Laura Dern is one of my favorite celebrities to cover and I hope we never hear a bad word about her. In a new interview with People, Laura reminds us that a clean environment and clean potable water are basic human rights. She also says that the family separation policy at the border is heartbreaking and that it should not be a political issue. Laura gets to the heart of things and I appreciate how matter-of-fact she is about it. I feel the same. She works with the National Resources Defense Council as well as immigrants rights groups including Kids in Need of Defense and Justice in Motion.

Before you tune this out today is the day you need to VOTE. All you need in most states is your driver’s license or another form of ID. You may not even need a photo ID. Here’s where to look that up. You do not need your voting card. (One person told me he lost his and couldn’t vote so I want to clear up this misconception. I understand why first time voters might assume this.)

Here’s some of what Laura told People. They’re highlighting women activists in their “2018 Women Changing the World” feature. I’m here for this.

“For me, there’s so much egregious undoing of hard-fought environmental laws that have been put into place to give us clear air, clean water and a clean environment. These should be basic rights and they’re being stripped away.”

Dern, 51, supports the National Resources Defense Council in its efforts to create “active change you can see,” she says. “Like you can see that thousands of children were so severely ill from lead-tainted water in Flint, Michigan and the NRDC specifically fought to get the water pipes replaced.”

The organization has also worked with the EPA “to ban dangerous pesticides on our fruits and vegetables and seven different cancer-causing chemicals that were listed as artificial flavoring in food and drinks and won,” adds Dern, noting that the NRDC has 70 lawsuits in place with the current administration. “That’s why I try to put my energy in really supporting them because instead of feeling like you are making a difference in a day, you’re making a difference through law.”

Dern is also a strong supporter of groups like Kids in Need of Defense and Justice in Motion, which protects migrant rights across borders to help separated families find each other. “I know for myself with family members and friends who are fierce in their liberal politics and point of views as well as conservatives, all of them talked about their heartbreak when they saw these babies and young children standing in court without legal representatives with their families that were being detained separately and losing each other,” Dern says. “Not only being pulled away from each other but not being able to be reunited. That should not be a political issue.”

Reuniting these families and protecting their rights as immigrants “is God’s work,” the actress adds. “These families that are in terror deserve to find each other.”

[From People]

The fact that these are even issues in our country just shows how evil the people in power are. Human rights violations are being committed by the government which violate international law. There are still children being held in facilities run by government contractors without oversight and without a plan to reunite them with family members. The racist rhetoric is also abhorrent along with the stripping away of our meager social safety net. There are so many things going wrong now and I hope so hard that we turn it around today. VOTE. So many people’s lives, now and in the future, depend on it.

Be a Gun Sense Voter Tuesday! Text VOTE to 644-33 to find your polling place and the Gun Sense Candidates who will be on your ballot. @Everytown @MomsDemand pic.twitter.com/uWDTXhg9qV

— Laura Dern (@LauraDern) November 5, 2018

Me going to the polls in 2016 vs. me going to the polls in 2018 (thanks @pajiba and @KaiseratCB) pic.twitter.com/oSxeoy99aV

— celebitchy (@celebitchy) November 5, 2018

Here’s Laura on the set of Little Women late last month:

photos credit: WENN and Backgrid