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Weekly Actions

Members of Congress

  • Sen. Patty Murray
    (202) 224-2621 | Email

  • Sen. Maria Cantwell
    (202) 224-3441 | Email

  • Rep. Suzan DelBene (1st)
    (202) 225-6311 | Email

  • Rep. Kim Schrier (8th)
    (202) 225-7761 | Email

  • Rep. Adam Smith (9th)
    (202) 225-8901 | Email
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    For the Week of Feb 22, 2021

    📢 Announcing IE’s Eastside Anti-Racism Learning (EARL) discussion group.

    As we work to recover from the horrors of the last four years, and the trauma of the election fallout, Indivisible Eastside is taking to heart Rep. Debra Entenman’s admonition for predominantly white liberal groups to work on anti-racism education and action within our group and community.

    Although last spring’s group meetings focused on anti-racism learning, we shifted to vital GOTV and election protection work to help secure a democratic trifecta nationally, and protect our democratic majority in Washington state while expanding the diversity of representation. It is time to return to the work.

    There are loads of opportunities to learn and grow individually in this work but much can be gained from collaborative discussion. Indivisible Eastside would like to foster learning among members who benefit from white privilege so that we can more intentionally bring a racial-equity lens to the work we do moving forward.

    Using “Me and White Supremacy” as a guide, we will engage in unlearning white supremacist behavior:

    • To recognize the harm caused by our perpetuation of this narrative
    • To change individual behavior that perpetuates the white supremacy narrative
    • To re-focus Indivisible Eastside’s actions toward racial equity

    Proposed discussion group meeting format: We’ll begin with a Feb 27 4:00 pm kick-off meeting which will go into more detail, establish group norms, set participation expectations and help you assess if this is the right opportunity for you. This will be followed by four monthly meetings, March through June, consisting of

    • Material to be completed prior to each meeting: Read, Reflect, Journal
    • 30 minutes group discussion on material
    • 30 minute facilitated small breakout groups – possibly organized around where people are in their anti-racism journey

    How to participate:

    • Complete the pre-meeting Survey which will help determine the scheduling of discussion meetings.
    • At the end of the survey, click the link to sign up for the Feb 27th 4:00 pm kick-off meeting.
    • You can read the Forward and Introduction on Amazon, but please purchase from a Black-owned bookstore such as Estelita’s Library Bookshop.
    • Allison has pre-ordered some extra books. If you’d like to purchase from her, or if you’d like to participate but funds are an issue, let us know on the survey.

    We hope you’ll join us on this journey!

    ✊ Action 1 – [State Legislature] Save six bills that will die today if not acted on

    Bills that sit in a Finance or Transportation committee must be acted on by 5:00 pm Feb 22nd or they are considered dead for this year. Please take action on the following six bills to advance progressive policy. You can do so even if you don’t have a TAN account, but signing up will help you keep track of which actions you’ve already taken, and will add to the collective power of the Washington Indivisible Network. Signup at http://bit.ly/TAN-IE-Signup-page

    If you want to dig into legislative details about a bill that you know the bill number for, you can look it up by using the Bill Information page, “Search by Bill Number” box on the state legislative website.

    DEADLINE: Feb 22 1:30pm, but please do ASAP

    • Support HB 1204, the Clean Cars Bill. Fight off the oil and auto industries as they try to kill it (In House Transportation Committee). The public hearing in House Transportation was great and it got some great national media coverage. HB 1204 is scheduled for a vote Feb 22 at 1:30, and we know the Oil and Auto industries are working to kill the bill in committee. Take Action on HB 1204

    DEADLINE: Feb 22 5:00pm, but please do ASAP

    • Support SB 5020 ‘Rx drug price increases’ (In Senate Ways & Means Committee). This bill would financially penalize drug companies who impose unsupported increases in drug prices. Take Action on SB 5020
    • Support HB 1220 ‘Emergency shelters & housing through local planning’ (In House Appropriations Committee). Require our cities and counties to plan for a diversity of housing options in their comprehensive plans to meet every income level. Take Action on HB 1220
    • Support HB 1264 ‘Equity impact statement’ (In House Appropriations Committee). Racial and Ethnic Impact Statements (REISs) are a tool sometimes used by policymakers to evaluate potential disproportional racial and ethnic impacts of proposed legislation or other policy proposals prior to adoption and implementation. Take Action on HB 1264
    • Support HB 1310 ‘Uses of force by officers’ (In House Appropriations Committee). HB1310 would set a strong statewide standard that requires police officers to use de-escalation tactics before resorting to physical force, and to use deadly force only as a last resort when all other alternatives have been exhausted. Take Action on HB 1310
    • Support HB 1496 ‘High valued assets tax’ (In House Finance Committee). Help fix our upside down tax code. Take Action on HB 1496

    ✊ Action 2 – [TEXAS] Help people harmed by devastating cold and government failure in Texas

    When utilities order rolling blackouts due to wildfire danger caused by extreme heat, or the recent extreme cold in Texas, they disproportionately affect low-income people who can’t afford generators and cause life-threatening situations for people who need refrigeration for their medication. While Ted Cruz was able to escape the cold by flying to Cancun, Texans were contending with no lights or heat, burst pipes and resulting damage to their homes, as well as unsafe drinking water.

    Texans who were lucky enough to have power, are likely to see a sharp increase — in hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars — in their utility bill as a direct result of electricity scarcity during February’s winter storm and the rules by which the Public Utility Commission operates. Wholesale electricity prices on the ironically named Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market soared from $50 per MWh to $9,000 per MWh during the Texas snowstorm.

    Action: Please consider donating to some of the many Mutual Aid organizations providing assistance. The document is frequently updated.

    ✊ Action 3 – [Reality Winner] Advocate for Clemency for Russian Hacking Whistleblower

    Action suggested by Michaela and Yvonne

    Reality Leigh Winner is a 29-year-old US Air Force veteran who dedicated her career to serving the United States. Prior to becoming a federal NSA contractor, Reality served in the Air Force for 6 years, including as a language analyst — she speaks Pashto, Farsi, and Dari. Reality is currently serving a 63 month sentence at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth Texas where it was recently reported that Women, some sick with COVID-19, left ‘freezing’ without heat at Fort Worth medical prison.

    In June 2017, Donald Trump’s DOJ filed a criminal complaint under the 100 year old Espionage Act against Reality Winner, suspected of leaking an NSA document to The Intercept describing Russia’s attempts to hack the 2016 American election. The Intercept reported “Russian Military Intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s (2016) presidential election.” A bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded that many state election officials learned about Russia’s hacking from the press—not the executive branch. Courts have historically refused to allow defendants facing Espionage Act charges to argue that their leaks were in the public interest, or mention their motive or any reforms that resulted from their disclosure. Faced with this inability to defend herself legally and the possibility of a 10-year jail sentence, Winner agreed to a plea deal.

    Action: Stand with Reality Winner by exploring the website StandWithReality.org, and signing the letter to President Joe Biden asking for clemency.

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