Five Actions You Can Take Right Now
Take Five Actions Now
It was wonderful to see so many of you at our September IMV meeting on Zoom Monday! We covered a lot of ground including updates on local canvassing and postcards, legislative efforts in Washington, and planning for our Utica Women's March on Oct. 2.
Please read the details below and check out our IMV calendar so you don't miss anything. But if you want the "just tell me what to do" list, here is the summary:
1) Climate: Attend IMV's Climate Crisis group meeting on zoom, Monday, Sept. 27 (see link below). Today, take actions to divest the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS) of fossil fuels. Sign the petition and share the student video widely.
2. Knock Doors with IMV this Sunday, Oct. 3, 3-5 pm. We'll be meeting across from the Trenton Town Hall at 8520 Old Plank Road in Barneveld. The turfs will be rural with drivers needed! Help committed IMV member Joe Sampson get elected to the town board and talk to folks there about the importance of electing Anthony to the bench.
3) Call Claudia Tenney. Yes, we haven't asked you to do this even once since she was re-elected, but even Trumpy conservatives in the House need to be asked to stop their obstructionism on the reconciliation bill. Here is how to do it and what to say, from Indivisible.
4) Spread the word about the Women's March in Utica on Oct. 2. email and message your friends. Invite at least five friends now to meet you at the march starting at 2 pm at the YWCA Mohawk Valley and marching to Planned Parenthood. Women's Reproductive Freedom is under assault from the Republican party and extremist judges. We must make our voices heard. Show up with your body. Bans Off Our Bodies!
5) Write a letter to the editor. It can be for a candidate, the importance of voting, what Biden and Democrats are accomplishing in DC or Albany, or any issue that matters most to you right now. Contact IndivisibleMV@gmail.com if you need help editing your letter or don't know where to send it. Here are some great inspirational examples: Shelly Gardner in the Rome Sentinel in support of Karen Stanislaus for Family Court Judge; Sarah Reeske's letter to the Syracuse Post Standard about Anthony Brindisi. Check out the calendar below now and email Dick Meili if you want the link the join the IMV LtE group on Sunday at 6 pm.
Climate Crisis Workgroup Meeting and Actions
IMV's Climate Crisis Working Group is starting back with monthly meetings this Monday, September 27th at 6:30pm with enthusiasm and energy (renewable that is!) to discuss how we as individuals and as a Working Group can effect change when it comes to Climate Change. We are going to work on state and federal legislation along with promoting different aspects of being part of the climate change solution by having an educational piece as part of our meetings. We will report back on our actions starting with calling our legislators. Our first member to motivate us in what we can do as individuals will be Buffy Curtis who will speak on her protest as part of STOP Line 3. So, please join us and be part of a wonderful group of climate activists!!! Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87470378917
Before Monday's meeting on Zoom, we need you to take action. In a video released yesterday by Divest NY, students from all across New York State are calling on their teachers to help them in their campaign to divest the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS). Currently, NYSTRS has an estimated $4.5 billion in fossil fuel holdings, which are constantly increasing including investments in coal.
During this back-to-school season, New York students have had to contend with many challenges: tests, college admissions, and the pandemic. Teachers have acted as leaders and mentors to students, helping them to plan for the future -- but that future is looking more and more uncertain for youth under the specter of climate failure.
"As a student, it is incredibly empowering to hear others my age voice their concern about the climate crisis, however it is imperative that the adults in charge of both the fossil fuel industry and the retirement fund listen to the voices of those who will be affected and divest their holdings from the very industry that is destroying our future,” – Mandy Berghela, high school student at Albany High and member of New York Youth Climate Leaders
Please share this video and ask teachers, students, and community members to sign the petition calling on NYSTRS to divest and visit the Divest NY website for other actions you could take to help the campaign.
Balancing Local Elections and National Catastrophe
We know there is a lot of terrible stuff happening. White men on horseback are whipping Black Haitian asylum seekers on the southern border. Republicans in Texas have ended reproductive freedom in one of the largest and most diverse states in the country, and the right wing Supreme Court said they could do it. Republicans in Texas and in dozens of other states and in Congress are determined to rig the election system in a hundred legislative ways to ensure permanent white Republican minority rule in this country. And the climate....
If it feels bad that's because it is.
IMV asks you to take some simple actions, show up for some in-person and virtual events, and work together to do what you can on those huge issues. But we also know that the more local the politics, the greater your power as an individual to make an impact. That's why knocking doors and writing postcards to your neighbors in the Mohawk Valley matter. That's why contributing to local candidate candidates and writing Letters to the Editor for them matter.
Get someone you meet to register to vote by Sept. 28, National Voter Registration Day, and then figure out your plan to get more voters to the polls for our IMV supported candidates this fall. The election is just weeks away.
PS. See you at the Utica Women's March on Oct. 2!
Follow us on Twitter using @indivisiblemv and of course our Facebook page and IMV Activism Group.
