Join IMV's February Zoom Meeting Tuesday @7 pm

February 17, 2023 Alan Cole

IMV February 2023 Meeting Features John Zogby, Local Candidates

Please join IMV for our February 2023 Monthly Meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 21st, 7-8:30 pm. We have a packed agenda that includes:

John Zogby of John Zogby Strategies will give an overview of the central NY political landscape, electoral shifts, and how he sees the future of parties and polarization.
Local candidates, some known and some new, all of whom need our support for their elections in 2023 (Celeste, Caroline, Crystal, & Katie)
NY Summit Recap and next steps
REI (Race, equity & inclusion) section featuring news from the new NAACP Utica/Oneida County branch elected officers.

Here's the link to the meeting: Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85484125928
Invite a friend! If it is someone new, let them know that they may need to provide the name of the member who invited them when they are in the waiting room; as always, we let people in one by one to ensure Zoom security. See you on Tuesday!

Invest in Our NY: Ways to Engage

The Invest in Our NY (IONY) Coalition is in full press mode moving toward the April budget deadline, and is not only supporting our efforts to talk to our legislators about the budget but also has a wealth of resources and tactics for how we can talk to friends, neighbors, and other voters in our communities about what is at stake. As a reminder, here are the basics:

New Yorkers are being crushed by rising costs and an uneven COVID-19 recovery.
Corporate landlords have driven up the cost of housing (40% in the last two years), essentials like food & energy are more expensive than ever, and employers continue to deny workers fair wages despite historic profits.
We must fund programs that will put money back in people’s pockets in the short term and ensure that the state invests long-term in our communities.
Let's mobilize voters to press legislators and Governor Hochul to pass a budget that funds $40 billion in new investments, and makes the wealthiest people and corporations pay New York what they owe. Read more here and see the proposed tax reforms here.

On Tuesday, February 28th, the IONY Campaign will be heading to Albany to demand New York State increase taxes on millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations & fund the programs working-class NYers rely on! We will be coordinating travel from around the state & lunch will be provided. Want to join us in Albany? Register to participate: Please register to participate at bit.ly/IONY022823. The registration link will provide us with information concerning your individual transportation needs, and will allow us to place people in meetings based on which districts they live in etc.

Not able to come to Albany on 2/28? Even if you're not able to join us in Albany, there are plenty of opportunities for you & your organization to lobby on behalf of the Invest in Our NY agenda. Use our 2023 advocacy guide to reach out to legislators on behalf of the campaign and ask them to support our priorities. We will be returning to Albany on March 21st, so please hold that date on your calendar.

Finally, IMV needs a volunteer or two to represent us on the bi-weekly Endorser's Call (IMV has endorsed the campaign again this year) with IONY staff and groups. The call is every other Thursday 3-4 pm, and it started yesterday, Feb, 16 and runs through April 20. If we had one or two people who could regularly jump on that call and then let IMV folks know what is going on and what we could do to engage from here, that would be great! Please RSVP to IndivisibleMV@gmail.com if you are willing and we'll give you the zoom link. Thanks.

Climate Crisis Work Group Update

Maggie Reilly, IMV’s Climate Crisis Working Group chair, testified in Albany this week at the Joint Legislative Public Hearing on Environmental Conservation and Energy for the NYS budget. Maggie’s testimony discussed her more than positive experience with converting their entire household to electric. The issue of heating/cooling with heat pumps in a cold weather area was of interest to legislators of both parties, some of whom had questions about whether or not a heat pump will keep a home warm, without any supplemental heat, in temperatures as low as negative 20. (It will!) Read Maggie’s testimony here. For those who would like to watch Maggie's testimony, it is on this 13+ hour (!!) video, Her Panel H starts at about 11:42:45 and her testimony is the first of three at 11:43:30. The Q&A from the legislators is at 11:53:00.

https://www.nysenate.gov/calendar/public-hearings/february-14-2023/joint-legislative-public-hearing-2023-executive-budget

Three Easy Actions to Take for Climate This Week

1. Fossil fuel industry executives have been working hard to make enormous profits at the expense of our communities and our planet. In addition, the industry continues to pour money into PR to promote false solutions and outright lies about ‘natural’ gas (read: methane) and to make it look like they’re willing to build a clean energy future, despite pouring millions of dollars into new oil and gas investments. We need to do everything we can to stop this. That’s why this week we’re emailing legislators to spread awareness of fossil fictions and oil and gas propaganda. (NY Renews)

2. Send a one click email to your state legislators asking them to pass the NY Home Energy Affordable Transition Act (NY HEAT), the All-Electric Building Act, and the Energy Efficiency, Equity, and Jobs Act (EEEJA), which will enable us to reduce climate and air pollution from our buildings, save New Yorkers billions of dollars, and protect the respiratory health of New Yorkers. Implementing the funding included in the 2023 Renewable Heat Now Budget Proposals will ensure we have adequate funding to meet our climate goals.( Email goes to your state legislator, need to uncheck boxes at bottom so that you don’t receive continuing emails from the organization.) Send a letter to your representatives at this link.(Renewable Heat Now)

3. Divest NY is asking individuals and organizations to sign on to a letter to the State University of New York (SUNY) Albany and Governor Hochul requesting that Dr. David Carpenter's full academic status be restored. Dr. Carpenter is known for his research on the effects of PCBs on fish and humans. He has served as an expert witness in 8 cases involving Monsanto. Dr. Carpenter, an environmental champion and the founder and longtime director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the State University at Albany, was placed on "alternate assignment" nine months ago, a status under which he was instructed to not visit any campuses and to restrict his teaching interactions with students. This ongoing disciplinary investigation was prompted by Freedom of information requests filed by an attorney with a Missouri law firm that represents Monsanto. Monsanto has paid billions of dollars through court verdicts and settlements related to its manufacturing of PCBs — or polychlorinated biphenyls — and other biochemical products. Sign the letter here https://tinyurl.com/RESTORE-CARPENTER The deadline is noon on Monday, February 20, 2023. For more info, read this article and listen to this interview. Times Union article: Radio interview with Dr. Carpenter after his Feb. 6 meeting with SUNY. (Divest NY)

Reminders: Meeting Tuesday, and Save Dates in March for Petitioning!

We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday for our meeting: Zoom link:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85484125928
It will be a good one!

Enjoy the leisure of showing up in comfy clothes in your warm house for the meeting on Zoom. That is all about to end when we start petitioning (first official day to carry/sign candidate petitions is Feb. 28). So pull out your warm coat, boots, and hat, and pray for a mild month of March, because we have a lot of doors to knock so that we can have candidates on the ballot in our counties, towns, and cities.

Remember to Zoom in for CAFE Fridays (including today!) if you are free on Friday mornings for political conversation, community, and IMV camaraderie.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.
And in honor of Black History Month, there is this from Frederick Douglass (1857):
"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

In IMV we've been at this political activism for years, and we continue. We have a vision of the world in which there is social, racial, economic, and climate justice. That vision leads, guides, inspires, and motivates us.
Can't stop, won't stop.
Breathe, then push.