The new RISSE Amazon Wish List is up and running again, this time a mix of arts and utilitarian things needed by  RISSE – refugee and immigrant support group – in Albany. Emma, above, is one of the teachers who has access to the list, and she is pushing hard for the arts supplies – beads, origami, brushes and puzzles, batteries and the other things a desperately underfunded school needs.

Today, I’m buying batteries, threads and beads – $24. Thanks so much for supporting the list. I read today that 40 percent of Americans support the new administration’s policies on refugees and immigrations. We are now willing to bomb Damascus, but we won’t let any of the hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees into our country.

This only inspires me to work harder.

This is shameful to me, and causes me to redouble my own efforts to help these children, their parents and the many immigrants who are struggling to acclimate themselves to our suddenly hostile nation. A tough time, you are offering hope and love, and I thank you.

Here’s the list.

You can help support my work with these children and the soccer team and the new girl’s basketball team by sending a contribution to The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].