Quote of the Week:Identifying Biden’s legislative successes is easy; identifying the depth and breadth of Biden’s restoration of decency and rationality is more difficult—because living in a normal frame of reference is subtle and ineffable. It infuses every aspect of democracy and political discourse. It is the absence of chaos, it is not waking up every morning thinking, “Oh, God. What has he tweeted now?”, and it is not hearing every governmental action re-interpreted through Trump's lenses of narcissism, delusion, and insecurity. –Robert Hubbell, Today’s Edition Newsletter, Jan 5, 2024 Sign up to Mobilize for Democracy!Join Us on January 15 We’re only one week away from Olympia Indivisible’s Electoral Season Inaugural Event, 2024: Mobilize for Democracy! Sign up now: it will take you all of one minute (or less!). On Monday, January 15th (MLK Day), we’ll be gathering at the St. John’s Episcopal church to launch four new teams to help mobilize presidential voters in key swing states, get out the vote in key federal congressional districts in Washington state, and elect pro-democracy leadership in Thurston County and Washington State. We’ll also be sharing news about how you can protect and strengthen progressive legislation in 2024. We know how to get this work done and make it fun! And your help is what will ensure that we will celebrate a victory for democracy in November. Doors open at 12:30pm. Meeting starts promptly at 1pm. St. John’s Episcopal Church is located at 114 20th Avenue SE in downtown Olympia. Overflow parking available on side streets and at Lincoln Elementary School. Please let us know you are coming: Register here. Legislative Actions: We strongly suggest you take this action first! Create or log in to a leg.wa.gov account to keep track of your sign-in actions Creating an account on leg.wa.gov allows you to update or delete your status after signing in for legislative hearings. If you created one last year, make sure you log in this year! Support these bills by signing in PRO Environment Sign in "Pro" to Support HB 2049 (Recycling and Packaging (WRAP Act)) DEADLINE: Jan 9 • 3:00pm Shift recycling costs away from ratepayers and onto the manufacturers. Good Government Sign in Pro to support HB 1962 (Voter address changes) DEADLINE: Jan 9 • 12:30pm Simplifying the process for voters to update their address will keep our voter rolls more up to date and accurate across the state. Sign in Pro to support HB 1932 Even-numbered year elections! DEADLINE: Jan 9 • 12:30pm HB 1932 will increase voter turnout by allowing local elections to be held in even years. Sign in Pro to Support HB 1885 (Campaign finance/foreign) DEADLINE: Jan 9 • 12:30pm Prevents foreign-influenced business entities from influencing elections through political spending. Justice Support HB 2027 - Sign in 'Pro' to support better accountability for law enforcement DEADLINE: Jan 8 • 12:30pm Washington has a new system under development to enhance accountability for police. However, sheriffs, police chiefs, marshals, reserve officers and volunteers are not covered under these laws. HB 2027 will address this deficiency. Please sign in PRO to improve accountability. Support HB 1798 (Earned Release for Good Behavior): Sign in "Pro" for House Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry's Public Hearing DEADLINE: Jan 9 • 3:00pm Almost everyone in prison will be returning to society. By allowing up to one-third off for good behavior, HB 1798 incentivizes participation in work, education, and rehabilitative programming and decreases the likelihood that people will reoffend once they are released. Support HB 1479 (Protecting students from the harm caused by isolation and chemical or mechanical restraints): Sign in "Pro" for House Education's Public Hearing DEADLINE: Jan 11 • 7:00am We can make our classrooms safer for students, teachers, and staff by reducing and eliminating restraint and seclusion. Washington should join other states that have banned isolation in schools, and the use of restraints should be limited to cases involving imminent serious physical harm. WA State Actions:We Need More Volunteers to Observe Ballot Initiative Petition Signature Count Photo credit: William Wesen Appraiser on Wikimedia Commons This past fall, Washington’s wealthiest MAGA Republican donors bankrolled signature gathering for six “Backwards Washington” initiatives, which, if successful, will up-end Washington laws that progressive legislators put years, sometimes decades, into passing. The petitions have now been submitted to the Secretary of State and we are asking members to step forward to get trained to be signature validation observers. Tens of thousands of petitions must be verified. All you need to do to qualify to be a ballot validation observer is to take a 30-minute in-person training in Tumwater hosted by the Washington Secretary of State from 4:30-5pm. Please note that the training is 30 minutes and it is in-person. The address is 243 Israel Road SE Tumwater, WA 98501. The training is on the third floor, in room TC304. You must register to attend. Here are the dates and times to train as a ballot count observer:
Action: Send an email to Washington Secretary of State Elections trainer Kristine Marshall at [email protected] and tell her you want to get trained to be a ballot signature verification observer and which date you’ve picked for training. Please also cc your email to Kurt Fritts at [email protected] because he will be coordinating the scheduling of observer shifts. Get Ready to Take Action in 2024 with Take Action Network (TAN)! The Washington Legislative Session starts on January 8th and you have an opportunity to influence the outcome of consequential legislation. In under 5 minutes a day you can support/oppose bills, track changes, and send pre-written emails to your senator and representatives. Indivisible’s Take Action Network (TAN) puts the power in your hands by making it easy to engage. Action 1: If you got comfortable using TAN in the last legislative session and continued for the rest of the year, note that there have been some changes and improvements. Sign into your TAN dashboard and review the new features and learning videos in the drop-down menu under the word “About” in the upper right-hand corner. Action 2: Did you never sign up for Take Action Network (TAN) or have trouble using it and give up the habit? Sign up here to join TAN and then: Get a quick start on making TAN a mainstay for your daily or weekly activism. Indivisible TAN wizard Kevin Leja’s short seminars on Zoom will get you using TAN immediately. Use these links to sign up with one of Kevin’s upcoming training sessions: Have You Scheduled This Event?Action Cafe 2023, Every Monday at Noon OI members meet, make new friends, and take actions together. Every Cafe comes with a side order of live music and a heapin’ helpin’ of good cheer! Cafe patrons receive an email on Sunday with a sneak-peek at what we'll do at the cafe the next day. On Monday morning, Chef Lisa will send you a pdf "Menu" which has links to the actions we'll take together at the Cafe. Action: Register HERE. We will send you a Zoom link and tomorrow morning, Chef Lisa will send your "menu." You Might Also Like to Attend:Remembering January 6th on the 3rd Anniversary From our friends at Fix Democracy First What: Virtual Community Event When: Wed, January 10, 2024 @ 5-6:30 pm PT/8-9:30 pm ET Where: Zoom Registration link: HERE With special guest Alan Jenkins, Harvard Law School Professor & Author of 1/6: The Graphic Novel - Plus other special guests, including WA state Senator Patty Kuderer. _____________ Rally to Support the Bill to End Child Marriage in Washington From our friends at Seattle Indivisible. Help us End Child Marriage in Washington State (yes that is still a thing). HB 1455 was passed unanimously by the House last year, and needs to pass the Senate this year in January. Meet January18th at NOON at the capitol steps in Olympia. Sign up here, and wear a wedding dress, or add your voice by joining in and spreading the word. Community Participation:14th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Silent Peace Walk, Sunday, January 14, 2024 Photo credit: Jack Ottaway, from 2023 Walk From our friends at SSBPF and Koro Kaisan Miles at Open Gate Zendo
The 14th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Silent Peace Walk will start at Marathon Park on Olympia’s Capitol Lake precisely at 12:00pm (noon) Sunday, January 14th. This mile and a half meditation walk takes one hour and is worth every single step. This has been an annual tradition sponsored by The South Sound Buddhist Peace Fellowship (SSBPF) and Open Gate Zendo for 16 years (13 times if you subtract two years for Covid) and has always been one of our best attended events. It seems quite auspicious that the 14th walk would happen on the 14th of January. Be sure to spread the news! Hope to see everyone there. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
October 2024
At the bottom of the page lick the "<<Previous" link to see older posts.
|
RSS Feed
