This Week in Resistance – “We have art in order not to die of the truth.”

(Image of proposed Memorial to Peace and Justice, a tribute to victims of lynching in Montgomery, Alabama. Scheduled to open in 2018. Quote by Friedrich Nietzsche)

“The truth is incontrovertible…

This wasn’t where I planned to start, but this short video is profound and it moved me to tears…

Malice may attack it,…

Removing the statues = Step 1. The Equal Justice Initiative (eji.org) is working to ensure that we better understand the history of white supremacist violence against black people with a national lynching memorial. Watch this great interview of the EJI Director Bryan Stevenson and singer songwriter Andra Day on the Daily Show. We can read more about the project here, and we can donate at this link.

ignorance may deride it,…

AL, AR, ID, KS, LA, NE, SC, TN, TX, WV… WTH is wrong with you?

If far-right Republicans get their way, over one million immigrants who came to this country as children could be deported, children who grew up here and who’ve been busy contributing to America using the education that’s already been invested in them.

Texas Attorney General Paxton and others are pressuring President Trump to end the immigration protections of DACA and TPS that millions rely on the live, work, and study here.

The majority of Americans don’t want to see young immigrants deported. Not only is it gratuitously cruel to innocent people, but it will cost our country $460 billion over the next 10 years. That’s a lot of golf vacations with Secret Service overtime for our President!

Please speak out for our immigrant youth. If you have relatives or friends in the objecting states, please ask them to call their legislators too.

Ask your Senators to co-sponsor the bipartisan Durbin-Graham “DREAM Act” (S. 1615)
if they haven’t already. Check here. For Californians, use this script. You can call or email thanks.

Script: I’m calling/emailing to thank Senator (Feinstein/Harris) for co-sponsoring the bipartisan Durbin-Graham “DREAM Act” (S. 1615) to create a legislative fix to the predicament of these young Americans, and take their future out of Trump’s hands.

Continue reading →

“YES on SB 54” Rally!

Mark your calendars and get your signs ready!

This Wednesday, we at Indivisible Ventura are joining with Indivisible: Conejo, CLUE, SWAN, East Ventura County Community coalition, ACLU Ventura, Democratic Socialists of America, ACLU Southern California, and Indivisible Ojai Valley for a rally to support SB 54, the California Values Act — and to oppose Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean’s campaign of disinformation and attempts to sabotage the bill.

Julie A. Diaz Martinez, Immigrants’ Rights team leader of Indivisible: Conejo, has done amazing work all summer on this issue — and now she’s pulling together activist groups from across the county for this event.

Please join us as we begin the final push toward a State Assembly vote on California’s “sanctuary” bill before the middle of September! The rally will take place along Victoria Avenue in Ventura, outside the County Government Center, from 4-5:30 p.m.

For those joining us from further inland – Bonus feature of a trek toward the shore: cooler temperatures during this week’s heat wave!

More info:

Continue reading ““YES on SB 54” Rally!” →

Fight to Make CA a Sanctuary State: Stop Trump’s Deportation Machine!

Minimal Script: Hi, I’m calling to ask {State Sen.[1 call] (&) Assembly [1 call]} to ask that she/he/they support SB 54, the California Values Act.

(Additional if you want to: CA should no longer comply with any “hold” requests to detain immigrants for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement or permit state and local agencies to use their facilities for immigration enforcement.)

State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson: SAC (916) 651-4019, SB (805) 965-0862, OX (805)988-1940

State Assemblymember Monique Limón: (CA-37): SAC (916) 319-2037, SB (805) 564-1649, VTA (805) 641-3700

Other Rep Contacts: http://www.phoneyourrep.com

More Info:

Continue reading “Fight to Make CA a Sanctuary State: Stop Trump’s Deportation Machine!” →

Monday 8/14 – Be like water.

What happened in Charlottesville this last weekend should come as no surprise. This has been building up since the days of Trump’s hate-filled campaign.

It is profound that these marchers no longer felt a need to hide their faces.

It is profound that they felt powerful enough, that they felt tacitly supported enough at the highest levels of our government, to bring their message out openly, like the Nazi’s of darkest history.

Embed from Getty Images

But this is just one salvo in the continuing war on all our American values.

Continue reading “Monday 8/14 – Be like water.” →

Your Weekly Dose of Sanity-Saving Good News! – “Look for the Helpers” Edition

Despite having never having watched Mr. Rogers as a child, a video of him speaking about how his mother taught him to deal with bad things has stuck with me.

And now, I too, look for the helpers when something terrible happens. And there they are. In Charlottesville. The heroes who jumped in to help in the face of imminent danger, the police who came from far away to keep people safe, including the state troopers who died, and the people who work, tirelessly, year-round, to make Virginia an good and more equitable place to live. And the brave resisters, of all types, who stood up for our morals and our values…

…from the woman who died…

Continue reading “Your Weekly Dose of Sanity-Saving Good News! – “Look for the Helpers” Edition” →

Your Weekly Dose of Sanity-Saving Good News! – “And the 4th graders shall lead us” Edition

Yesterday’s post in our “This Week in Resistance” blog included an article stating that with every horrible action Trump has taken, there’s been an equal and opposite action from the resistance and others. The author called it the “Boomerang Effect”.

So now, despite our 1.5 million pleas to the contrary, the president has gone ahead and put our national monuments on the auction block for oil, uranium and timber extraction. And amongst the usual resistance groups who started speaking out against the destruction of our heritage, up pops this 9 year old kid, Robbie Bond.

“When a 9-year old says something like ‘our national parks and monuments are under attack,’ you sit up and listen. Standing up for our natural treasures is honorable for anyone, but for a young person like Robbie to take a stand like this — it shows courage at a time when our Island Earth needs us most. I support Robbie and Kids Speak for Parks — their voices need to be heard.” -Nainoa Thompson, Polynesian Voyaging Society. Continue reading “Your Weekly Dose of Sanity-Saving Good News! – “And the 4th graders shall lead us” Edition” →

This Week in Resistance – “Welcome to your Heritage. Bring a Mask!”

We have until August 24th to speak for our National Monuments…

(Photo of Taylor McKinnon , Public Lands Campaign director for the Center for Biological Diversity, TucsonSentinal.com)

This week in our daily actions blog, we posted a letter from Sierra Club’s Jim Hines regarding the Trump administration’s response to the overwhelming number of comments to protect Bears Ears and other western national monuments. (Here’s the number as of today. It keeps growing as comments are tabulated.) Continue reading “This Week in Resistance – “Welcome to your Heritage. Bring a Mask!”” →