Weekly Check In March 12

[tassosss]

Housekeeping
Huge thank you and shout out to redbird  who will be helping with tagging.

Reminder that we have a suggestion post if there’s a topic that you’d like to see discussed but would like to ask the mods to look into. This can be anything from general information, or a how-to-do-a-thing, or something you may want to discuss as a community. Folks are welcome to post directly to the comm as always, but if you’re not comfortable/don’t have spoons, we can help too.

Get Involved
Did anyone participate in the ACLU's training on Saturday? Let us know how it went
Call Congress about the Republican Healthcare plan

Upcoming Protests
April 1: March for Health
April 15: Tax Day March
April 22: March for Science

News to know
Confirmation Hearings
Secretaryof Labor: Alex Acosta

Immigration / Dreamers
Update on Dreamers and the Muslim Ban

Healthcare
Link Roundup: on the Republicans Healthcare bill
Vox also has a daily newsletter to sign up for.

Get Educated
Link Roundup: Republicans vote to get rid of fair pay and safe workplace rules, tax hikes in Kansas, vulnerable democrats, science on opioids, detransitioning trans people in Wisconsin
Link Roundup: flippable state governments, healthcare, in memory of Sandra Bland, restrictive voting laws, anti-Trump resistance, ACLU grassroots
Trump Trackers - following up on regulatory and administration changes

How is everyone doing out there?

Poll #18085 This week

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15

View Respondents

I

View Answers

called my one senator
7 (53.8%)

called my other senator
5 (38.5%)

called my representative
3 (23.1%)

called my state representatives
0 (0.0%)

called my governor
0 (0.0%)

sent a letter/email/postcard
7 (53.8%)

donated money to a cause
7 (53.8%)

went to an in person activist group
5 (38.5%)

participated in an online training/call
3 (23.1%)

went to a protest
4 (30.8%)

.

View Answers

signed up for daily action alerts
3 (27.3%)

took care or myself
6 (54.5%)

committed to action in the coming week
5 (45.5%)

not a US citizen but worked in solidarity in my own community
1 (9.1%)

did something else
5 (45.5%)

Comments

thinking aloud, again

[redbird]

First: yes, we may well need the underground end of things, and I've probably already disqualified myself from that. I suspect that's going to be organized more quietly, not on a nationwide website open to anyone who expresses interest and will provide an email address.

Second, it feels like there are a couple of different shapes of protest around here. One are the more "establishment" kinds of things, which may be called at short notice, but involve significant elected officials, like a rally against hate organized by the Anti-Defamation League back in December (the first time I was in the streets after the election), which got a few hundred of us standing outside the Statehouse but had speakers including state legislators. The mayor of Boston has been at a lot of these, and he and Sen. Warren both spoke at the 24 hours' notice rally in Boston against the Muslim ban. Then there are things that are more trying to get the attention of those sympathetic officials, and/or let people generally know which side we're on, like the rally for trans* youth I went to a few weeks ago, where the only elected official was the first trans* member of the state Democratic committee.

At some point it may be useful for Senator Warren to be able to tell her colleagues "it's not just me, it's two million Americans last weekend" as well as for us to be telling our trans* immigrant neighbors that they're not alone.