Activism
COMMENTARY: Student Loan Forgiveness Denial Another Reason to Cast a Vote
Don’t miss the boat. You’ve got to vote, especially in this political age of denial. From election denial to DACA denial to now student loan forgiveness denial, there’s a lot of denial being thrust upon us. It makes the upcoming midterm elections more consequential that even the last presidential election — the one that some Republicans insist was stolen but wasn’t.

By Emil Guillermo | Post News Group
Of all the eligible voters in our country, just 10% actually do, according to a recent Unite America Institute study.
Don’t you want to be in that minority?
You have to register first.
And if you think you’ve missed the deadline, no you haven’t.
You can still call up the Secretary of State’s office and register for a provisional ballot.
You will count in California.
Don’t miss the boat. You’ve got to vote, especially in this political age of denial. From election denial to DACA denial to now student loan forgiveness denial, there’s a lot of denial being thrust upon us.
It makes the upcoming midterm elections more consequential that even the last presidential election — the one that some Republicans insist was stolen but wasn’t.
If the election deniers ride the Big Lie to victory, as hard as these last two years have been, expect things to get even harder and nastier with the deniers possibly in the majority in both chambers of Congress.
Democracy will feel worse than ever because it will be barely a democracy.
How does democracy denial sound?
People of color surely don’t need more motivation to vote. It’s already gotten personal.
Are you a Dreamer? A Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient? Do you know someone who is?
A few weeks ago, the Fifth Circuit appeals court declared DACA illegal. Ultimately, the decision to save DACA, or to establish a pathway to citizenship, relies on Congress.
You can decide who goes to Congress before they decide who to deport.
Are you another kind of dreamer, the kind looking at a college degree as your ticket to opportunity? Remember, you stretched, got into a pricier school, and got that student loan.
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, acting on an appeal from six Republican attorneys general from Southern states, blocked President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.
That’s where up to $20,000 in debt relief could come to student loan borrowers if they make under $125,000 a year.
And we’re not just talking students. Some parents went into debt for their kids. Excusing $20,000 in debt is like evaporating two or three credit card payments. A relief plan would have made a difference–until Republicans put a stop to it.
You can still apply. But now the courts have made it a new political football.
And it came on a day when Biden was at Delaware State University, an HBCU, describing the virtues of the relief plan, how easy it was to sign up, and how nearly 10 million, mostly middle-class Americans, already had signed up.
The Republicans must not want their votes.
They do want both the corporate, high-income voters. And those in the extreme lower end. The ultra-rich and ultra-poor.
The GOP argument is that middle class relief is unfair because it helps only the middle class and not lower income folks who normally don’t go to college, and also vote Republican. Think of the folks described in the polls as non-college educated, mostly whites. The Trump base.
Slashing the student loan forgiveness plan also works with the nonsensical general Republican plan to address the economy and inflation. That plan? To cut overall spending and cut taxes.
Many economists would consider that inflationary, cutting taxes and revenue, adding to the national debt. And that’s the GOP go-to? It’s yet another variation of the debunked “trickle down” theory. Enrich the corporates and the benefits will trickle down to everyone else.
But it never does.
Biden countered by unveiling a slogan last week calling the GOP plan the “MAGA mega trickle down.”
It might catch, but I prefer referring to student loan forgiveness as good old “trickle up” economics.
That $20,000 in debt relief would put money back in people’s pockets. Let them spend that on goods and services and watch the “trickle up.”
Debt relief from Biden’s student loan forgiveness can be life changing.
It’s not like bailing out the banks or a corporate giant or auto manufacturer, like both parties have done.
This is about bailing out regular folks.
If it matters to you, then you’ve got to vote.
You still can register in California. Get your invite to Election Day and watch your voice in our democracy “trickle up.”
Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. His web show is on www.amok.com
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
Activism
Richmond Promise Scholarship Application Deadline Closes March 17
Qualifying applicants can receive up to $1,500 annually for four years toward their post-secondary educational goals at a two-year or four-year college and/or while pursuing a Career Technical Education Certificate at any not-for-profit institution in the U.S.

Calling all high school seniors from Richmond and North Richmond: The Richmond Promise Scholarship Application period for the 2022-2023 school year closes on Friday, March 17.
High school seniors and GED students under the age of 24 who reside in Richmond and North Richmond and attend public, private, or charter schools in West Contra Costa County are eligible to apply for the scholarship.
Qualifying applicants can receive up to $1,500 annually for four years toward their post-secondary educational goals at a two-year or four-year college and/or while pursuing a Career Technical Education Certificate at any not-for-profit institution in the U.S.
Students can also petition for an additional two years of extra funding. Throughout the process, the program provides supportive services to participating scholars from high school through college graduation, including support with identifying and applying for financial aid.
Richmond Promise launched in 2016 with a $35 million, 10-year investment by Chevron Richmond. The funds are part of a $90 million community benefits agreement between the City of Richmond and Chevron connected to the $1 billion Refinery Modernization Project.
To apply for the Richmond Promise Scholarship, go to https://richmondpromise.tfaforms.net/81. Need some help? Reach out to Richmond Promise at scholarships@richmondpromise.org. Learn more about the organization https://richmondpromise.org/
Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report
Activism
Bay Area Native Dr. Terri Jett Honored by Indiana’s Butler University
Terri Jett arrived at Butler University in 1999 to begin her teaching career as an assistant professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies after earning her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University. Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.

By Jennifer Gunnels
Butler University Stories
Bay Area native Terri Jett was received a Distinguished Faculty Award at Indiana’s Butler University.
Terri Jett arrived at Butler University in 1999 to begin her teaching career as an assistant professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies after earning her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University.
Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.
More than 20 years later, Jett has excelled at the work she set out to do. Last year, she was named a 2021-22 Distinguished Faculty Award recipient for her profound contributions to Butler University over the course of her career.
In many ways, Jett has been a trailblazer at Butler, including becoming the first Black female to earn tenure, and in 2020 becoming the first Black female to be promoted to full professor. Along with her teaching responsibilities as a member of the faculty, Jett has taken on numerous additional roles over the years including faculty director of the Hub for Black Affairs and Community Engagement (the Hub), member of the Steering Committee of the Race, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program (RGSS), faculty senator, and Faculty Fellow at the Desmond Tutu Peace Lab Think Tank. She also served as Department Chair from 2007-2014, a role she has currently resumed as interim while the current Chair is on sabbatical.
Jett has developed almost two dozen courses — core, departmental, honors, and even taught in our Washington D.C. Semester Program — and is always eager to seize on opportunities to take her students beyond the borders of campus. She has led students on numerous occasions to Selma, Alabama with the Honors course Voting Rights in Black and White: The Case of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. She says walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge is always a moving and eye-opening experience for her students that brings the Civil Rights Movement to life in new ways.
Of the many courses she has taught, Jett says one of her favorites to teach is the Politics of Alice Walker, which she teaches nearly every summer. Prior to the pandemic, Jett also offered the course several times at the Indiana Women’s Prison and was able to bring some of her Butler students to visit her class in prison.
Jett is committed to doing good things in the world herself and is known in the Indianapolis community for her service and activism. She currently serves on the board of Indiana Humanities and is appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett to the Indianapolis Land Improvement Bond Bank Board. She also moderates a series on local PBS station WFYI called Simple Civics, which provides short civics lessons and was nominated for a Great Lakes Region Emmy in 2020 and again in 2021.
Jett says her community activism is inspired in part by a desire to demonstrate how to be an engaged citizen for her students as well as a desire to connect her teaching and research to issues happening within the community.
“And I do it because it’s fulfilling,” she said.
Though Jett has various roles within and outside of Butler, she finds satisfaction in discovering ways to integrate her teaching, research, and service. For instance, her research focuses on agriculture and food justice, and last year she leveraged her area of academic expertise and her role as Faculty Director of the Hub to partner with Indy Women in Food in hosting the organization’s first conference on Butler’s campus focused on food insecurity in the city.
“I’m thrilled when I’m able to do that,” Jett said. “All of the hats that I wear are sort of constantly engaged at the same time, and I like that I get to work like that. I’m not running from one thing to the next, I feel like my work is layered with multiple connection points.”
This article is part of a series honoring the 2021-22 recipients of the Butler University Distinguished Faculty Award. Printed with permission.
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