Monday, June 24, 2019

INCO Weekly Newsletter/ June 24

Indivisibles turned out for INCO's Rally for Truth on June 3, 2017, in Astoria. 
"Truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it,         but in the end, there it is." -- Winston Churchill
Send a postcard to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging Trump's impeachment. She needs to hear from voters around the country that he is not above the law. Write her at
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
1236 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515


Be inspired by this delightful NY Times article about a stellar postcarder! Artful handwriting, too.
CHILD ABUSE BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
The Trump administration continues to tear apart immigrant families, despite Trump's executive order ending his administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents. Michelle Goldberg's excellent column in the NY Times has more details. The New Yorker's Masha Gessen writes about American concentration camps.
 
Doing nothing in the face of these atrocities is not an option. 
Check out the 3 concrete suggestions from Lawyers for Good Government for supporting human decency and kindness. Among other resources are the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice and SOAR Immigration Legal Services.

You can also send a card or postcard or call Sarah Fabian, a lawyer in the DOJ, who defended holding immigrant children in cages with no toothbrushes, no bed, no blanket, and no toilets and who are being served inadequate food. These children are sleeping on cold floors with only foil blankets.  The DOJ address is 950 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC 20530202-514-2000. This is urgent!
POSTAGE-PAID BALLOTS
When Washington state's "motor voter" law takes effect, voter ballots will be postage paid. In an era where younger people - and lots of older ones, too - rarely use stamps, INCO's Vote the Future team is behind a push to get postage-paid ballots in Oregon.

With little more than a week left in Oregon's legislative session, HB 861 has moved into House Ways & Means, co-chaired by Sen. Betsy Johnson. If you agree that we should improve access to voting with postage-paid ballots, call Johnson today (503) 986-1716 , as well as Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell 503-986-1432 .  More info here.
Call today - the session ends June 30!
ATTEND SEASIDE HEARING FOR PLASTIC BAG ORDINANCE
Help INCO support the ordinance when the Seaside City Council has the second reading of the Single Use Plastic Bag Ordinance. The city council and mayor seem to want to put their own ban in place as a statement in support of the need to reduce use of single use plastics.
 
Seaside City Council
Monday, June 24 at 7 pm
989 Broadway in Seaside

Please plan to attend and support a ban on plastic bags! We’d like to have as many people there as possible so bring your family, friends, and neighbors!  Let us know if you’d like to speak in support of the ban!
PROGRESS OF PROGRESSIVE BILLS IN SALEM
What Oregon issues do you care about? Tell Betsy and Tiffiny today.
State Senator Betsy Johnson -- 503-986-1716   Sen.BetsyJohnson@oregonlegislature.gov
State Representative Tiffiny Mitchell -- ‭(503) 986-1432‬  Rep.TiffinyMitchell@oregonlegislature.gov

 
Your calls and emails have made a difference in getting progressive legislation passed in the state legislature. Meanwhile, Oregon's Republican Senatorscontinue to degrade democracy and insult Oregonians by fleeing the state rather than vote on pending bills, including important climate legislation. Here's the latest update:

• HB 2020 - the groundbreaking Clean Energy Jobs bill is on hold waiting for Republican state senators to return to work.

• HB 2015 -- The Drivers Licenses for All Act passed the House and is heading for a final vote the Senate.

• The Plastic Straws and Plastic Bans bills passed and will become law. A bill to ban Styrofoam failed.
 

•  SB 770, the bill to establish a task force to come up with a universal health care plan, is awaiting a second reading and vote in the Senate. 

• Bills that would provide Family Leave and Hate Crime prevention are alive and may be moving forward in these last few days.

• Stalled bills include one that would require five years of tax returns for presidential and vice-presidential candidates to appear on the Oregon ballot; and Safe Storage of Firearms.


• Many other bills have been passed -- or are moving toward passage -- that will affect our lives in Oregon, including the Oregon EPA Bill (passed), Clean Diesel bill (moving), Universal Health Care bill (moving), the Juvenile Justice Reform bill (passed), the National Popular Vote bill (passed), the Rent Control bill (passed) and bills that created a fund for improved schools.
INDIVISIBLE OREGON'S TUESDAY CALL OF THE WEEK
Please thank Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici for signing on to Representative Tlaib's impeachment resolution on June 13. She is one of only 14 co-sponsors of the bill. Please thank her for doing so.

Tell your Members of Congress: It's Time to Impeach.
"Living under an autocratic regime is hard and causes outrage exhaustion; But we must endure the fatigue of protection democracy.  This is the fight of our lifetime and we must rise to the challenge, overcome the fatigue, and save our democracy with an impeachment inquiry."  -- Indivisible Oregon 
 
Senator Merkley's DC office: 202-224-3753. Senator Wyden's DC office: 202-224-5244
Congresswoman Bonamici's DC office: 202-225-0855
Join other Oregon Indivisibles and call your MoCs on Tuesday. Contact info is here.
INTRO to 2020
• Democratic Presidential candidates in this week's debates will be lucky to get 10 minutes each to talk. Check out this NY Times piece - video interviews and transcripts with 21 candidates, all asked the same questions. it's a good introduction to them and to 2020 election campaigns. Joe Biden declined to participate.

• A fascinating political and polling website was suggested to us by an Indivisible group in Orange County. Valuable information and suggestions for how to talk about healthcare, climate change, the economy, reproductive rights, and political activism.
John, Eric, and Margaret were busy sending Postcards to Voters in June, 2018. Now it's time for you to write postcards to your Members of Congress and Nancy Pelosi.
HAPPENINGS
Details on our events page.
Everyone is welcome to all these events.

THIS WEEK
Check out Democratic candidates for President on televised events Wednesday and Thursday. 
lIt's time to call your Members of Congress about the issues you care about!

UPCOMING
No meetings in July for the Advocacy Team, Vote the Future Team, and INCO's Warrenton and Astoria Community Groups.

Saturday, August 3 - Astoria Community Group monthly meeting, 10:30 a.m. - noon,WineKraft, on the Riverwalk at the foot of 10th. It’s OK to bring your own food and drink.

Wednesday, August 7 - Advocacy Team monthly meeting6:30 - 8 pm, Seaside Library Board Room.

Saturday, August 10 - Warrenton Community Group meeting11:30 a.m., El Compadre Restaurant, 
119 South Main, across the street from the Warrenton post office

Wednesday, August 21 - Vote the Future (VTF) monthly meeting,  6:30 pm, Seaside Library Board Room
INSIGHTS
"Luck is like hope — too far beyond our control, too ephemeral. What we really must wish for one another is the power of all that might be possible if we do anything more than hope."
—Roxane Gay
ACTION PRIORITIES
  How will your Members of Congress know what you want if you don't tell them?

•  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.
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Get active with INCO's Advocacy Team, Vote the Future Team, and Community Groups. 

INCO has 3 websites: our 
main oneVote the Future; and Really Do Care INCO Under 40s
 Join INCO's closed Facebook group. Really Do Care also has a Facebook group. 
Sign up for emails from national Indivisible at www.indivisible.org.
Questions, suggestions, & photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com

Deb Vanasse and Laurie Caplan, INCO Co-chairs
INCO Weekly Newsletter   June 24, 2019