Make Urgent Climate Calls This Week

The message of the recent UN Climate report is that we have reached "Code Red for humanity."

IMV's Climate Crisis Working Group is asking all of us to begin a weekly calling effort to demand that both our elected federal representatives and our elected state officials stand up and respond without delay to the urgency of the crisis. If you can call every day, even better. The calls for each issue are counted every single day.

This week we're again asking that you call President Biden, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and Congresswoman Tenney because the votes for the Infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better bill (containing the largest and strongest climate provisions) are being negotiated now. We are also asking that you call Governor Hochul to ask her to make sure the most important commitments of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) are honored when the draft scoping plan is released this week. The passage of the CLCPA was a major victory--we can’t let the provisions be watered down by industry interests.

Here are the contact numbers and suggested script. Please start calling today and call every day.

IMV Weekend Canvassing, Lit Drops & Postcards

We are just a few weeks away from early voting and election day.  We need all hands on deck, and we have a lot of ways you can make an impact...with more to come. Please join IMV for these key efforts: 
 

Saturday, Oct 9, 10:30 am -12:30 pm Canvass for Caroline. Meet at Nicky Doodles, New Hartford Shopping Center. Wear a mask. We'll need drivers and door knockers. Caroline has nice blue t-shirts. Let her know if you're coming and your size: info@carolineforcounty.com

Sunday, Oct 10, 3-5 pm, Canvass for Sparkle Anthony in North Utica, Meet at Burger King, 300 Herkimer Road, Utica. Wear a mask. We'll need drivers and knockers. Wear comfy shoes--It's a lot of fun to talk about Sparkle, and we will also continue to spread the word about judicial candidates Anthony Brindisi and Karen Stanislaus.

Saturday, Oct. 16, 10 am - 12 pm, Lit Drop for Celeste, Meet at Raspberries in South Utica, 2634 Genesee Street, Lunch and fun social time follows at 37 Emerson Ave. Wear a mask. This is a huge lit drop--Celeste covers every one of her potential voters!

Sunday, Oct 17, 3-5 pm, IMV Monthly Meeting Postcard Party, (originally scheduled as a Monday evening Zoom) We're writing GOTV postcards to registered Democrats, at the Jewish Community Center, 2310 Oneida Street, Utica. Wear a mask. We have a lot of space to spread out.

Big IMV Postcard Project: Get Out the Vote

We are coming down to the wire for local elections. Since turnout is low in local elections, Democrats have a real chance to be elected--if we get our voters out! We will continue to canvass, but we also need postcard writers and postage for our 3500 postcards. The postcards are aimed at turning out Democratic women for Anthony Brindisi, Karen Stanislaus and many of our progressive candidates.

What you can do to help:

1. Knock Doors & Drop Lit: Come to as many of our door knocking or lit drop events as possible. You always have the option to walk or drive with an experienced canvasser!

2. Volunteer to write postcards. Email Jill at icgujill@gmail.com and let her know how many bundles of 50 cards you would like.She'll make sure that cards are available for you at your pickup location of choice in Clinton, NH, Whitesboro, Rome or Herkimer. The cards just have short messages to handwrite. There will be a preprinted message and preprinted address labels for the cards.

3. Come to our postcard writing party! To emphasize the importance of local elections, our monthly meeting this month will be a postcard party. Join us Sunday, October 17th, from 3-5 pm at the Jewish Community Center (2310 Oneida St, Utica).

4. Donate postcard stamps. You can email Jill for the nearest resistance box for drop off or use them on postcards that you write.

5. Donate to our IMV checking account or our IMV Act Blue account.

• We always welcome donations of any size to our IMV checking account. Donations can be made to IMV and mailed to 2 Laurelwood Rd, New Hartford, NY 13413 or Venmo @Deborah-Wilson-Allam with note "IMV donation."

• We also welcome small donations to our ActBlue account here https://secure.actblue.com/donate/indivisibleohc421610861. Indivisible National is matching donations up to $500 to our Act Blue account from now until the end of October. We'd like to take advantage of that, but funds donated to that account are much more restricted, so we'd like to get to just exactly $500 in donations--but not much over! We'll update the status of the fundraiser each week.

Thank you for making this significant postcard effort a huge success!

AMAZING Utica Women's March for Reproductive Justice

Friends, even the weather cooperated! We had more than 200 people in the march from the YWCA Mohawk Valley to Planned Parenthood/Nurses Candlelight Park on Genesee Street. Our speakers were inspiring and motivating. Thank you to Teresa Van Etten and Jill Farnham-Us who took the lead organizing, and our partners at YWCA Mohawk Valley, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, along with members of local religious congregations, college, and community groups who all pulled together to plan one of the most successful marches this community has ever seen! In case you missed it, here's the piece in the Utica OD and a report on WKTV. Thanks to volunteers who served as safety marshals, carried clipboards, and assisted in many other ways, this was a safe and positive march for everyone involved.

What's next? We will, of course, monitor developments in Texas and before the courts, but we work for a just, healthy, and equitable world on many fronts. Not only do we need to act in mass when people in power do something against our values (as in the Women's March), but we also need to make our voices heard to make sure that good legislation doesn't die or isn't watered down by special interests. Right now special interests are wielding all the influence they have to stop Build Back Better and slow down or eliminate necessary provisions in the CLCPA.

That's why IMV asks you to show up for big inspiring marches and rallies in our community, but also to call our representatives to push legislation forward in Washington and in Albany. It's why we know we need to write postcards to our neighbors and knock doors to talk about the candidates who share our values and will do the hard work of good policy making and fair justice when in office. So:

• Make your weekly (better yet, daily) calls on the legislation that helps people and builds a safe, just future

• Write postcards

• Write a letter to the editor (candidate letters are due to the Utica OD by Oct. 11, to the Rome Sentinel by Oct. 25)

• Canvass for candidates

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Follow us on Twitter using @indivisiblemv and of course our Facebook page and IMV Activism Group.