Use your constituent power; take action now!
Call to Action for Education
This week we’re calling on Governor Cuomo to invest in education, as part of our #InvestinOurNY campaign. Decades of disinvestment even before COVID-19 wreaked havoc on our K-12 and higher education. Ending tax breaks for the wealthy and investing in education means thousands of jobs, care for our children, affordable universities and economic mobility for working class New Yorkers and communities of color.
Will you call your legislators today and tell them: it’s time to end tax breaks for the rich to prevent cuts to education? It’s super easy, just click here: http://cit.ac/investcalls
Now is the time to invest much more—not less—in public education. The Legislature can create a just, inclusive COVID recovery. It need only embrace the strategy that saved the economy during the Great Depression and invest boldly in the public good, starting with our schools!
Take action now to stop cuts to our public education :
(1) Call Governor Cuomo & your State Reps using our #InvestInOurNY weekly call script: http://cit.ac/investcalls
(2) Use our social media toolkit to show your support for the Invest In Our New York campaign and to let Governor Cuomo know you don’t support the #UnfairHike. Please take the time to share on Facebook, Instragram, or Twitter.
It's #FilibusterFriday
Time to start tweeting! If you are on Twitter,NY StateIndivisibleOrganizer Sarah Reeske needs you on Twitter on Fridays, tweeting about the Filibuster. Nothing else will happen in Congress until Majority Leader Schumer, our state senator, gets rid of the filibuster.
Not on Twitter yet, but ready to start, or ready to learn how to use Twitter more? Here is an excellent guide to get started. The reason we use Twitter is because that is where our elected officials and their staff are every day Most electeds are very sensitive to the activity that calls out their Twitter handle--especially when it is their constituents. That's no different for @SenSchumer. For this effort we are using #BeBoldChuck and #FilibusterFriday.
Ready to get started? To help make it easier, and if you haven’t already, please join the special Twitter room by following and direct messaging @sreeske on Twitter. If you're an old Twitter hand, and you're ready to dive in, here is your Twitter toolkit for #FilbusterFriday.
Our Climate Crisis Working Group Kicks Off 2021
As in other areas of progressive politics, there is renewed hope for significant big and bold climate action, needing climate activists pushing for it. At the first Climate Crisis meeting of the year we toasted to Biden/Harris for Climate Justice and a brighter future. Mona Perrotti gave an update on DivestNY, focusing on the teachers' pension fund to divest from fossil fuels as DivestNY, a persistent group of activists, succeeded in obtaining an agreement from Comptroller DiNapoli to divest the NYS pension fund. Alan Cole updated us on state and federal legislation. Our group is a member of NY Renews, which is currently focused on lobbying our state representatives to support the CCIA. This bill will fund the CLCPA, NY State's aggressive Climate Legislation. This short video from NY Renews emphasizes why we do this work.
Our "member spotlight" this month featured Carol Gable who talked about ways in which a few people can get a town or city to make progress on their "Climate Start Community" goals. Carol’s energy is contagious and we are so glad to be able to work side by side with her. Our presenter of the month was Phil Bean from CNY Conservancy who discussed the Proctor Peace Park Garden project, which we hope to work on with him.
Finally, the IMV Climate Crisis Working Committee submitted a budget testimony letter to the NYS assembly and senate asking that they fund the CCIA. Here is the letter. If you'd like to join our Climate Crisis committee, to join a dedicated and caring group of Climate Activists please email indivisiblemohawkvalley@gmail.com.
CAFE Friday News
Please join us this morning for CAFE Friday as usual. Then, looking ahead, on Friday, February 5th, 10-11:30am, we'll take some time to discuss the new Indivisible Guide. Discussion will be designed to include those who haven't read it yet, as well as those who have. You can read the guide here.
We should also have some new letters in front of us soon, and be able to write and address Invest in Our New York letters to fellow voters while we share conversation and coffee.
Book Discussion Group
We're going to be discussing Eitan Hersh's Politics is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change in March (date TBD). Please order a copy from your favorite independent bookseller if possible, or check it out of your local library (or request they order it). If you are interested in participating, send an email to InvdivisibleMohawkValley@gmail.com with the subject: Book Group. That will allow us to coordinate a date and time that works for everyone who is reading the book.
Just itching to Phonebank for Impeachment?
Join a special phone banking session today. The NotAbovetheLaw Coalition will be calling activists in key states and patching them to their GOP Senator’s office to ask them to vote to convict Trump for inciting the insurrection on January 6th. Register Here for the phonebank today, Friday, Jan. 29th, 1-2:30 pm ET.
Want to Learn How to Lobby Your State Reps Effectively?
New Yorkers are meeting with legislators to ask them to support our campaign to end tax breaks for the rich and start investing in OUR New York! Learn the best practices for talking to your representatives about the Invest in Our New York campaign. Join this important training on how to lobby for the Invest in Our New York bills.
Wednesday, February 3rd at 6:30 PM, SIGN UP HERE TO JOIN. Zoom link provided after RSVP
To win this campaign, it's essential that State Assembly Members and Senators hear directly from people they represent. RSVP to attend. This is a critical constituent skill that we all need to practice.
We're Writing Letters Again!
We're looking for a letter writing captain for the Invest In Our New York letter writing campaign. This role is about being a single point of contact to request batches of letters and address sheets from IONY online, print them or coordinate printing, distribute them to a couple of Resistance Box locations and/or our local IMV letter writers, and then make sure they are verified as mailed. The work lasts only two months because April 1 is the budget deadline in Albany, but the bulk of the effort will occur in the next six weeks (February and early March). IMV has committed to1500 letters based on the success of our past Vote Forward letter writing. Email IndivisibleMohawkValley@gmail.com if you can take this project on. Once we have a letter writing captain, we can start writing letters!
In addition, we can't use our IMV Act Blue account for this purpose by law. That means we need to raise additional IMV funds to buy stamps and pay for envelopes and printing. If you can contribute stamps or can make a contribution for this critical campaign, please send your check directly to IMV, 19 Proctor Ave, Clinton, NY 13323.
We need to raise more than $800 to send our letters, but many other groups in the IONY coalition are doing the same, and together our efforts have the potential to raise more than $50 Billion in annual revenue for New Yorkers who need services, education, housing, healthcare, and climate justice--all from the millionaires and billionaires who are raking in more billions in profits during Covid times. So, it will be worth our efforts and donations. If you would prefer to donate stamps. you can mail them to the address above, or hold on to them until we have the Resistance Boxes set up.
Candidate & Campaign Training Rescheduled
The IMV -Uplift Syracuse Candidate & Campaign training workshops have been rescheduled due to an illness. Here is the new schedule:
Part 1: Saturday, Feb. 6 12-4 pm
Part 2: Saturday, Feb. 13 12-4 pm
If you haven't signed up yet, you can do so by emailing: upliftsyracuse315@gmail.com.
Did You Catch Ezra on Rachel Maddow?
Just in case you missed it, here is Indivisible's co-founder, Ezra Levin, rocking the Rachel Maddow show. If you think that because we won the White House we are done, Ezra reminds us that we are just getting started. As Ezra says, "The basic tool available to us is the same tool that was available to us, grassroots folks across the country, in 2017, that is: constituent power." For the first time in years there are good things on our leaders' agendas. Now is when we have the ability through our constituent power to "make them do it."
We were all thrilled to see what happened on Inauguration Day and the big Senate win in Georgia, and our fingers are crossed for NY22. But this email, and all the ones that come after it are going to be filled with ACTION ITEMS for you to do to push our Members of Congress and our NY state legislators to pass the bills and budgets we need. Constituent power works if you work it, but we have to do the work.
Thanks for taking action today, and for your political engagement. You are an activist, and you get the job done!
