One Civic Act

George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, died in Minneapolis after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer. Chauvin handcuffed Floyd and put his knee to Floyd’s neck, pinning him to the ground for nearly 10 minutes. Captured on video, the incident has inspired protests around the country, once again highlighting systemic racism and the grossly inordinate numbers of black men killed by the police. Today, I donated to the Lake Street Council , a Minneapolis nonprofit that advocates for the Lake Street business community. This is an area filled with businesses owned by people of color, and where there’s been a great deal of property damage from the Minneapolis protests. The Council is running a fund to help rebuild the area. Today, I also signed a change.org petition , with almost 10 million other signatories, demanding justice for George Floyd from the prosecutors.

Will Hurd (R-Tex.) represents the 23rd District in Texas, which includes 820 miles of the Mexican border. And he is unequivocal that the real opportunity to enhance border security is by addressing the root causes of migration patterns: violence and lack of economic opportunity. As for a wall, Hurd says a barrier only makes sense where there is “urban-to-urban contact” (think El Paso-Ciudad Juarez). Otherwise, security would be better served by a fiber-optic cables that would support a sensor network but more importantly bring connectivity and economic opportunity to rural communities. Today, I wrote a letter thanking Rep. Hurd for his thoughtful approach to policy.

It was a Tuesday. September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday. Just like today is a Tuesday. Today, I made a donation to  Tuesday’s Children , which serves communities altered by terrorism and acts of violence. Never forget.

I gave to Operation Underground Railroad  last year, to help combat child sex trafficking. It’s a powerful story: Operation Underground Railroad has rescued 1,500 victims and assisted in the arrests of over 570 traffickers around the world in just four years. They send ex-special forces to coordinate operations with local enforcement, and they travel around the world to extract children caught up in these circumstances. This year, my donation is so much more personal, however. This one’s for you, Alex .

There are more refugees today than at any time in history: over 65 million people have been forced from their homes by war and violence. Can one small object give back opportunity to those who have lost it? That’s the objective of The Pin Project : to help displaced persons, returnees and refugees achieve long-term self-reliance through meaningful work. Today, I supported the Pin Project on Kickstarter.

Child sex trafficking. It’s a practice that universally abhorred. Yet it’s a problem that isn’t going away. Human traffickers enslave 24.9 million victims worldwide, according to the ILO . One organization that is fighting child sex trafficking is Operation Underground Railroad . In the past three years, OUR has rescued 745 victims and assisted in the arrests of more than 365 traffickers around the world. By rescue, I mean they have ex-special forces coordinate operations with local enforcement, and they travel around the world to extract children caught up in these circumstances. Today, I donated to OUR.

Veteran’s Day is when we honor those serving our nation. Today, I made a donation to the USO . We still have thousands of active-duty service members serving in conflict zones (notably Iraq and Afghanistan), not to mention hundreds of thousand posted overseas. The USO gives them moments of escapism, bringing them a entertainment, arts and culture. The big-name acts who make visits overseas are important – but so, too, are the USO centers, where service members can connect with families back home, watch a movie or play a video game, or just relax for a moment.

I landed in London this morning wanting to do something local. As it happens, the annual Poppy Appeal put on by the Royal British Legion launched two days ago. The Poppy Appeal is a fundraiser for British veterans and families of British soldiers killed in combat. Today, I gave to the Poppy Appeal and pinned a Poppy to my suit jacket.

Today, I visited the Bataclan, in Paris, to pay tribute to the victims of the horrific terrorist  tragedy nearly two years ago. I was surprised, pleasantly, that the site has a certain normalcy to it, and only a small plaque out front. Moving on is good, but never forget.

June 20 is World Refugee Day. More than 65 million people have been forced to leave their homes and start over. But those circumstances shouldn’t define who they are as individuals. Each has a story to tell. Today, I donated my Facebook profile through the Western Union Foundation, to give the opportunity for a refugee to tell his story. Refugees aren’t statistics; they’re people. Jackdar’s story, how we ended up in Mexico, is now on Facebook. You can do the same here:  https://www.westernunion.com/iammore/ . The Western Union Foundation will make a donation for every Facebook profile that is given over.  

There are over 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey right now. That’s about the population of Philadelphia, the fifth largest city in the United States. And they won’t be going home any time soon, judging by the geopolitical escalation in the region. Providing those refugees with opportunities is a necessity. That’s where efforts like The Anka Cooperative come in. Anka is a social enterprise that teaches Syrian women refugees transferable skills, providing them work, and enabling cultural integration. They currently work with 250 weavers in two camps in Turkey, training them to make fine carpets. Today, I supported the Anka Cooperative on Kickstarter . They would like to grow to serve 20,000 refugees by 2020, which is ambitious to say the least. At that kind of scale, they may need to address their impact on their host communities. Even setting aside what economists call the “ lump of labor fallacy ” (the misperception that there is a fixed amount of work...

The Syrian crisis has made refugees a cause célèbre. And there’s good reason for that. The percentage of the world’s population displaced from their homes doubled since the crisis began, now approaching 1 in 100 persons. Think of it this way: how many friends do you have on Facebook? Now imagine that 1 out of 100 is a refugee. The number is too high to bear. Today, I donated to the International Rescue Committee . Believe it or not, the IRC was founded in 1933 – by Albert Einstein, no less! The IRC has first-responder programs, as well as programs to help with resettlement efforts and numerous other humanitarian aid initiatives. It’s an incredibly important program; the reality is that, while individual crises ebb and flow, the presence of refugee crises has been a constant. I gave in response to a plea from a friend, incidentally, who decided to use her birthday (it’s a big number, but I won’t give it away) as a platform to raise money for the IRC. I...

Today, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved its Doomsday Clock to 2.5 minutes to midnight. That means we’re closer to a nuclear armageddon than we’ve been since 1959. I made a small donation to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Here’s hoping we can all turn back the clock.