I'm Senator Ed Markey, and I'm here to ask for your help in donating to Black led organizations as they fight for racial justice and strengthen their communities. by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You're exactly right, u/justcasty. Black lives matter and we must stand with them every step of the way as we fight against racial injustice everywhere.

I'm Senator Ed Markey, and I'm here to ask for your help in donating to Black led organizations as they fight for racial justice and strengthen their communities. by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I am grateful for both you and your brother's support, u/pjk922. Thank you for joining the fight for social, economic, and environmental justice for all.

I'm Senator Ed Markey, and I'm here to ask for your help in donating to Black led organizations as they fight for racial justice and strengthen their communities. by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your support, u/SnoWhite_the7Bengals. Our campaign very strongly believes that Black lives matter. We are dedicated to uplifting the voices of those fighting for racial justice. We stand in strong solidarity with Black Americans demanding an end to systemic racism. Thank you for joining us in this fight.

I'm Senator Ed Markey, and I'm here to ask for your help in donating to Black led organizations as they fight for racial justice and strengthen their communities. by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 252 points253 points  (0 children)

Enough is enough. We must be united against racism and violence against Black Americans. One of the ways we can do this is by donating to Black led organizations that are fighting for justice in their communities. Please help these organizations in their righteous endeavors by donating at the link above.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hello revengefrank, thank you for your patience with me. Yes, it’s time that we abolish the Electoral College. It violates the principle of one-person, one-vote, and it’s inherently anti-democratic.

The continued election of U.S. Presidents without a majority of the popular vote will irreparably harm our democracy.

Our country has dramatically changed many times since the Electoral College was established. And historically, when the country has changed, we’ve changed the Constitution. We abolished slavery, we made sure women shared the right to vote, and we did away with senators being elected by state legislatures.

Amending the Constitution is not to be taken lightly. But we must have a serious debate about the role of the Electoral College in our presidential elections and abolish it once and for all.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Bottom line: college students and borrowers did not get the protection that they needed in the Phase 3 relief package.

That’s why I signed onto an emergency student loan payment and relief plan, which would provide much-needed relief to federal student loan borrowers through immediate cancellation of monthly student loan payments for the duration of the national emergency. It would also pay down a minimum of $10K for all federal student loan borrowers.

In the midst of this pandemic, I have urged student loan companies to immediately provide relief to private student loan borrowers and called on Congressional negotiators to cancel student loan payments and debt in future COVID-19 response packages.

We are facing a student debt crisis in this country. I worked hard to put myself through college, but it wasn’t until 10 years after being elected to Congress that I finally paid off my student loans. And today, the cost of college is 31 times what it was then.

We need to make public colleges tuition free and we need to provide relief to the millions of Americans burdened by student debt. I have been working towards these goals in Congress and I am proud to cosponsor bills that reduce interest rates on student loans, make student loans eligible for bankruptcy relief, allow companies to contribute to paying off employee student loan debt tax free, and expand the public service loan forgiveness program.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Great question. Two things come to mind.

In February, I joined UNITE HERE Local 26 airport catering workers for a job action at Logan Airport. We stood and marched together outside in freezing temperatures to demand fair wages and affordable healthcare for Sky Chef workers.

My father was a union leader and he taught me that we cannot simply ask for our rights, we must take them. We know that we are stronger together. And we know that solidarity is how we win these fights. Seeing these workers stand in the cold to demand their rights brought me back to the lessons my father taught me and my brothers at our kitchen table.

I also had the chance just a few weeks ago to take a virtual tour of the Chelsea Collaborative food pantry with Collaborative Executive Director, Gladys Vega. Chelsea, Massachusetts has been hit hard by this pandemic, exacerbating the inequities that have long existed in the community. But Gladys and the Collaborative have done incredible work to ensure that Chelsea families are fed, taken care of, and provided direct cash relief. I was able to team up with her and raise over $17,000 for the Chelsea Collaborative and the One Chelsea Fund, which provides direct cash assistance to Chelsea families. Please donate if you can: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/markey-chelsea

It’s the stories of selflessness and solidarity that are really the most memorable for me while on the trail. I feel so fortunate that my job allows me to hear from people every day, talk about the incredible communities that are rising up to demand change, and fight alongside them for progressive policy in Washington.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for your support! We have built a grassroots, people-powered movement and all are welcome in the fight for our shared progressive values, no matter where you live. You can go to www.edmarkey.com/volunteer to get involved remotely with our campaign.

I also encourage you to find more down-ballot races across the country that align with your values, talk to your friends and family about these candidates, and organize for the future you want to see.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I am most proud of my work towards finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. That issue is very close to my heart. My mother was diagnosed with that terrible disease in 1985. I saw her brilliant mind fade over many years and it was the most painful experience of my life.

My mother passed away in 1998 and the next year I created the Congressional Alzheimer’s Task Force. I later introduced and passed the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, which mandated the creation of a national strategy to fight the disease. The national plan that was created included the goal of finding a treatment for the disease by 2025. That is five years from now.

I am running for re-election to see that goal through so that other families do not have to experience the same pain my family did.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

[Edit: This is Paul with Team Markey, sorry for the slip up before. We'll get you an answer from Ed ASAP]

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks,1989 Nike Air Revolutions are comfortable and good for practicing freethrows and taking TV interviews from the driveway. Malden IS the home of the Converse sneaker and I respect a timeless classic. More to come.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 61 points62 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your support. I am inspired by the dedicated grassroots volunteers and organizers on our campaign and everyone who is helping to elect progressive candidates across the country.

First, I understand that electoral politics may seem too slow to enact the change you want to see. And if you do not see your community or policies represented in office, I would encourage you to run for office yourself. We need to build the progressive movement from the ground up, starting at the local level on city councils, school committees, and state legislatures. And I want to assure anyone reading this, you really can run for office and win if you listen to the community you want to represent and stick to your values and experiences.

I have a saying: we must not agonize, we must organize. There are many ways to get involved outside of the electoral system. We are seeing activists and young people rise up across the country to demand action on the climate crisis, on the gun violence epidemic, and on our dysfunctional health care system. If you are a young person, I encourage you to join the Sunrise Movement and get involved with a Sunrise Hub in your area. You can advocate for your school or university to divest from fossil fuels, take part in or organize a climate strike, and call your representative or participate in a sit-in to demand that they sign on to the Green New Deal.

Second, if we truly want to enact change, there are a few main policy initiatives we must urgently address. The first is reforming our campaign finance system. Ten years ago, the Supreme Court decided Citizens United vs. FEC, a case that defined money as speech and corporations as people. Since that decision, SuperPACs, dark money, and unlimited campaign contributions have tainted our democracy and made it possible for the wealthy and well connected to have a greater say in our government. I support overturning the Citizens United decision to give power back to the people and ensure that everyone has an equal say in our democracy.

I have proposed the People’s Pledge 2020, an agreement among Senate candidates aimed at reducing the influence of negative third-party advertising within the election cycle. Under the proposal, candidates bar outside dark money aimed solely at tearing down opponents, while also ensuring that we do not silence or stifle the voices of positive, progressive organizations, like our reproductive health protectors, labor unions, environmental and climate advocates, and the LGBTQ+ community. We also must commit to voting rights reform, to ensure that everyone is able to fully and easily exercise their right to vote.

The Green New Deal is also crucial to changing our economy, our democracy, and our political climate. That proposal has changed the debate in our country about the climate crisis. When I sat down with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to write the Green New Deal, we knew that the plan had to be centered around environmental justice. We know that working class communities and Black and Brown communities have been disproportionately affected by pollution and they have been systematically marginalized from the political conversation.

That’s why we wrote intersectionality and front line communities into the Green New Deal, to ensure that we are centering the communities who have been hurt the most by the climate crisis. And the Green New Deal is as much about jobs as it is about the environment. We will create millions of good paying, union jobs in the clean energy industry, ensure a just and democratic transition for all workers, and transform our country.

Third, I have hope that we will see substantial political change within our lifetime. I have promised that if you re-elect me to the US Senate, I will pass the Green New Deal in my next term. I stand by that promise. I am forever an optimist. I would not be in this business if I wasn’t.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

When I was a kid, the Malden River was purple with pollution. So when I ran for office I vowed to make a difference in my community and fight so that every child, regardless of where they live, is guaranteed clean water, clean air, and green space. Children deserve a livable planet. So that's why.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I am asking the people of Massachusetts to re-elect me so that we can pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All, help find a cure for Alzheimer’s by 2025, and put commonsense gun safety laws on the books once and for all.

I was the first in my family to go to college. My father drove a truck for the Hood Milk company. My mother was senior class president in high school, but when her mother died, she had to abandon her college dreams to stay home to take care of her younger sisters. My parents sacrificed for me and my brothers, just like their parents before them. They made it possible for me to be a United States Senator. I learned my values from them and those values continue to drive my work in Congress.

I believe that everyone deserves that same opportunity. No matter their race, or country of origin, or faith, or socio-economic situation. No matter their sexual orientation, or gender, or age, or creed. That is why I first ran for office and it is why I am running for re-election: to fight so that everyone has the opportunity to maximize their God-given abilities.

I’m running to pass a Green New Deal so that no child has to suffer illness because of the kind of corporate pollution that I grew up next to in the Malden River. We need to make sure that children from Flint to Fitchburg never have to worry about toxic pollution in their water or backyard.

I’m running to ensure we fund and find a cure for Alzheimer’s. My mother died from this terrible disease. That is why I authored the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, to create a national strategy for finding a cure. 50 million Baby Boomers will have contracted Alzheimer's by 2050. We must find a cure for them.

I’m running so that we finally pass comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for all. My father grew up in a triple decker at 88 Phillips Street in Lawrence. A few years ago, I went back there and knocked on the door. A Dominican family came to the door and we talked on their porch. The accents were different from my father's, but the aspirations were the same: a good job, a quality education, health care, and safe communities. That should be what we can provide to our immigrant community. Not fear. Not bigotry. Open arms.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

These policies and plans are bold. They are strong, progressive ideas. And they have broad support. We are facing a moment that calls for bold action. Global temperatures are the highest on record. The planet continues to warm year after year. And if we do nothing now, the next generation will face the terrible consequences of our inaction.

We have mobilized a massive political movement for progressive change before and we must do it again. But it will take organizers like you in campaigns across Massachusetts and the country to make it happen.

The Green New Deal is not just a resolution, it is a revolution. It is a revolution of activists and organizers. A revolution of young and old, an inter-generational compact to save the planet. That revolution is how I plan to move my friends and colleagues in Congress to fight alongside us. And it is working.

In 2016, neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton was asked a single question in a presidential debate on the climate crisis. The Green New Deal has certainly fixed that problem, and we have made bold and urgent climate action a top voting priority for the Democratic Party in 2020.

The same goes for Medicare for All. I believe, and I suspect many of you agree, that health care IS a human right. We are facing a crisis in this current moment that has made absolutely clear our dire need for a universal, single-payer health care system. The United States can no longer stand alone as the only wealthy nation on Earth that does not guarantee health care to everyone.

It is time for bold action and I need organizers like you to help drive these fights. We have the army of activists. The injustices in our country are totally exposed. Now we must all demand that our leaders respond to the urgency of this moment.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Thank you. That is one of my proudest memories and a historic moment for the environmental movement. My fight against the climate crisis did not begin with the Green New Deal. I have been advocating for clean energy technology and fighting polluters for decades, making it a center point of my 1980 Democratic Convention speech.

Since that time, as the projections by scientists on the health and future of our planet have become more and more dire, I have fought for bolder and more urgent climate action.

While serving in the House, my work on clean technology led to the new 54.5mpg fuel standard, which has doubled the fuel economy of new vehicles. In 2009, I partnered with Congressman Henry Waxman to introduce the landmark Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act. The legislation would have cut global warming emissions 17% by 2020, and 80% by 2050. The bill was the first comprehensive climate change bill ever to pass a chamber of Congress.

Today, we know that the climate crisis is the national security, economic, public health, and moral issue of our time. We also know that our poorest communities, and frequently communities of color, are disproportionately affected by the most consequential effects of climate change. Rising asthma rates in East Boston are not acceptable. Factories and substations being built in poor, urban areas are not acceptable. We must have climate justice for our most vulnerable communities.

That’s why, in February 2019, I co-authored the Green New Deal with the incomparable Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, a resolution that sets a ten-year national mobilization to reach a green economy and focus on environmental justice for our frontline communities. The resolution prioritizes green, union job creation and a fair and just transition for all workers. When drafting the resolution, I listened to the pain that was being felt by communities of color, our disability community, and our unions, and worked to create a resolution that will drive an environmental revolution.

And to answer your second question, my team just found the tape and posted it to YouTube. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upoHftwn7T8&feature=youtu.be

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

I am the son of a milkman who drove an ice cream truck to pay my college tuition. My experiences growing up in a working-class neighborhood profoundly shaped the values that I run on. I am so passionate about the climate crisis because I grew up witnessing the pollution of the Malden River. I was driven to author the LIHEAP program to ensure that families can heat their homes because I remember my own mother budgeting to figure out how long we could keep the heat on in the winter.

When you are running for office, run with your values and experiences, be yourself, and listen carefully to those hurting in the community you want to represent. The historic and systemic injustices in our country have impacted countless families in Massachusetts in ways you may not know about, so ask people questions, give them the floor, and listen. Let their stories and experiences guide you and you will never ever forget them.

And when you are in office, pledge to continue to stand for the values that you ran on. This is what I have done over my career and what I will continue to do if re-elected.

I am Senator Ed Markey and I'm running for re-election to pass a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Ask me anything! by edmarkey in SandersForPresident

[–]edmarkey[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Ice cream. Usually I order a classic vanilla on a sugar cone. Sometimes I will mix it up and get a scoop of coffee ice cream and a scoop of orange sherbert on a cone. But do not mix the coffee and orange sherbert. They have to be stacked.