It's June: Time for Festivals
June is for Community!
It's summer festival time! This Saturday it's Mohawk Valley Pride on the Mohawk Valley Community College Campus (IMV will have a table!) and World Refugee Day at Hanna Park (Utica City Hall). Next weekend, (June 11th) MVCC will have a table together with Mohawk Valley Pride Alliance at Jewtica, the popular festival at the Jewish Community Center in Utica. We will also have a table at Utica's Juneteenth celebration on June 17th at Proctor Park. Juneteenth events will be held the same weekend at Bellamy Harbor in Rome. In short, this is a good time to get outside and celebrate the diversity of our communities!
It's also a time to help the candidates we support who are facing 2023 primaries to win on June 27! Most importantly, that means taking action for Celeste Friend for Mayor! We are working on an event for later in the month that we can all do together following a short IMV meeting. More to come. In the meantime, please volunteer to canvass, make phone calls, do volunteer support, or whatever you can! Primary voting starts June 17th so we are down to the final weeks of action. Volunteer or donate now to make an impact in this critical election.
Three Easy and Needed Actions for the Climate this Week
There is only ONE week to go before the end of the legislative session and there are four bills which we support that are poised to pass IF they get enough traction. We must keep e-mailing and calling our representatives to make sure that our priorities are the ones that get passed.
The four bills which the IMV Climate Crisis Working Group and our climate partners are focusing on this week are the NY HEAT act (A4592) which is needed to implement the CLCPA, the Climate and Community Protection Fund (CCPF, A6263) which is a crucial step toward a just, clean-energy future by requiring that funds be sent directly to communities on the front lines of the climate crisis to develop their own renewable energy and environmental justice solutions, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Act (A5322) and the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (A6353/S237) which address wasteful packaging, protects communities in NY who are living with landfills and trash incinerators, stems the tide of plastic pollution, reduces emissions, and reinvigorates our recycling system!
Squeaky wheels get the grease, so please take a few minutes to send these easy emails or calls below!
NY HEAT Act - Use this tool to send e-mails For more information about the NY HEAT Act, here is a link to the newest "one-pager" on NY HEAT.
Climate and Community Protection Fund Can you take a few moments to email legislative leaders in Albany, asking them to pass the CCPF and create 90,000 good, green jobs? NY Renews just released a jobs report that reveals that NY Renew’s signature legislation, the Climate and Community Protection Fund, alongside the state’s new Climate Action Fund, would help create over 90,000 new jobs across NYS, from wind and solar installation, to public transit, to project design, and so much more.
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (A5322/S4246) and the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (A6353/S237) Please pick up the phone now to ask NYS Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to prioritize the Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act and the Bigger Better Bottle Bill before session adjourns on June 9.
Actions to Take Re: NYS Voting Legislation
We are almost at the end of the state legislative session. Please take action by reaching out to state legislators on these voting bills:
1) Voting: VIVA NY. Pass the VIVA NY Act by calling Speaker Carl Heastie 518-455-3791. Tell him A5934A/S6169A will protect voters & our elections. New York elections are at a dangerous crossroads. New types of voting machines, called “all-in-one” and “universal-use”, are attempting to flood the state. These systems do not allow you to vote with a pen and paper. They will radically change the way we vote, increase costs, likely increase wait times, and experts say that elections conducted on these systems cannot be confirmed by audits.
2) Plain Language ballot measure bill. Let's make voting easier and clearer, not harder and more confusing! Please sign on to this letter.
Letters to the Editor
Sarah Reeske's LTE inviting people to get involved in IMV was published this past week in the Daily Sentinel and the Utica Phoenix! Let's keep getting the word out about our local progressive political activism--if people don't know we exist and how easy it is to get involved, they might feel alienated from politics, powerless to make change, and worst of all, alone, thinking none of their neighbors shares their values. Copy and paste the links above and send them to friends. Invite them to join you in IMV.
Internet Access & Digital Equity: Critical for Democracy
If you know of an existing organization, program, or individual working to promote internet access and digital equity in the Mohawk Valley, please let us know using this asset inventory link: https://bit.ly/connectall-assets
This data collection process will help us to understand the status quo in the Mohawk Valley and help the ConnectALL Office to prioritize new investments to ensure that all our residents can benefit from improved access to broadband and connected devices. NYS is spending $1 Billion on this effort, and we need to be sure that our region receives those funds in ways that get to the people and communities most in need of digital resources and support.
In addition, the ConnectALL Office recently launched a statewide digital equity survey to better understand the needs of New York residents when it comes to internet access and digital equity. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete, and the link to share is here: http://bit.ly/connectall-survey. We especially need the following covered populations to complete the survey: aging populations, veterans, people with disabilities, low-income populations, and rural populations. These are the populations that are sometimes the most disconnected from political power, information, and resources. This important survey will help inform the State’s investment of historic funding to provide improved connectivity for all New Yorkers, increasing access to education, healthcare, civic engagement, economic, and other opportunities.
NY22 Update
You probably heard that Brandon Williams converted some of his Syracuse town halls to "tele-town halls." Those are a joke. They are monologues, not places where constituents can express their concerns. But then so were his in-person town halls. The good news is that Democrats in the district seem to see Williams as weak enough that he can be successfully challenged. It could become a crowded field in the next couple of months! Sarah Klee Hood held a fundraiser in Rome last week and has another one in Clinton this evening. She'll be on the Cafe Zoom this morning if you want to touch base with her. In the meantime, Utica University professor Clemmie Harris jumped into the race this week with this campaign video. Right now our job is to continue to weaken Williams in the eyes of voters, to help them to realize just how extreme he is, how much he looks down on those of us who live in NY22 especially in comparison to his MAGA friends in Washington. Keep those LTEs coming!
MAGA Default Averted: Enjoy the Weather & the Festivals!
Take a deep breath, knowing that our Stop MAGA Default Week of Action together with our strong Democratic leaders like President Biden and Sen. Schumer, have saved our economy from disaster. Whew!!! At this writing Sen. Schumer had an agreement from senators on both sides of the aisle to be able to get the debt ceiling passed before the time you read this email. We did it! MAGA extremism did not prevail!
Enjoy the out of doors, steep yourself in conversations with people in our community. Knock doors in Utica for Celeste. Help with Get Out the Vote. Enjoy the early summer intergenerational fun, music and food. At its root our political activism is built on a joyful optimism about what is possible when people come together in community. See you at the June festivals!
Follow us on Twitter using @indivisiblemv and of course our Facebook page and IMV Activism Group
