City Council Woes and Ways; Caucuses; Health Care Insurance Reform
Please go to caucus!
One of the most important things you can do as an individual Indivisible activist is to participate in the democratic process. Right now, that means attending your caucus on February 27th, if you can, and perhaps becoming a delegate to your Senate District convention, and the Congressional District convention. Depending on your Senate District, you may have multiple candidates running for endorsement, and of course, there is an active endorsement contest in CD3
While at caucus, you might consider bringing along a resolution or two. Or ten. The folks at the Minnesota Legislative Coalition (Mn Leg), an ad hoc Indivisible entity, have compiled (Kimberly did this) a list of links to resolutions, nicely organized. Check out this resolution-happy web page!
The Problems and Perils of Land Use in West Metro Cities: Sat, Mar 16, 1:00pm-2:30pm CDT
Please join Indivisible West Metro and guest members of area city councils to discuss land use decisions from holding ponds to golf courses to mega-churches to everything else. In the aftermath of the Eagle Brook Church permitting process, we are asking city council members from Plymouth, Minnetonka, and Maple Grove to share their thoughts and field questions.
Members can submit questions prior to the event (see your newsletter or use this URL: https://forms.gle/tpmv9zGJMrSYbfXX7 )
The North Star Act Activism
From North Star Act dot org:
Minnesota is home to over 500,000 non-citizen residents hailing from all over the globe. They are our neighbors, friends, family, and coworkers. They work, pay taxes, and contribute billions of dollars to state revenue every year, yet many are subject to arbitrary and prolonged detention, exorbitant bail, or even deportation as a result of even trivial interactions with local law enforcement. Blurring the lines between law enforcement and immigration enforcement erodes trust between immigrants and police, uproots loved community and family members from their chosen homes, and enables racial profiling. This is the opposite of safety, and doing better by immigrant communities in Minnesota benefits us all.
SD 42 Folks: please join Zoom meeting on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, 10:30-11:30 AM, inviting Senator Bonnie Westlin to support the North Star Act. We will meet on Zoom at 10:30 AM for an orientation to answer any questions that you may have at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83090324028
and then transfer all supporters on that call over to the Senator's Zoom Room at 11:00 AM. We should have about 15 minutes to meet with Senator Westlin.
Note, If you're already fully familiar with the North Star Act, it's fine to connect with the Senator's zoom link directly at 11:00 a.m., https://zoom.us/j/96846613920 or call in using this phone number and meeting ID: 651 372 8299 Meeting ID: 968 4661 3920
Please feel free to share this invite with your friends in District 42 who are represented by Senator Westlin.
Know your Audience - Bridging Views
is an upcoming event with Loretta Ross, on Wednesday, Feb 21st at 7:30 PM (on zoom).
From the organizers: Everyone we speak to, whether neighbor, friend, community member or family, carries a slightly different set of values and expectations.
In organizing conversations, it’s up to us to listen well and make strategic, thoughtful assessments of how to move our goals forward by taking into account the other person’s responses.
Join us and veteran activist Loretta Ross (featured in The Persuaders!) for a conversation on how to assess and adjust our communication approaches based on the person we’re talking to and how closely they already align with our goals.
Calming Commentary
Are you mad that major media does such a lousy job at representing what is going in in government, in elections, or, ever more important these days, the courtrooms? Are you annoyed at false balance, at “papers of record” failing to get serious about the threat of fascism, about equal time for very unequal ideas?
Of course you are.
There is a solution to this problem, and I’m not kidding. Ignore it and it will go away!
This idea is an expansion from a discussion on “Offline” with Jon Favreau (episode 106). Major media is essentially going out of business. Even neo-media outlets like Buzz Feed are going out of business or laying off people. The widespread distribution of news is not even being carried out on nee Twitter anymore.
Where is news being disseminated? Certain social media platforms like TikTok, but also, and more importantly, from YOU. People are more likely to be turned on to new news stories by social (including social media) interactions with other people that are friends, “friends,” family, or colleagues. Sure, at some point you may get the details from WaPo or the Gray Lady, but that’s not really where you get the news, or get a bead on what is happening in the news, with specific elections, or major issues in general.
Even more startling is this shocking truth (to the extent that it is true): 85% of the subscribers of the New York Time are Democrats.
Think about that for a second. Increasingly, the progressive left understands that the news system is broken because of this annoying false equivalence and false balance philosophy. We all know that. We are all annoyed, we all yell at it when it happens.
So, the people exposed to and responding to that annoying and troubling brokenness in the news media constitute the readership of the New York Times. That means the New York Times’ community consists of angry people standing out on their lawns yelling “Hey you, knock it off!!!” Therefore, it is not longer a problem. It is a closed circuit.
You can ignore a closed circuit.
What does this mean for future activism, especially during this vitally important election season? It means that the major outlet of news and information about candidates and the elections is YOU. It is now your job to soak up excellent information packaged in excellent messaging frameworks, and pass that on to everyone you know via whatever medium you normally use to disseminate information about cats or whatever. You are the Gray Lady. You are Eric Sevareid (he was from Minnesota too!). You are the paper of record.
So over the next few weeks, your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to hone in on a handful of excellent sources of truth, and a couple of places to bone up on your messaging, and get to work. All of us, all the time, starting now. Maybe put the sources that you like in the comments!