Good news for people who want to do good: Day 277

Women of the Congressional Black Caucus stand up for their colleague Frederica Wilson

Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson has been standing up for the grieving family of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, and now her female colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus are standing up for her.

The CBC women are demanding an apology from chief of staff John Kelly for his harmful lies about her and the Trump administration’s continued attacks on her character.

Congresswoman Wilson is a woman of impeccable integrity and a dedicated public servant. She is a highly respected Member of Congress who has demonstrated extremely competent leadership on a number of important issues, and we are especially proud of her fearless and uncompromising leadership to fight for the release of nearly 300 Nigerian school girls who were kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram. […]

General Kelly’s comments are reprehensible. Congresswoman Wilson’s integrity and credibility should not be challenged or undermined by such blatant lies. We, the women of the Congressional Black Caucus, proudly stand with Congresswoman Wilson and demand that General Kelly apologize to her without delay and take responsibility for his reckless and false statements.

All 5 living former presidents took the stage for humanitarian relief

The five living former presidents continue to use their status and power to help those affected by multiple recent natural disasters, as they have done since Hurricane Harvey.

Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama took their One America Appeal aid organization to the stage Saturday night at a benefit concert to raise funds for victims of the recent hurricanes in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

And of course, Obama brought down the house, and certainly brought tears to more than a few eyes and smiles to every face.

Lovely to see President Barack Obama receiving so much love.

We appreciate you, 44!#OneAmericaAppeal pic.twitter.com/i5fAiV4qXQ

— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) October 22, 2017

The joint effort has already raised $31 million. And if all that weren’t impressive enough …

Nothing more beautiful than everyone putting their differences aside to help humanity in the face of catastrophe. #OneAmericaAppeal pic.twitter.com/2TPdPonvWv

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) October 22, 2017

ACTION ALERT: Time to go back to school — Resistance School

If you want to learn more about making your voice heard, putting your values into action, and bringing folks around you on board with the cause of social justice, Resistance School is in session.

Their informative training session with Marshall Ganz, a senior lecturer on public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, is online and ready for you to sharpen your pencils and hone your organizing skills.

Leadership is accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. Narrative is how we learn to access the moral resources – the courage – to make the choices that shape our identities – as individuals, as communities, as nations … Resistance School participants will learn the craft of Public Narrative, a foundational skill for creating and maintaining action-oriented relationships, for developing organizing strategies, for working effectively within teams, and for communicating authentically with voters.

CA Attorney General Xavier Becerra will stand up for DREAMers now and always

California is home to roughly 200,000 DREAMers, young undocumented immigrants whose futures hang in the balance as Donald Trump and the GOP take aim at the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra recently joined three other states in suing the Trump administration for ending DACA. And he made it clear that, no matter what Trump says on any given day, if there’s even a chance that these Americans are at risk of deportation, his state will be ready to defend them.

Well, again, if the Trump administration weren’t putting people’s lives at risk, their ability to continue to go to school, to work, to provide for their family, then perhaps we could wait. But Donald Trump didn’t wait. He decided to repeal the DACA program altogether, and now we have to act, because we can’t afford to put people in this kind of limbo. So we’re out there to protect, at least in California, more than 200,000 young people who are fighting really hard to continue to show that they belong in America.

ACTION ALERT: Get out the vote in Virginia!

Election Day in Virginia is two weeks away, so it’s time to really buckle down and get to work. The governor’s race in this key state is a big one, and you can pitch in with the effort from wherever you happen to live!

Indivisible makes it easy: go here to sign up for a virtual phone or text bank from your state. What happens in one state’s election can impact the whole country, so don’t let something like zip codes stop you from joining the fight to help #FlipVABlue!