March for Our Lives Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday, have announced “March for Our Lives,” a demonstration for new gun control legislation scheduled for Saturday, March 24, in Washington, D.C., and cities around the country. Action: 1. Sign up here for news and updates on the March for Our Lives: http://www.marchforourlives.com/march. 2. Mark March 24 on your calendar and keep it free. Keep a lookout for notice of your nearest March for Our Lives, and attend.
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Sunday. Dogs on sleds. You're welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eovEh-MdC9c Catch Up Day Finish any of the week’s Actions which you didn’t have a chance to complete! Another School Shooting Another school shooting. The reactions of those in government are hollow and meaningless, given that past tragedies have not motivated them to take preventative action. Congress continues to be held hostage by the NRA and in fact recently enacted the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act to make it easier for people to carry concealed weapons; the Senate will shortly vote on the same bill. States like Minnesota, where applicants undergo screening and training before being given concealed carry permits, would be forced to tolerate the presence of gun-toting, unpermitted, untrained individuals from states with lax gun regulations. Action: 1. CALL your Senators and ask them to oppose the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. 2. Write to the Editor of your local newspaper and call for a nationwide one-day school strike. Parents of school-age children should keep them home for a day to protest the government’s inaction and apathy surrounding gun safety. Immigration - Urgent Please read the following update from Indivisible: http://indivisible.actionkit.com/mailings/view/13278 It gives a good outline of the upcoming GOP immigration bill, which trades concessions for DREAMers in exchange for more funds for enforcement, an end to Diversity Visas, and curtailing family reunification. It is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Action: CALL your Senators and ask them to oppose the GOP immigration bill. Demand a CLEAN DREAM Act with NO STRINGS ATTACHED. If your Senator is a Democrat, the Indivisible sample calling script might be helpful. Or if your Senator is Republican, Indivisible also has a sample script for you to use if you like. Reign of Terror ICE is rounding up foreign nationals for deportation on an ever-increasing scale. They have stopped targeting those with a criminal history and are meeting quotas by arresting people who have lived in this country for decades, hold jobs, serve the community, and in many cases who have American children and spouses. One such victim is Syed Jamal who came to this country in 1987 as a student. He is an adjunct professor at a Kansas City university and also conducts research at a hospital. His wife and three children, as well as his siblings, are U.S. citizens. He is currently being held at a facility in Hawaii prior to deportation to Bangladesh. The ever-increasing aggression of ICE, and the remorseless attitude of the GOP are cause for great concern. Action - as many as you can: 1. Contact the Governor of Kansas and ask him to intercede on behalf of Syed Jamal so that he can come home. 2. Fax the Kansas Senators and ask them to help: https://faxzero.com/fax_senate/M000934 https://faxzero.com/fax_senate/R000307 3. Contact the White House to protest the arrest and deportation of Syed Jamal. 4. Phone your protest to the ICE Community Relations Officer for the Kansas area: (312) 347-2454 5. Sign the petition to ICE (source: CNN). 6. Donate at his GoFundMe page (source: CNN). Health Care Here’s Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) replying this morning to a constituent’s email requesting his support for a single-payer health care system in the U.S.: "Instead of giving the government more power, I believe the best way to increase access to quality care and lower costs is to empower patients and improve transparency within a more consumer-driven and competitive health care system. Recent Republican efforts to move health care in this direction were defeated, and I am disappointed with this setback on efforts to fix our broken health care system." This response perfectly captures the ideological blindness of the G.O.P. Their slavish adherence to doctrine prevents them from seeing reality - their mindset is very similar to Stalinist economics, where catastrophic evidence to the contrary was no obstacle to adherence to the “truth” of the party line. A rudimentary survey of all the nations which are successful in ensuring health care for their citizens would show that not one single one uses the kind of system described by Toomey. Action: Email Senator Toomey and explain to him in your own words just why he is wrong, not to mention ignorant. Health Care Just can’t get enough of Beto. Watch this video. Action: 1. If you feel so called, send him a(nother) campaign contribution. He doesn’t accept PAC money or corporate donations, and he’s outraising Cruz for the upcoming senate elections. 2. Shoot him a message thanking him for restoring our faith in American politics. 3. If you do that kind of thing, share the video on social media. 4. Remind your Senators and/or Member of Congress that you still want them to work towards Medicare for All. Research shows lack of insurance leads to higher death rate. DUH. Sunday. Because Icelandic horses are much better suited to the Sabbath than the GOP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnCmKgq1ZeI Catch-Up Day With the all the busy and important things you’ve been doing this week, you may have found it hard to complete the Actions already. Action: Catch up! |
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