in Congress members David Valadao’s, Young Kim’s, and Ken Calvert’s districts to encourage them to call their offices and patching them through right then!

CARA will be using a dialer system to make the calls so you will need a computer or laptop. There will be a short training on Zoom at the beginning of the call shift and then folks will start making calls.

You do not need to live in one of the key districts. Choose a district below to get started!

CD 22 – Valadao – Fight for Our Healthcare Phonebank

CD 40 – Kim – Fight for Our Healthcare Phonebank

CD 41 – Calvert – Fight for Our Healthcare Phonebank

Contact CARA

MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. BOX 23754, OAKLAND, CA  94623/ 510-663-4086 / www.californiaalliance.org

STAFF CONTACTS:

Executive Director:  Rob England, rob@californiaalliance.org 661-364-7101

Administrative Director: Cynthia Lopez, cynthial.cara@gmail.com/ 510-663-4086

Digital Specialist: Vidy Pugalenthi, vpugalenthi@californiaalliance.org/ 213-648-9000

REGIONAL ORGANIZERS:

NORTH (Bay Area and North State):

Daisy Oram, doram@californiaalliance.org/  707-815-2143

CENTRAL VALLEY:

Yesenia Cuevas, ycuevas@californiaalliance.org/ 209-354-7489 (Stockton-Bakersfield)Sacramento/Yolo counties, and Placer County

SOUTH: 

LA COUNTY/ INLAND EMPIRE/ORANGE/SAN DIEGO:

Vidy Pugalenthi, vpugalenthi@californiaalliance.org/ 213-648-9000

SITUATION: In addition to owning Tesla, Inc., Elon Musk is an unelected senior advisor to the current U.S. President. He has been given control of a newly created—dubiously legal— initiative called the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and is using his position to decimate the federal workforce, including, but not limited to: scientific research, veterans services, public education and foreign aid—all of which are essential to stability and growth in the U.S.

The President and Elon Musk have created chaos and unease around the country, especially for the most vulnerable citizens who rely on government funded programs for housing, health care, food, informational services and others.
 

ACTION: Join the protest at the San Francisco Tesla showroom on Saturday, March 1 at noon, 999 Van Ness Avenue at O’Farrell. Tell Musk and the President that we do NOT support their policies, and will make our voices heard in the 2025 mid-term elections! 

MUNI LINES: 38 and 49 go directly there; 2 and 19 within two blocks.

ALSO: Share this message with friends, family and colleagues in and near San Francisco. 

SITUATION: Previously, members of the public have been able to make comments remotely at SF Board of Supervisor Committee Meetings.

However, the BOS voted to end remote public comment for everyone—except, we later learned, people with disabilities—who are willing to disclose details of the nature of their disability publicly. 

This effectively punishes hundreds, if not thousands, who want to participate remotely in our local government, whether or not they have a disability. Even worse, it will force those who have disabilities to disclose in advance what their special needs are. In order to call in remotely, people living with disabilities—including old age—must seek burdensome “reasonable accommodation” exceptions. Or else they must face the burden of traveling to City Hall to attend in-person meetings.

ACTION: Ask your supervisor to remove the obstacles to remote comments in public meetings—for everyone, especially older women and men, and all people with disabilities. 

ALSO: Share this message with friends, family and colleagues in San Francisco.

Click HERE to find the contact information for your SF Supervisor.

SITUATION: The SFMTA is proposing a new plan called “The Biking and Rolling Plan” which will extend bike lanes to form an interconnected system.

Despite the presence of bike lanes, there are still too many bikers ignoring safety laws.

ACTION:  Tell the SFMTA and their Board of Directors that before the City spends more money on bike lanes, they should ensure that the laws should be enforced prohibiting bicycles from riding on the sidewalks, running red lights and stop signs and entering crosswalks while a pedestrian is crossing.

ALSO: Share this message with friends, family and colleagues in San Francisco.

Email the SFMTA Board at: MTABoard@sfmta.com

Call them at: (415) 646-4470

Write to them at: 
One South Van Ness Ave., 7th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103

SITUATION: In order to better serve riders, San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI) is currently engaged in a process called the Accessible Strategy Needs Assessment. This consists of performance data, institutional knowledge, and community wisdom.

ACTION: You can do your part to aid this process by expressing your opinions and concerns via the Accessibility Strategy Identified Needs Survey. This survey should only take you 3-5 minutes to complete, and your answers will help make the services and programs offered by MUNI more accessible.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY

You can also email MUNI (AccessibilityStrategy@sfmta.com) to ask questions, give feedback or request project updates. 

Please also forward this message to friends, family and colleagues who ride MUNI.

SITUATION: The SFMTA Board of Directors is working on a plan to make all  forms of biking and rolling—such as scooters, e-bikes, skateboards, power chairs and other low-speed wheeled devices—safer for everyone in the city. Their #1 goal is putting people first. Hopefully that includes seniors and all pedestrians. 

Their plan must include educating riders about traffic laws such as stopping for stop signs and red lights, yielding to pedestrians and not riding on sidewalks, practices which are presently making our sidewalks and crosswalks unsafe.

ACTION: Email the Board of SFMTA at MTABoard@sfmta.com and tell them that their Biking and Rolling Plan must include education of the public—and enforcement of laws already on the books—to insure that bicycles and scooters are not allowed on the sidewalks and must stop for red lights, stop signs and crosswalks to ensure the safety of all San Franciscans.

ALSO: Share this message with friends, family and colleagues.

Our fellow Americans living in hurricane-impacted areas should not have to worry that the federal government will run out of money to help them rebuild in the next few days.

SITUATION: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has declared that Congress will not return to pass emergency funding to aid hurricane impacted areas before the election. Instead, he has said Congress will wait until November to pass the needed emergency relief for hurricane-impacted areas.

This could soon force FEMA to stop rebuilding projects in hurricane-impacted areas, and to instead focus only on life-saving operations.

ACTION: We cannot let political games endanger lives. Sign this petition to demand that Speaker Mike Johnson reconvene the House and pass the necessary hurricane relief aid. 

ALSO: Share this message with friends, family and colleagues.

CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR NAME TO THE PETITION