Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has helped raise $2 million in direct relief for Texans struggling with power outages and freezing temperatures, and she announced Friday that she’s heading the state to help distribute supplies to people in need.
In other words, the Democratic congresswoman from New York City is doing more to help Texans rebound from the state’s dual crises ― a devastating ice storm in the midst of a pandemic ― than their own Republican senator, Ted Cruz, who raced back to his home on Thursday after being widely criticized for slipping away to Cancun, Mexico, on a family trip.
Ocasio-Cortez said she’ll be meeting with Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) in Houston to help get supplies out to people and amplify the region’s needs and solutions.
We’ve now raised $2 MILLION in relief for Texans & are adding more orgs.🙏🏽
I’ll be flying to Texas today ✈️ to visit with Houston rep Sylvia Garcia (@LaCongresista) to distribute supplies and help amplify needs & solutions.
Let’s see how far we can go: https://t.co/4PQkp4gG9v — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 19, 2021
“Charity isn’t a replacement for good governance, but we won’t turn away from helping people in need when things hit the fan,” the congresswoman said in a follow-up tweet. “People understand that now is the time for collective action and doing what we can w/ whatever we’ve got.”
She included a link to a website where people can donate money to a mix of Texas nonprofits scrambling to help people get food and care amid the power outages caused by the harsh weather, including the South Texas Food Bank, Family Eldercare and Corazon Ministries.
Ocasio-Cortez has leaned on her massive following on Twitter to spread the word on the need to help struggling Texans. She raised $1 million in less than a day by appealing to her 12.4 million followers for support.
“Totally blown away,” she tweeted Thursday.
I_like_the_word_MUFF on February 20th, 2021 at 17:02 UTC »
John Steinbeck wrote this in 1938 and I read it today and thought of Texas. The times change. The people change. However, the struggle is always the same.
"I must go over into the interior valleys. … There are five thousand families starving to death over there, not just hungry but actually starving.
The government is trying to feed them and get medical attention to them, with the Fascist group of utilities and banks and huge growers sabotaging the thing all along the line, and yelling for a balanced budget.
In one tent there were twenty people quarantined for small pox and two of the women are to have babies in that tent this week. I've tied into the thing from the first and I must get down there and see it and see if I can do something to knock these murderers on the heads.
Do you know what they're afraid of? They think that if these people are allowed to live in camps with proper sanitary facilities they will organize, and that is the bugbear of the large landowner and the corporate farmer.
The states and counties will give them nothing because they are outsiders. But the crops of any part of this state could not be harvested without them. …
The death of children by starvation in our valleys is simply staggering. … I'll do what I can. … Funny how mean and little books become in the face of such tragedies."
Letter to Elizabeth Otis (1938), as quoted in Conversations with John Steinbeck
eyemknotstoopid on February 20th, 2021 at 16:39 UTC »
“Like many Texans, I too was without power. Unlike many Texans, I have the resources to peace out and leave the state for a nice beach vacay weekend. Too bad I got caught red handed. Oh well, here’s some aid someone else is raising because I’ve put zero effort in so far into my own state emergency assistance. -Xoxo Ted”
Frankie6Strings on February 20th, 2021 at 16:32 UTC »
"Doing his job? That sounds socialist."
votes for Ted Cruz