ACTION LIST FOR THIS WEEK

Dear Fellow Citizens and Activists,   Congratulations. We have made it through three weeks of shelter in place. Doesn’t it seem longer than that? I’ve been doing some thinking and have written some blog post lately. One is I am Grieving Today and the other is titled Things Will Never Get Back to Normal. If you haven’t had an opportunity to read them, please do, and let me know what you think.   We are still meeting, even if we can’t physically meet. Every Tuesday morning we have a Coffee Klatch at 10 AM (log in details here or call 312 626 6799) and a Friday Happy hour at 4:30 PM (log in details here or call 312 626 6799). That’s every week.   SPECIAL GUESTS NEXT SUNDAY Next Sunday, April 19, we’ll have our regular monthly meeting from 3:00 – 4:15 PM. And yes, it will be a Zoom meeting. We’ll have special guests Renato Mariotti, giving us an update on things on the national scene;  Reid McCollum, from Coalition for a Better IL-06, announcing details of the 2 million Postcards to Wisconsin and Michigan Voters campaign; and Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins, talking about how we are dealing with shelter in place locally. And, we may have a suprise guest as well.   You don’t want to miss this meeting!  If you are new to Zoom, please come 15 minutes early to make sure you can connect. Also, please mute yourself once the meeting starts until it is time to talk or ask questions.   @HOME ACTIVISM There are things you can do while sheltering in place. We’ll be discussing some of those things in our meeting next Sunday, but here are some things you can do this week.   • Demand Your Senators Ensure Safe, Secure Elections During the COVID-19 Outbreak. Here are the details. Call our Senators to demand they fight to include the Senator Warren's Election Protection plan in the next coronavirus relief package. In the third COVID-19 package, Congress provided $400 million for states to implement some of these changes. However, $400 million is not nearly enough -- we need at least $4 billion to fully implement these changes. We urge Congress to include these protections in the next coronavirus relief package. We are running out of time before the November elections.

• Call our Senators and your one Representative about a People’s Bailout .  Three bills have been passed already but we need this crisis isn’t over and soon Congress will likely have to pass at least one additional response package. We need to continue demanding that any coronavirus response legislation puts people’s needs ahead of corporate profits — in other words, we need a People’s Bailout.

• Save the Post Office.  
Call Senator Durbin at 202.224.2152 and Senator Duckworth at 202-224-2854
Script: Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m calling from [ZIP CODE] with Western Front  Indivisible. I’m calling to urge [NAME] to include relief for the U.S. Postal Service in the next COVID-19 recovery bill. The USPS will be financially insolvent by September if nothing is done, threatening millions of jobs and raising costs for Americans to get medications and vital communication through the mail. We cannot let Trump kill the Post Office. Pass relief for the USPS now. 

YOU CAN STILL WRITE POSTCARDS

If you can’t wait till May to write more postcards, here is what you can do:

Sign up with Postcards to Voters and they will provide you with addresses and the message for a current campaign.  You can use your own  blank postcard, or you can order from them at their Etsy page.

And speaking of that, please donate to Western Front to help us fund an ambitious postcard writing campaign. We are joining with other Indivisible groups to commit to send 2 million postcards to voters in Michigan and Wisconsin before the November election.

 Can you help us? We need to raise $1,500 before May 31.  The good news is that contributions will be matched by Indivisible National, up to $500.  That means your contribution today can be doubled.  Make a contribution here.

 The postcards will be coming May 1 and our postcard parties will be solitary ones. Or virtual ones.  Even if you can’t write postcards, you can support this campaign with a donation. Please do that today.

NEED A MASK?
One of our members is making cloth masks and is offering them for sale—the price is a donation to Western Front Indivisible.  Please email us at westernfrontindivisible@gmail.com if you are interested in knowing more about this.

KEEP IN CONTACT
For the latest information, please join our Facebook group, follow our Facebook Page, follow us on Twitter @WFIndivisible, and subscribe to our blog.

Most important, we’d like to see your face at one of our upcoming meetings, especially the one on Sunday.

I hope to see your face next Sunday. Until then, keep safe and remember to find one thing to be grateful for every day.  What are you grateful for today?  I am grateful to know all of you.

We will survive,

Etta

 

Please email us at westernfrontindivisible@gmail.com if you want to not receive this anymore, or if you have any questions.

Western Front Indivisible