INCO Weekly Newsletter 2/11

TUESDAY CALL OF THE WEEK It's always important to call your Members of Congress, and our Tuesday calls are especially important. Throughout Oregon, Indivisibles are calling our MoCs on Tuesdays, amplifying our voices around a single issue. This week's Tuesday Call of the Week: The human rights abuses at the border continue.  This administration has willfully subjected children to the trauma of separation, lost them, have profited off of them in private prisons, and now says it is too hard to reunite them, which  amounts to state-sponsored kidnapping.  We ask Congress to pass a spending bill with no money for the wall. Congress must work to stop family separation and continue to investigate the administration's immoral policy and actions. For scripts and other details, visit Indivisible Oregon on Tuesday. Plan for Clatsop County's Future Care about the future of growth in Clatsop County? Want to help find solutions for creating and maintaining affordable housing, traffic, and keeping our downtowns thriving? Apply for a seat on a Clatsop County Comprehensive Plan and Community Plan Update Committee by March 1. The Citizen Committee Application forms are available from the County Manager’s office at 800 Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR, or athttps://www.co.clatsop.or.us/county/page/county-application-forms. Contact Clatsop County Community Development Department with questions at 503-338-3666. The deadline to apply is 4:00 p.m., Friday, March 1, 2019. CLEAN ENERGY JOBS & CLIMATE JUSTICE IN OREGON INCO members and other constituents talked with State Representative Tiffiny Mitchell during the Clean Energy Jobs Lobby Day in Salem on February 6. Among those in Salem were Indivisibles Russ Mead, Laura Allen, Joyce Hunt, Eric Halperin, Cheryl Conway, Carmen Hammersmith, Jennifer Nightingale, Samuel (Sammy) McDaniel, Pamela Mattson McDonald, Annie Naranjo-Rivera, and Jacob Van Buskirk. * * * * * * *  Local Indivisibles joined with more than 700 Oregonians on February 6 in Salem to demand our legislators pass HB2020 to:      CAP  greenhouse gas emissions      PRICE  greenhouse gas pollution      INVEST  in clean energy solutions Twelve of us met with Representative Tiffiny Mitchell (HD 32), a strong CEJ supporter. We urged her to make sure the bill is not watered down by special interest. Senator Betsy Johnson's (SD16) was unable to meet with us, so instead we talked with her aide. Senator Johnson is worried about the impact of this legislation on consumers.  Four people talked with Representative Brad Witt (HD 31), who supports legislation to reduce carbon emissions, but believes this bill is too bureaucratic. There is much optimism in Salem that CEJ will finally come to fruition after many years of hard work.     What can you do now?   Call or write your legislators and tell them you want Oregon to lead the way to CAP, PRICE and INVEST, and build a new economic and environmental model.  Write letters to the editor of your local papers. For more information, contact me at ehod1@yahoo.com.    Meet Greta If you want to be inspired, and be validated for why you care about climate change and why you want CEJ legislation to pass, click here and young Greta Thunberg of Sweden will explain it to you in 11 minutes.  This is very humbling. I encourage you to watch.   -- Eric Halperin File to Fill Vital Special District Positions in May 21 Election  Learn how government works. See if public service is in your future. Build a progressive bench. Voters will elect board members throughout Clatsop County on May 21 for Special Districts that oversee schools, water, fire departments, the Port of Astoria, and more. These Special Districts are essential parts of our communities. Board members set budgets, decide programs and priorities, and make other major decisions.  Positions up for election here.  May 21 Special District Election You can be a candidate for a Special District board in Clatsop County.                                                         February 9 - first day to file                                                        March 21 -   last day to file Details about positions and filing here: Clatsop County Elections Office, 820 Exchange, 2nd floor, Astoria. If you don't run, who will? INCO members and other constituents meet with Senator Betsy Johnson's aide at the Clean Energy Jobs Lobby Day in Salem on February 6. * * * * * * *  HELP SHAPE OREGON'S FUTURE This is the best chance we’ve had in years to shape Oregon’s future. Are you ready? The Oregon State Legislature is up and running for the next five months. Indivisible groups across the state will track bills, votes, and the legislators who represent you in Salem. Here are a few things you need to know: Our legislature meets every year for either a short, 35-day session, or a long, 160-day session. This year, it’s a long session, so they will be there, making laws, through the end of June. Lawmakers will need to sift through and consider more than 4,000 bills that could become laws. Issues we expect to see in the coming months include Clean Energy Jobs, common sense gun control, campaign finance reform, affordable housing, prescription drug prices, and a proposed remedy of higher corporate taxes to make up for the state’s budget shortfall. To learn more about these issues, read this story by Oregon Public Broadcasting. INCO will be working with a coalition of other Indivisible groups across Oregon to evaluate those bills. We’ll try to decide which ones best reflect our progressive values and which ones don’t. When the timing is right, we’ll call on you to raise your voices -- just as you have over the past two years on federal issues. Watch our newsletter, our Facebook group, and our website. It will be up to you to call, email or caravan to Salem when we need Indivisible people power. For an Indivisible calendar of upcoming Lobby Days, bookmark this page:  https://www.indivisibleor.org/events/or-state-leg/ And, finally, if you have ideas for new bills or concerns about bills that have already been written, please get in touch with us at incoregon@gmail.com and we’ll put you in touch with our Advocacy Team. More legislative information is here. A huge thanks to Indivisible OR-2 for this material, which we’ve used mostly verbatim with a few minor changes: THE GREEN NEW DEAL - EXPLAINED The Green New Deal proposal is making headlines everywhere. Indivisible national's guide to the Green New Deal explains who, what, why, and when.  HAPPENINGS Details on our events page. Everyone is welcome to all these events. THIS WEEK Tuesday, February 12 - Seaside-Gearhart Community Group Monthly Meeting, 6:30 -  8 pm, at Bebe & Eric's in Gearhart. Contact incoregon@gmail.com for directions. UPCOMING Wednesday, February 20 - INCO Book Club, 6:30 pm, Astoria; discussing HOW TO THINK: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED, by Alan Jacobs, Profile Books LTD, 2018.   Email cebeady@outlook.com for address. Wednesday, February 20 - Vote the Future (VTF) monthly meeting,  6:30 pm, Seaside Library Board Room.   Saturday, March 2 - "Gerrymandering and What We Can Do To Stop It", 2 pm, Astoria Public Library Flag Room, 450 10th Street. A presentation by the Oregon League of Women Voters, co-sponsored by INCO. Wednesday, March 6 - Advocacy Team monthly meeting, 6:30 - 8 pm, Seaside Library Board Room. Thursday, March  7 - INCO Table at Ales & Ideas, 7 pm, Lovell Showroom, 426 14th Street, Astoria. Doors open at 6 pm. Food and drink available for purchase. INCO t-shirts and In Our America yard signs available for purchase. David Delk of INCO is a featured speaker. Saturday, March 9 - Warrenton Community Group monthly meeting, 11:30, Dooger's Seafood & Grill, Highway 101, Warrenton. Saturday, March 9 - Astoria Community Group monthly meeting, NEW TIME: 2 pm, Street 14 Cafe, 1410 Commercial Street, Astoria. SPECIAL EVENTS "In the Executioner's Shadow" - A documentary film about the death penalty Saturday, February 16 at 2 pm Doors open at 1:30 Astoria Public Library Flag Room, 450 10th Street Hosted by Alliance for Democracy and Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty  "Gerrymandering and What We Can Do to Stop It" a presentation by the Oregon League of Women Voters Saturday, March 2 at 2 pm Astoria Public Library Flag Room 450 10th Street INCO is a co-sponsor. "Campaigns 101" - The basics of running an election campaign Saturday, March 9 from 10:30 - noon Astoria Public Library Flag Room Presented by the Clatsop County Democrats Open to the public INSIGHTS "In democratic government, elected officials do not have power. They hold power — in trust for the people who elected them. If they misuse or abuse that public trust, it is quite properly revoked (the quicker the better)." -- US Representative John Dingle, who dictated this to his wife on the day he died, February 7, 2019. Read his entire message here. ACTION PRIORITIES   How will your Members of Congress know what you want if you don't tell them? •  Members of Congress (MoC) care about getting re-elected, so contact ONLY elected officials who represent you so you don't dilute the power of actual constituents. •  It's more effective to contact your MoC about one issue at a time.  •  Be sure to tell your MoC when you agree with their positions and votes.   Contact YOUR elected officials here.   For current action items, visit www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Find other suggested actions in the Americans of Conscience Checklist.

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS  Get active with INCO's Advocacy Team, Vote the Future Team,  Book Club and Community Groups. Contact Laurie at incoregon@gmail.com for more information.   Questions, suggestions, & photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  INCO has 3 websites: our main one; Vote the Future; and Really Do Care INCO Under 40s. Really Do Care also has a Facebook group.  Join INCO's closed Facebook group. Share this newsletter with other resisters. You can sign up for emails from national Indivisible at www.indivisible.org. INCO is supported entirely by donations. Please donate online or mail a check to INCO c/o PO Box 536, Warrenton, OR 97146. Deb Vanasse and Laurie Caplan, INCO Co-chairs INCO Weekly Newsletter   February 11, 2019