Quote of the Week: “Joe Biden wasn’t a leading environmentalist during his thirty-six-year tenure in the U.S. Senate, but has come by the faith in the White House. In Alaska alone, he has halted road building into old growth trees of the Tongass National Forest, blocked a huge open pit mine sited between two prime Bristol Bay salmon spawning streams, and blocked further oil and gas leasing in the Arctic Refuge. Last week, the administration upgraded conservation to equal footing with grazing, mining and energy development over 245 million acres of federal land, comprising one tenth of the nation.”-- Joel Connelly, The Cascadia Advocate, April 30, 2024 Campaigns, Get Active: From OI’s E-PAT Team Your Help is Needed Now for Biden to Win ARIZONA in November Photo Credit: Carla Wulfsberg In 2020, Biden won Arizona by just 10,457 votes - less than 1%. Today, fewer Democrats are registered to vote in Arizona than Republicans or Independents. Your help is needed to register voters - and you can do it from home. All you need is a smartphone and a computer or tablet. The dialing software, Hubdialer, masks your phone number and will dial the calls for you. A script is provided. Olympia Indivisible members Kelly and Carla are hosting three slow-paced group phone bank training sessions in May on Zoom. They will teach you the basics of making calls to register likely Democratic voters in Arizona and help you to overcome any fear you might have about making phone calls to strangers. We won’t be making calls during the training session. What: Slow-Paced Phone Bank Training to Register Democratic-leaning voters in Arizona When: Choose one of the following dates and register.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information about joining the meeting and the Zoom link. From OI’s GOTV Writing Team Postcard and Letter Writing Parties Photo Source: Garrett Tatsumi The United Churches of Olympia and Olympia Indivisible are co-hosting two writing events at the United Churches at 110 11th Avenue SE (corner of Capitol Ave). If you are looking for a way to express your pro-democracy feelings, join us! Show up for cookies, carrots and camaraderie.
RSVP to [email protected] and specify the event you would like to attend. We’d love to meet your friends, too! Writing letters to voters is a fun, easy, and highly effective way to strengthen our democracy by encouraging citizens from underrepresented communities to vote. Looking forward to seeing you! From OI’s E-SAT Team Yard Signs for Bob Ferguson  Yard signs for Bob Ferguson for Governor are now available in the Olympia area for pickup!! To pick up a yard sign, please send an email HERE. Please indicate which part of Olympia/Lacey that you live (NE, NW, etc.) and you will receive a response with the address of the yard sign pickup location closest to your home. When you pick up a yard sign, please add your name and address to the check-out sheet which will be posted at the yard sign pickup location. ----- Explore our Election webpages. These webpages are living documents and will continue to develop and expand as new information becomes available.
Federal Actions: Support Organic Farming Photo Source: Canva Despite huge increases in demand for organic food in recent years, less than one percent of America’s total farmland is organic. That’s because despite all its clear benefits, organic hasn’t received the same public investments that the Farm Bill devotes to non-organic industrial agriculture. To make it happen, it will take all us speaking out, demanding our elected officials prioritize organic. Action: Tell Congress to support an organic, climate-friendly, and equitable food future. Stop Boebert’s Endangered Species Act Attack Bill Photo Source: rick734images at Canva H.R. 764, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert, directs the Secretary of the Interior to reissue the final rule published on November 3, 2020, delisting the gray wolf within 60 days of enactment. Boebert’s bill bars judicial review of the Secretary’s action delisting the wolf. The rule that H.R. 764 would reinstate was hastily issued by the FWS at the end of the Trump administration to delist gray wolves in 44 states. H.R. 764 undermines the integrity of the ESA by forcing the reinstatement of the Trump administration’s scientifically indefensible delisting rule. H.R. 764 passed the House this past week and now goes before the Senate. Action: Copy the script in the TAN action HERE and urge our Senators to vote NO on H.R. 764. Local Actions: From OI’s POAT Team Port’s “Waterfront Center” Project at Swantown Marina Should Not Move Forward  Photo Source: Port of Olympia Vision 2050 document The Port is moving forward with a plan to build an expensive three-story office building for all Port staff to be located on the Port Peninsula near the Swantown Marina. This project had its origins in 2017 with a search to relocate the Swantown Marina staff who were housed in an older building with environmental problems. A temporary remediation of that building was completed, but rather than purchase a double wide trailer or lease office space for the Marina employees, the Port chose to instead explore building a new office building that would house all Port staff. Currently, most Port staff work from leased office spaces and require no relocation. The Port of Olympia Citizens Advisory Committee (POCAC) was asked to study the feasibility of constructing an office building. They produced a report and spoke to the Commission on October 22, 2018. The POCAC could not come to a decision because there were too many variables and not enough information about future needs of the Port. Instead, they advised the Commission to lease office space for all its staff. In spite of the POCAC’s recommendation, the Port continued to explore a new building and, in 2023, Port Commissioners approved the Waterfront Center, even though the third Commissioner was not in favor and voted against the project. This decision was made prior to the installation of three new Port Commissioners who are now being called upon to determine the viability and future of a project that was not unanimously supported by the prior Commission. An attempt to secure 3 million dollars from the State Legislature for construction of the office building failed. The public has identified serious concerns about the millions of dollars that will be required for construction, especially at a time when the Port is mandated to secure millions of dollars to fund the clean up of Budd Inlet. In addition, the Waterfront Center project has not adequately addressed an environmentally sustainable solution to sea level rise on the Port peninsula. To compound the problem, the Commission has neglected to follow the guidelines of an extensive public visioning project of the Port, Port Vision 2050 Action Plan, which includes a plan, Destination Waterfront, to develop the Port peninsula Destination Waterfront makes no mention of an office building on the Port peninsula for Port employees. The Waterfront Center project must not move forward. Instead, the Port should lease office space for Swantown Marina staff or consider installing a double wide trailer to be located at the Swantown Marina. Action: Copy the following script and Email a message to Port Commissioners now. They will meet in a Special Work Session to discuss Destination Waterfront and the Waterfront Center on Monday, May 6 at 3:30 p.m. Script: Dear Port of Olympia Commissioners, I have serious concerns about your project to construct the Waterfront Center, an expensive three-story office building for all Port employees on the Port peninsula. My concerns include the following:
I strongly ask that you end your plan for the Waterfront Center project and instead secure leased office space or consider installing a doublewide trailer at the Swantown Marina for the Marina employees. Sincerely, (Your name) (City) Have You Scheduled These Events?From OI’s Endorsement Team Town Hall with Jessica Bateman and Lisa Parshley  The Endorsement Team has scheduled a Town Hall with two candidates we already know from previous races, who are both running for new positions. Jessica Bateman is running for the Washington Legislative District 22 Senate position currently held by retiring Senator Sam Hunt, and Lisa Parshley is running for the Washington Legislative District 22 Representative Position 2 the legislative position currently held by Jessica Bateman. We are interviewing both Jessica and Lisa on May 22 at 6:30pm and 7:30pm respectively. Please join us on zoom. What: Town Hall with Jessica Bateman and Lisa Parshley. When: Wednesday, May 22 starting 6:30pm with Jessica Bateman and 7:30pm with Lisa Parshley. Registration: Register HERE for the meeting. The same zoom link works for both meetings which are back to back. Questions: If there are questions you would like to have us as Jessica or Lisa, include your question HERE. Check out more about Jessica and Lisa on our 2024 Elections page on our website. ----- Save the Date: Syd Locke is also running for Legislative District 22 Senate position. A Town Hall has been scheduled with him for May 28 at 6:30, details to follow. ----- Action Cafe 2024, 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." Comments are closed.
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