3-4-24 Newsletter

 

Learn about important state legislation already passed in the 2024 session and what important bills remain to be passed during that last week. While national politics seem to be completely dysfunctional thanks to Trump and his strangle-hold on the GOP, our state legislators are busy passing bills and working for all of us here in Oregon.  This event is March 5 event at 7 pm. Register at https://bit.ly/coin-mtg .  Indivisibles gathered at WineKraft on February 27 to write postcards encouraging Florida voters to sign up to vote by mail.    WRITE TO VOTERS Enjoy good company and conversation while writing to voters around Oregon and the country. Postcards remind, encourage, and persuade - and they make an important difference in voter turnout. TUESDAYS  •  3 - 4:30 pm WineKraft - NEW LOCATION: 77 11th Street, Astoria On the RiverWalk, just inside the east end of the building, up the ramp on your left No purchase necessary. SATURDAY, MARCH 9 El Compadre Restaurant, 119 S Main Ave, Warrenton Optional no-host lunch - noon Postcarding  - 1 pm    INCO provides postcards, pens, and stamps. We'll help you get started if you're new to writing voters. Questions?  incoregon@gmail.com   Join other enthusiastic activists for democracy! IF YOU DON'T RUN, WHO WILL? County Commissioner Filing Deadline is March 12 Voters will elect two commissioners on May 21, one for District 2 (Clatsop Plains, Gearhart, part of Seaside), and one for District 4 (east Astoria to the county line). If you want a less conservative, more progressive county commission, consider running if you live in one of those districts.  Courtney Bangs has filed for re-election for District 4; John Toyooka has not filed yet for re-election to District 2. Both are conservative, opponents of the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), and are aligned with Republican policies.    Filing deadline is Tuesday, March 12. Information is at the county website, https://www.clatsopcounty.gov/elections. AMERICANS ARE WAKING UP "... if this week has done anything—between the IVF ruling, the Nex Benedict case, and the SCOTUS ruling—it’s woken a whole bunch of Americans up to the frightful danger in which we find ourselves. We really are fighting a well-funded Christian Nationalist cabal which has captured our courts, co-opted one of our political parties, and laid plans for a theocracy in Trump’s second term. They do want a full abortion ban. They do plan on coming after contraception. They will try to ban gay marriage and gender affirming care....  "I could go on, but I don’t need to. You know the deal. These are the people running SCOTUS, the GOP, and Trump. Americans are waking up to it. Good. We still have time to stop them.... "It’s time to double down on everything we’re doing. To get busier. Louder. More determined. More insistent. To remember that they are scary but they are a minority, too. Their ideology is deeply, deeply unpopular. The vast majority of Americans want nothing to do with it." -- Jessica Craven, Chop Wood, Carry Water, February 29, 2024 SAVE THE DATE SENATOR RON WYDEN TOWN HALL Sunday, March 17 • 1 pm Astoria High School, 1001 West Marine Drive LTEs: WHO'S BY OUR SIDE To the Editor: In “Fighting Trump, Some Voters Are ‘Burned Out on Outrage’” (front page, Feb. 20), you claim that Democrats and nonpartisan groups that work to preserve democracy in America are tired of fighting. That’s not what I see. I see deepening expertise, expanding networks and steely resolve. Organizations like mine that were created by amateurs intent on doing what they could to save democratic institutions are now seasoned and hard at work. And there are a lot of us. Do not write us off. Claire Ullman New York The writer is co-founder and co-director of Students for Voting Justice, founded in 2020 to involve college students in getting out the vote in communities of color in the South. To the Editor: “Some voters” cannot afford to be burned out on outrage if they want to keep their democracy. I’m as exhausted by Donald Trump as every other sane American, but I know damn well that if he becomes president again, our democracy will be destroyed. It’s as stark and simple as this slight variation on New Hampshire’s license plate: Vote for the candidate who wants you to live free or your democracy will die. Robyn Ultan Lawrenceville, N.J. -- Letters to the Editor, New York Times, February 22, 2024 GATHER WITH RURAL OREGONIANS The Rural Organizing Project invites you to join with other Oregonians to learn how to protect and strengthen democracy year-round. Register today to attend the Rural Caucus and Strategy Session on Saturday, April 6th in Woodburn.  INCO INSIGHTS "Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened."  -- Thomas Hardy, novelist Indivisible defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. 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. We're on Facebook, too. INCO Weekly Newsletter   March 4, 2024 Website Email Facebook Copyright © 2024 INDIVISIBLE North Coast Oregon, All rights reserved. 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