Join IJM and #enditmovement: share to help end slavery and support the #EndSlaveryAct!
Today, IJM joins the country in one of the largest awareness generating events to end slavery: the End It Movement's Shine a Light on Slavery Day. The End It Movement is a coalition of the leading organizations in the fight for freedom.
This year, advocates around the country are taking part in the End It Movement by asking their members of Congress to pass the End Modern Slavery Initiative. This bill will unite leaders across the globe to enact proven anti-slavery models on a worldwide scale—bringing freedom to millions of families who are currently living in slavery.
Read MoreHolly's News From Washington
We’re still digging out from Washington’s fourth largest blizzard in history, “Snowzilla.” It’s mandatory to disparage our nation’s Capitol when it snows—especially if you migrated here from the Midwest. Well, I’m from the Midwest—I grew up in Ohio and Iowa—and I love my adopted, southern city. Precisely because it is a southern city, it’s not economical to lay in the plows and trucks that Chicago and Cleveland depend on. So when we get a really big storm, it means our Metro mass transit system closes, the federal government closes, and our cars are buried for days. My neighborhood, Capitol Hill, had a party atmosphere, with nothing but kids and their sleds and neighborhood dogs on the roads. Folks helped each other shovel their sidewalks.
Read MoreThings to be thankful for:
The last couple of Thanksgivings, my husband and our two daughters, Josie and Grace (who are now 18 and 20) have started a new tradition for our big dinner. We threw over turkey, green bean casserole, and sweet potatoes and instead had a “Favorite Things” dinner. Everybody in the family, including the dogs, gets to have their favorite thing on the menu. Last year, we had macaroni and cheese, crab Norfolk, homemade whoopee pies, and—my favorite—Pacific Lime Mold, an appalling lime-pineapple-cottage cheese concoction from the 1950’s that my Mom used to make and only I eat today.
I’ve been thinking of favorite things a lot these days. We have so much to be grateful for in the past year.
Read MoreHolly's Top Ten Tips for Lobbying
IJM’s wonderful Advocacy Summit is coming up fast! We can’t wait to have our friends from around the United States converge on Washington for advocacy training and story-telling followed by a day of meetings with members of Congress, senators and their staff in support of our cherished End Modern Slavery Initiative Act of 2015 (EMSI, #EndSlaveryAct). Many of those coming to the Advocacy Summit are experienced lobbyists, having visited their Senate and House offices many times. But for some, it will be the first time up on Capitol Hill. Either way, we want to make sure our advocates are well prepared.
Read MoreToday is Juneteenth: keep up the fight to end modern-day slavery!
Today is Juneteenth! What, you may ask, is that? Juneteenth is the oldest-known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
In 1865, people didn't find things out instantly by reading a blog post, checking the trends on Twitter or watching a CNN iReport. News traveled slowly. So on June 19 of that year, when Maj. General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, TX, he was the first (!) to announce that the Confederacy was defeated and all slaves were officially free. (A note for context: this was 2+ years after the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation.)
Read MoreIt is TIME to take your #STAND4FREEDOM
This week (April 6 to 10), thousands of advocates around the world and across the U.S. are taking a #Stand4Freedom and asking their members of Congress to help end slavery by supporting the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act of 2015 (or EMSI).
Join in the action and #Stand4Freedom!We need to tell our elected officials how important ending modern-day slavery is. Help us send the message loud and clear.
Read MoreThe End Modern Slavery Initiative Act of 2015 and its journey to become law
The End Modern Slavery Initiative Act of 2015 (S.553; EMSI) provides a bold, bipartisan opportunity to advance the very best of American ideals to end modern-day slavery. From many years of working in the human rights field, I can tell you it is painfully rare to see opportunities like the one this bill represents: a way to spring forward and fight injustice on a new level. Senator Corker’s bill will make a big difference in the fight to end modern slavery and human trafficking – if it becomes law.
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