Monday, November 29, 2021

11-29-2021 Newsletter

 

"May the growing light dispel the darkness that surrounds us. May the light from all the Chanukiot shine in every place in the world and in the heart of every being where light and healing is needed. That probably covers all of us and then some."
-- Carol Newman, INCO activist


Chanukah celebrates the first battle for religious freedom, when Jews defeated their Greek-Syrian oppressors in the second century BCE. Lighting an additional candle each night symbolizes the holy oil burning for a week when the Temple in Jerusalem was rededicated at that time. INCO continues to defend religious freedom from those who would impose their personal beliefs on the nation.
PICK A THING
"I recently read a surprisingly upbeat essay titled “The Disaster We Must Think About Every Day.” Have you come across that one? The author, overwhelmed and feeling paralyzed in the face of climate change, sought out marine biologist and ocean policy expert Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Dr. Johnson’s advice to her:Pick a thing.” 

"You don’t have to do the thing that’s going to solve everything, she said: “Part of picking your thing is trusting that your fellow human beings are also going to pick a thing, and together, we’ll pick enough things to start moving the needle.”

 - - Katie Voelke, Executive Director, North Coast Land Conservancy, November 2021

WILL WE BUILD BACK BETTER?

Imagine investing in our economy with funding for children, climate, housing, families, healthcare, and much more! This is Biden's Build Back Better, and it's one step closer to being law. 

"The next stop for BBB is a vote in the Senate, where the top priority is making sure that the bill passes as quickly as possible," says Indivisible. "Senator Schumer is with us, and has expressed that he expects the Senate to vote on BBB right after Thanksgiving. So we need to make sure that we are doing all we can to push for a vote the week of November 29th, and as always we can’t do it without you."

Indivisible suggests, "Take a break from calls this week! 
Instead, share this call to action with your friends, and ask them to call their senator and demand they pass BBB through the Senate as quickly as possible. You can share this script on Twitter or Facebook, or by forwarding this email to them. If they need more of an explainer on the basics of BBB, share this one-pager on the bill too!"

SIGNING UP FOR HEALTH CARE
INCO activists Melissa Eskue Ousley, Cheryl Conway, and Sue Zerangue shared details about enrolling in the Affordable Care Act at the college on November 29, 2017.

"SUMMITS FOR DEMOCRACY"

"The Biden administration has announced it will convene the first of two virtual “Summits for Democracy” on December 9 and 10, 2021. The gatherings will bring together leaders from 110 countries who work in government, civil society, and the private sector, to come up with an agenda to renew democratic government and work together to keep the ideals of democracy strong.

"Authoritarianism is growing around the world, including in America, and the administration is hoping to create practical ideas and strong alliances to defend against authoritarianism, fight corruption, and promote human rights, all values central to democracy.

"That this announcement comes at Thanksgiving is fitting, since Thanksgiving is rooted in a defense of democracy during the Civil War."

Find more about this fascinating history in
 Letters from an American, November 25, 2021, by historian Heather Cox Richardson.

GETTING CREDIT FOR ACTIVISM
Already doing advocacy through calls, emails, postcards, rallies & more?  COIN wants to know what members of INCO and other Oregon Indivisibles are doing. Please complete a brief report each week here. These statistics will add weight to INCO and to COIN influence. On the drop-down menu for the COIN Squad group name, please select INCO.

Link up with COIN here for the form and to add inspiration, community & prizes to your activism, whether you are working as a member of a group or are doing it individually.
#TimeToAct: THANK YOU POSTCARDS
This is a great time to thank Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Jeff Merkley, and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici for their tireless efforts to pass voting rights legislation and other progressive measures as they work to protect our democracy from the anti-democratic forces in Congress and the country.

Join Indivisibles throughout Oregon and the Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network (COIN) in a postcard campaign to show our elected representatives the overwhelming grassroots support for voting rights. 

Senator Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Jeff Merkley
531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510


Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici
2231 Sam Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
HAPPENINGS 
Saturday, December 11 - INCO Astoria - North County Community Group Zoom meeting, 11am - noon. If you are new to this group, contact incoregon@gmail.com by December 10 to get the Zoom link. 

Tuesday, December 14 - INCO South County Community Group Zoom meeting, 6:30 pm - 8 pm. Please RSVP to Kathleenannmacdonald@yahoo.com thru Monday, December 13 for your Zoom link.

Saturday, January 15 - INCO Warrenton Community Group, in person meeting, 11 a.m. Location TBA. Contact incoregon@gmail.com by January 13 for more information.

EVERY FRIDAY - INCO Write to Voters Virtual Group, 3 - 4 pm. Via Zoom. If you are new to this group, contact incoregon@gmail.com to get the Zoom link. More details about writing to voters are below. Join us for informal conversation, venting, and solving the world's problems. Pets welcome.

Write To Voters - Research shows that your letters to voters increased voter turnout significantly. Elections and issue campaigns need you year-round. INCO encourages you to sign up to write to voters at www.postcardstovoters.org. For general Get Out the Vote campaigns, sign up at Vote Forward. For supplies or information, contact incoregon@gmail.com.
INSIGHTS

So here’s something I know to be true, although it’s a little corny, and I don’t quite know what to do with it: What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.”
— George Saunders, “
Congratulations, by the Way

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com
Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org.
Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here.
Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly.

INCO Weekly Newsletter   November 29, 2021

Monday, November 22, 2021

11-22-2021 Newsletter

 

GRATITUDE
We're grateful for the opportunity to meet and work with so many of you who keep on working for our democracy. Thank you for contributing passion, wisdom, talent, money, and time to make our country better - even more than you thought you could give. Thank you for sustaining INCO with your work, good cheer, and hope. 
 
Our best wishes for your Thanksgiving holiday,
The INCO leadership team
Bebe Michel, Carmen Hammersmith, Cheryl Conway, Eric Halperin,  Kathleen Macdonald, Ken Potter, Laurie Caplan, Mary Beth Cottle
PLEASE BRAG
Already doing advocacy through calls, emails, postcards, rallies & more?  COIN wants to know what members of INCO and other Oregon Indivisibles are doing. Please complete a brief report each week here. These statistics will add weight to INCO and to COIN influence.

Link up with COIN 
here to add inspiration, community & prizes to your activism, whether you are working as a member of a group or are doing it individually.
#TimeToAct: THANK YOU POSTCARDS
This is a great time to thank Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Jeff Merkley, and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici for their tireless efforts to pass voting rights legislation and other progressive measures as they work to protect our democracy from the anti-democratic forces in Congress and the country.

Join Indivisibles throughout Oregon and the Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network (COIN) in a postcard campaign to show our elected representatives the overwhelming grassroots support for voting rights. 

Senator Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Jeff Merkley
531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510


Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici
2231 Sam Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
VIRTUAL ASTORIA
For the majority who do not or cannot attend the City's public meetings, recordings of City meetings are posted at https://www.astoria.or.us/Meeting_Video.aspx
HAPPENINGS 
Saturday, December 11 - INCO Astoria - North County Community Group Zoom meeting, 11am - noon. If you are new to this group, contact incoregon@gmail.com by December 10 to get the Zoom link. 

Tuesday, December 14 - INCO South County Community Group Zoom meeting, 6:30 pm - 8 pm. Please RSVP to Kathleenannmacdonald@yahoo.com thru Monday, December 13 for your Zoom link.

Saturday, January 15 - INCO Warrenton Community Group, in person meeting, 11 a.m. Location TBA. Contact incoregon@gmail.com by January 13 for more information.

EVERY FRIDAY - INCO Write to Voters Virtual Group, 3 - 4 pm. Via Zoom. If you are new to this group, contact incoregon@gmail.com to get the Zoom link. More details about writing to voters are below. Join us for informal conversation, venting, and solving the world's problems. Pets welcome.

Write To Voters - Research shows that your letters to voters increased vote turnout significantly. Elections and issue campaigns need you year-round. INCO encourages you to sign up to write to voters at www.postcardstovoters.org. For general Get Out the Vote campaigns, sign up at Vote Forward. For supplies or information, contact incoregon@gmail.com.
INSIGHTS

“This business of being human is basically a jalopy ride over potholes, which is why it’s so important to ride with the best people you know, wherever possible, and to make sure you take note of any particularly beautiful scenery."     
-- Carolyn Hax, Washington Post

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com
Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org.
Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here.

INCO Weekly Newsletter   November 22, 2021

Monday, November 15, 2021

11-15-2021 Newsletter

 

#TimeToAct 
Join Indivisibles throughout Oregon and the Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network (COIN) in a postcard campaign to show our Senators the overwhelming grassroots support for voting rights. 

Use a postcard to let Senators know how important passing the #FreedomToVoteAct is for you and everyone in the nation. Any postcard will do, even a heavyweight 4 x 6 index card.

This is a great time to thank Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Jeff Merkley for their tireless efforts to pass voting rights legislation and to protect our democracy from the anti-democratic forces in Congress and the country.

Senator Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Jeff Merkley
531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
GETTING EVERY VOTER TO VOTE
Training is Thursday for COIN's Voter Outreach Team
Getting non-affiliated voters to vote could mean progressive victories! COIN's Voter Outreach Team will focus on projects that identify non-affiliated voters (NAV) and that bridge the rural-urban divide. If you care about getting more votes for causes and candidates you support, please attend the first training session on Thursday. Register here. This team is led by Bev Sherrill and Debi Ferrer, founding members of the Oregon Democracy Project.
 
The first Zoom training is Thursday, November 18, from 6:30 – 8:30 pmRegister here.
Learn about deep canvassing, how to organize an event in your own community, or be ready to help out in districts that will need it most in 2022.   The project objectives are:

-->  Identify progressive NAVs to later target for GOTV efforts.
-->  Identify and better understand the issues that are important to NAVs so as to help candidates better address their concerns.
-->  Train volunteers in “deep canvassing” techniques so that a team of folks could work together in important “flippable” districts or critical local races, via phone or in person.

NO MIDDLE GROUND

“In this time of testing, will we do our duty? Will we do what we must? Will we defend our Constitution? Will we stand for truth? Will we put duty to our oath above partisan politics? Or will we look away from the danger, ignore the threat, embrace the lies and enable the liar?” she said. “There is no gray area when it comes to that question. When it comes to this moment, there is no middle ground.”
-- Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), St. Anselm College, November 9, 2021

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

-- President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

NANCY AND JOYCE'S GREAT IDEA
Kudos to Nancy Holmes and Joyce Hunt, who organized a pop-up rally to support the pipeline protest at Standing Rock on November 15, 2016. Inspired by its success, Nancy invited a few women to begin organizing the Astoria Women’s March for January 21, 2017. That's where many of us first heard of Indivisible and signed up up to start INCO.
DRAMA IN RURAL OREGON
Even a brief glance at the headlines reveals challenges and turmoil in rural Oregon. Keep up with the latest rural news and activism with the Rural Organizing Project. ROP started in 1992 to support its multi-issue, rural-centered, grassroots base in Oregon and continues to challenge anti-democratic forces in the state.  ROP began with 30 human dignity groups and is now a network of over 80 groups, including INCO, across 35 Oregon counties and one tribal community.
HAPPENINGS 
Tuesday, December 14 - INCO South County Community Group Zoom meeting, 6:30 pm - 8 pm. Please RSVP to Kathleenannmacdonald@yahoo.com thru Monday, December 13 for your Zoom link.

Saturday, December 11 - INCO Astoria - North County Community Group Zoom meeting, 11am - noon. If you are new to this group, contact incoregon@gmail.com by December 10 to get the Zoom link. 

Saturday, January 15 - INCO Warrenton Community Group, in person meeting, 11 a.m. Location TBA. Contact incoregon@gmail.com by January 13 for more information.

EVERY FRIDAY - INCO Write to Voters Virtual Group, 3 - 4 pm. Via Zoom. If you are new to this group, contact incoregon@gmail.com to get the Zoom link. More details about writing to voters are below. Join us for informal conversation, venting, and solving the world's problems. Pets welcome.

Write To Voters - Research shows that your letters to voters increased vote turnout significantly. Elections and issue campaigns need you year-round. INCO encourages you to sign up to write to voters at www.postcardstovoters.org. For general Get Out the Vote campaigns, sign up at Vote Forward. For supplies or information, contact incoregon@gmail.com.
INSIGHTS

"At every crossway on the road that leads to the future ... each progressive spirit is opposed by ... a thousand men appointed to guard the past."
-- Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com
Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org.
Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here.

INCO Weekly Newsletter   November 15, 2021