🌞 It's a New Dawn. It's a New Day
Sun in the sky, you know how I feel"
Did it seem that the long national nightmare would never end? It did! Thanks to all of you, who pushed and pulled, called and marched, showed up and hung in. What a beautiful inauguration! IMVers joined together for an inauguration watch party on Zoom, and toasted each other from six feet away in their yards. We sang and danced, heard poetry and music, watched a woman take the oath as Vice President, and cried, and cried some more.
John Bailey, our Hamilton friend, retired his Trump Head, and gave us more than 60 historic photos to remember it by! Judy Jerome took off her "Love Trumps Hate" button in a dramatic video after more than four years! We celebrated. We BREATHED.
But out real reward for four years of activism is not just the celebration of Jan. 20th but the initial executive actions, as well as the legislation we are going to see passed in the coming year, starting with democracy reform and the end of the filibuster so that we can get every other thing that Americans need now.
"And this old world is a new world and a bold world" as the song says. Our post-Trump world is not just about "the birds flying high and the breeze drifting by." We have still more work to do, and this work will not be easy. But we're organized. We have the skills. We have the community, the network, the relationships. We've toasted the new dawn and the new day, and we've watched Joe and Kamala take their oaths (over and over again, thanks YouTube), and we were inspired by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, so we know we can't just rest on our laurels. We need to become stronger, and "merge mercy with might." That's "The Hill We Climb" next.
"Now Go Out and Make Me Do It"
When nearly 400 of us NYSIndivisiblesmet with Sen. Schumer a couple weeks ago on Zoom (notes from our Q&A with him here), he shared a famous story with us about President Roosevelt that went something like this: FDR once met with a group of activists who sought his support for bold legislation. He listened to their arguments for some time and then said, “You’ve convinced me. Now go out and make me do it.”
That is the clear mission call for Indivisibles when it comes to federal and state legislation in the coming year. We have the people in the positions in Washington, DC and in Albany. They even have good intentions. But we need to "make them do it," starting with our democracy and climate agendas, and going all the way to jobs, health care, and attacking wealth and income inequality.
For that we need a plan, which is laid out in the new IndivisibleGuide, "A Practical Guide for Fixing Our Democracy"), and a coordinated strategy. Sign up now to learn what that strategy will look like: 'We Won, What’s Next?” Indivisible’s 2021 Strategy Session’ onSunday, January 31st at 3-7pm EST. Register here. Our own Sarah Reeske will be co-facilitating the final hour of the program, and New York’s day of action will be highlighted in the opening section. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone who is curious about what comes next for the Indivisiblemovement in a post-Trump America.
Candidate and Campaign Volunteer Workshops Jan. 30 & Feb. 6
We are so excited to co-sponsor this Grassroots Organizations Candidate & Campaign volunteer workshop series with Uplift Syracuse, which has been working to elect progressive candidates locally for many years now. In the MohawkValleyit's time. If we want more citizen participation, more transparency, more accountability, we need to challenge Republicans and win--on the county board, town boards, and city common councils.
Too early you say? "I just can't think about the next round of elections until I recover from the last one or at least until I know who is going to be representing #NY22 in Congress!" Nope. Now is when Democratic and Working Families Party candidates need to screen for endorsement, set up their campaigns, and prepare to get on the ballot for 2021 county, city, and town elections. To sign up for the workshop so you can get the skills you need to help our candidates win in November, just email: upliftsyracuse315@gmail.com.
Invest in Our New York (IONY) Campaign
At the state level, IMV is part of a huge 100+ member coalition called Invest in Our New York, which is working every angle to move forward a package of six bills (scroll down the page to see the bills) that are designed to raise $50B through taxation of super high levels wealth and income so that New York can solve the perennial shortfalls and uncertainty that plague our cities, towns, villages, schools, and residents. We need to spread the word about this campaign to the businesses, non profits, community groups, and neighbors around us, so that all of us together can put pressure on every elected official in Albany, especially the Governor, to get these bills enacted.
This is a long term campaign, but one where we believe we can make significant progress this year. IMV has volunteered to write 1500 letters (very similar to Vote Forward) to our fellow New Yorkers upstate. We'll begin next week, so think about committing some time in the next few weeks to getting out your pen and writing those letters. more to come! In the meantime, if you're on Twitter, please amplify #InvestInOurNewYork.
It's Climate Time
If you believe that it's time to seize this moment to save the world from the climate crisis, then we have a blockbuster night for you planned on Monday, Jan. 25th. IMV's Climate Crisis Work Group kicks off 2021 at 6:30 pm. The topic is Biden's plan and what is ahead for the new administration.
Indivisible National is also kicking off a working group, and everyone is invited! 8-9 pm, Monday, Jan. 25th. Sign up here to participate to be part of climate justice national coordination.
Your Actions for this week
1.Demand that Sen. Schumer and Sen. Gillibrand return to Congress and support the conviction and permanent disqualification of Donald Trump. Click here to sign up with your address so you get notified when we are taking action.
2.Sign up if you haven't yet, for theIndivisibleStrategy Session on Jan. 31st.
3.Sign up for our two-part candidate and campaign volunteer workshop (Saturdays, Jan. 30 and Feb. 6, 12-4 pm).
4. Sign the #InvestInOurNewYork petition and check out more information about the campaign at InvestInOurNY.org.
5. Show up for the Climate. Our IMV Climate Crisis Work Group meeting is Monday, Jan. 25h, 6:30 pm. If you're really going to take a lead to do the work on federal legislation, then sign up for the new Indivisible Work Group on Climate the same night 8-9 pm.
6. Get on Twitter. It's now Trump-free (!) and we need to use it to keep the pressure on Sen. Schumer and other elected officials. Get started with your tweeting by referring to this very helpful tool that Sarah Reeske prepared so we can all participate on #FilibusterFriday. Get started today!
7. Please review the calendar below. There are some events with Sen. May that will give a preview of the upcoming legislative session in Albanyand what she wants to accomplish with the state budget. Citizen Action is doing its fabulous Reversing Runaway Inequality workshop online if you've never seen it. Utica College has a great series going about insurrection in American history. Finally, CAFE Fridays are going strong, so stop in this morning 10-11:30 am.
As Vice President Harris said in her Facebook post after the Inauguration: "Let's Get to Work."
