Tag: advocacy

How Can I Participate in Library Advocacy Day?

Share YOUR story!

libraryLibrary Advocacy Day in New York State is February 28th, 2023.

The New York Library Association (NYLA) has a game plan for participating.

You can:

  • Attend an In-person OR Virtual Legislative Office Visit with your fellow #LibraryAdvocates.
  • Be a Social Media Advocate. Learn more about how to get involved in social media advocacy in the “Leverage Your Network” Section.
  • Send a Letter/Email to your Elected Officials. Not social media savvy? No worries. NYLA has both letter and email templates for you to customize and send to your elected officials.
  • Share Your Story. Tell everyone about how #nylibraries have been important to your communities on social media! Use the hashtags #LAD23, #LibraryAdvocate, and #nylibraries to tell your story. NYLA will retweet/reshare your post throughout the day!
  • Submit a Video for NYLA’s “I Am A #LibraryAdvocate” Campaign. NYLA is asking #LibraryAdvocates to share via video why #nylibraries are important to you! “Whether you are a seasoned library advocate or this is your first Library Advocacy Day – NYLA wants to hear from you. These videos will be shared via NYLA’s social media channel.”

Locally, the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library (FFAPL) is looking for people to table in February on Tuesdays at Washington Ave or another day at another branch based on your availability.

And if you’re not from New York State, I’m sure there are similar activities in your area.

Libraries under attack

Here are some articles that NYLA has recently posted.

Polarizing and Isolating Americans is Good Business for Media Monopolies
The Real News Network

America’s Public Libraries Reflect the Systematic Failures and Social Inequality of Our Country
Electric Lit

School Librarians Are in the Crosshairs of Right-Wing Book Banners and Censors
Truthout

What Book Bans Are Doing to School Library Purchases
Education Week

Lydster: climate change advocate

New York State legislators have agreed to include a single-use plastic bag ban, the second state, after California, to do so.

Climate MattersMy daughter left for school on the Ides of March about 7:30 a.m.. At 7:53, she called me and said that she’d be taking part in a strike against climate change.

I had already known about the worldwide event. Students in more than 100 countries were to stay out of school to attend rallies to highlight the looming and very real danger to their futures.

I asked her about ruining her perfect attendance record at school. She said she didn’t care; this was more important. I said OK. Laissez-faire parenting, no doubt. Heck, I even brought her lunch at the state capitol, where there were about 100 students.

It’s good that kids around the world are “taking the lead on battling what they see as apathy among too many adults about climate change.” Or antipathy, it seems sometimes.

I was genuinely shocked that the US Environmental Protection Agency STILL has the statement, “The Earth’s climate is changing, and people’s activities are the main cause,” at its site. And it’s on a page geared toward children.

Subsequent to the worldwide rallies, someone asked me about the efficacy of the action. As a participant in numerous rallies for peace, civil rights, the environment and other causes, I said that a single person at a given event, maybe not much. But over time, it often inspires greater work in the process, such as bugging your local officials.

I’m sure it’s unrelated to the rallies – or IS it? – but New York State legislators have agreed to include a single-use plastic bag ban, the second state, after California, to do so.

With fewer options for the third R, recycling, there needs to be more emphasis on the first two, reduce and reuse.

My daughter said she felt energized to take more actions. I’m very proud that she’s making these decisions without prompting from her parents.

Go ‘outside the camp’ to the marginalized

FOCUS volunteers also sacrifice their time to do advocacy.

Hebrews 13.16I took on this assignment to write something for the FOCUS Churches of Albany’s Advent devotional. This was my submitted copy, which may or may not be what shows up.

Text: Hebrews 13:7-17. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
As Christ was killed outside the city gate, let us also go ‘outside the camp’ to the marginalized and risk “the abuse he endured.”
In gratitude, “let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God…”

Quite a few of my friends are apathetic or even antagonistic towards the church. I totally get that. I’d been there myself some years ago.

My friends often see some elements of the church favoring those who have, the insiders. “Send money” so the pastor can have a bigger house, a better plane. I actually heard one of these guys say that if Jesus had come to earth in the 21st century, rather than the first, he’d be riding around in the newest and fanciest airbus.

That’s not the Jesus I’m seeing in this passage. He is instead a sacrificial Lord. While He is learned enough to swap scripture with the scribes and elders, he’s spending most of His time tending to the marginalized.

I’ve been a member of a FOCUS church since 1984. What inspires me about service to others is that doesn’t end at the sanctuary door. It goes “outside the camp” (v. 13), meeting the needs of the broader community.

Jesus commands us to feed the hungry, and FOCUS does that with food pantries, a breakfast club, and other services. “Do not forget to do good and to share with others.” (v. 16)

But FOCUS volunteers also sacrifice their time to do advocacy, trying to address the root causes that require a food pantry that was designed as a temporary activity to be in place for nearly five decades.

Just as Jesus brought people together to express God’s will, occasionally turning over a table or two, FOCUS mobilizes “individuals and other community organizations to work for systemic and structural change to address issues including poverty, social and racial injustice.”

Prayer: When people come to Advent services, they see the lighted candles and hear the familiar hymns. May they also see the love in our hearts that comes from caring for others, even those ragged people outside the door, per the example of Jesus.
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Yes, There is a War on Christianity

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