Hero or Zero?
March 8th
Welcome to Progress Virginia’s Hero or Zero, a weekly, unapologetically progressive take on this week’s heroes and zeros in Virginia politics. Check out this space every Friday, and Tweet us or post to our Facebook to nominate your own heroes and zeros.
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HERO: Alejandra Pablos
Alejandra Pablos, an immigrant, community organizer, and human rights activist in Virginia was detained by the Tuscon, AZ Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office earlier this week.
If you have been to an event with the Women’s Equality Coalition, you’ve likely seen Alejandra fighting for all Virginians. Her activism has made her a target.
Now she needs us to fight for herself, and we do, too. Take a minute to watch this video and join us in clicking over to Mijente to take action.
ZERO: Nick Freitas
If you want to watch a man be a truly awful person, just watch this exploitative speech by Republican Nick Freitas where—just weeks after 17 kids were murdered in Florida—he blames communities of color and reproductive rights for the gun violence epidemic. Freitas is disturbingly anti-gun safety, which isn’t terribly surprising because guess who is one of his donors? That’s right, the NRA.
He went on to blame gun violence on a litany of social issues, jumping right into dog-whistle politics.
Freitas claimed Democrats are acting “offended” to avoid debate. I’ll remind you that it’s the Republicans who control the House of Delegates and Republicans who choose which bills will be heard. From what we’ve seen, conservatives in the General Assembly are not interested in debating gun violence prevention.
I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again:
Dear Republicans,
By standing with the NRA instead of your constituents, you are on the wrong side of history. Get your shit together.