Bill Ayers

A new analysis released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute finds that CEO pay in the United States rose by a staggering 1,322% between 1978 and 2020—a sharp contrast to the pay increase of the typical worker, which was just 18% during that same period.

In 2020, a year of pandemic and widespread economic dislocation, the top executives at the largest public firms in the U.S. were paid 351 times as much as the typical worker.

CEOs saw their compensation increase by 18.9% between 2019 and 2020 while the pay of typical workers—those who were able to hold on to their jobs amid mass layoffs stemming from the pandemic—rose just 3.9% over that time.

Emergency Alert!

It’s not too late for Governor Andrew Cuomo to grant executive clemency  

Governor Cuomo, during his final days in office, has the power to grant executive clemency to commute the sentences of people in prison.

At this eleventh hour, he can do this with the stroke of a pen.

We must use these last few days to urge him to take positive action on pending clemency applications: David Gilbert’s but also those of the four other applicants named below.

Here is a way for him to burnish his legacy: to rise above the current political crisis and act with justice and compassion.

We urge Governor Cuomo to use the broad and exclusive executive clemency power to commute the sentences of Jon-Adrian (“JJ”) Velazquez (DIN 00A2303), Bruce Bryant (DIN 96A5569), Paul Clark (DIN 82B1198), David Gilbert (DIN 83A6158), and Greg Mingo (DIN 83A0660), remarkable individuals who have served many years in prison – in some cases, up to 40 years – and who are exemplars of what people can accomplish in our State’s correctional system, as they have dedicated their lives to education, AIDS education and peer counseling, faith, self-improvement, and rehabilitation. Their clemency applications have been thoroughly reviewed by the Governor’s Clemency Bureau.  These candidates present especially compelling and meritorious cases for executive clemency and each enjoys widespread support in a variety of constituencies.

IN THE NEXT 10 DAYS!

CONTACT GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO:

Call the Albany Executive Chamber: 1 518-474-8390  x 3, then x 1 to leave a message

Call the NYC Executive Chamber:  1 212-681-4580  and leave a message

Send emails to: Andrew.Cuomo@exec.ny.gov

FAX: 518-486-9749

On the website, www.governor.ny.gov, there is a form to send a message to the Governor.  We suggest you choose the category Criminal Justice.

If you have questions, please write to questions@friendsofdavidgilbert.org.

Authentic Learning

40) Now is the Time of Monsters

When fascism gained power in Italy, two processes unfolded simultaneously: the generalized crisis and crumbling of authority, the loss of the ability to lead through consent, as well as a movement of people away from old ideologies, opening to new and unexpected horizons. It was a moment of  political “in-betweenness”—the communist leader Antonio Gramsci wrote from prison that, “The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.” We’re joined by Joel Westheimer an inspiring thinker and teacher whose parents escaped Nazi Germany, and who continually asks his students and all of us to consider how to educate our children for the common good, pointedly in his book What Kind of Citizen?

Educating for Insurgency

Each of us—and every human being—should expect and demand decent standards of action concerning freedom and justice from all institutions, including schools, and from all earthly powers. It’s our duty to testify against, to disrupt, to undermine, and, when possible, to overthrow cruel systems in the interest of creating something better.  We’re joined by Jay Gillen, a visionary, loving, and courageous teacher, author of Educating for Insurgency and The Power in the Room, to explore the many ways we might create the crawl spaces and insurrectionary infrastructure for the struggles ahead.