ECHO BASE

PLEASE RE-POST THIS ENTRY! Thanks to Embodying Democracy for the good word today. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico is in the midst of a massive humanitarian crisis. People are dying.  Our Administration's response has been sluggish. Please see what your members of Congress are/ aren’t doing about it, and urge them to take specific actions. More background on the issue here. These facts will inform the calls encouraged below. WHAT TO DO: Call your U.S. Senators and House representative. Find your Congressional reps here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members If you're in Minnesota: Senator Amy Klobuchar: (202) 224-3244 / 612-727-5220 Senator Al Franken: (202) 224-5641 / 651-221-1016 If you're in Minneapolis: Congressman Keith Ellison: (202) 225-4755 / 612-522-1212 SCRIPT (if you need it): Hi, My name is ___ and I’m a constituent of ____.  I’m calling with a question and a comment about Puerto Rico. Can you help me out? Thank yo...

From beyond the grave, defying belief, Trumpcare has returned. This time it's called Graham-Cassidy, but it's the same old attack on the Affordable Care Act: an attempt to steal health coverage from millions of Americans. Some estimates place Senate support at about 49 members, one short of the number needed for repeal. Congress has till September 30th to pass this bill. We can't let that happen. Once again, thanks to the good people at Indivisible for the resources here! If your Senator (all Democrats, for example) opposes Graham-Cassidy, read on below to find out how we can push them further. But some Republican Senators may be persuadable: click the following links to access phone scripts customized for Ohio , Arizona , Maine , Tennessee , Alaska , and West Virginia . Please send this post to friends in those states! If your Senator already opposes Graham-Cassidy, please call today and use the following script. WHAT TO DO: Call your U.S. Senator. Find you...

The election (mayor and city council) is November 7th, 2017! See all Echo Base endorsements Register to vote in Minneapolis What ward do I live in? Vote early! To talk about Jeremiah Ellison, currently running for Minneapolis city council in Ward 5 , it makes sense to quote from an eloquent endorsement by Neighborhoods Organizing For Change (no affiliation to this blog): "For more than a decade, the city council members of north Minneapolis have talked about our community and our neighborhoods as though the constituents themselves are the source of our deep rooted structural problems. Jeremiah draws on our community’s strengths. He knows that we have a strong community vitality and a bond that many people don’t see. And his approach to framing our community from a place of strength asset mapping puts power back into the community. Jeremiah knows that many of the problems in north Minneapolis don’t start in north Minneapolis -- that we need systemic transforma...

The election (mayor and city council) is November 7th, 2017! See all Echo Base endorsements Register to vote in Minneapolis What ward do I live in? Vote early! Ward 4 is home to Minneapolis' highest poverty and unemployment rates (over 10 per cent); 31 percent of its residents aged 18 to 24 live below the poverty line. Over half its citizens spend over 30 per cent of their income on housing. Current city council representation isn't doing much to address these issues; Phillipe Cunningham, running for Minneapolis' Ward 4 council seat, aims to change that. As recounted in this interview from Twin Cities Daily Planet, Cunningham breaks with those who insist on viewing the North Side as a problem to be solved, hoping instead to "govern from an asset or strength-based perspective". His plan for the ward leans heavily on the concept of community wealth,  looking to encourage opportunities for the neighborhood to cultivate its own strengths in order to t...

Please re-post this entry! President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA granted relief from deportation for people who arrived in the US as children. Our new President* now threatens to withdraw support for DACA, which would send about 800,000 DACA beneficiaries back to countries which, in most cases, these individuals are not prepared to live in. This is unfair. Please take action to remove immigration policy from the hands of an unfit chief executive. More info from Indivisible about DACA SENATE ACTION: WHAT TO DO: Call your U.S. Senator. Find your Congressional representatives here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members If you're in Minnesota: Senator Al Franken: (202) 224-5641 / 651-221-1016 Senator Amy Klobuchar: (202) 224-3244 / 612-727-5220 SCRIPT , if you need it (if you know your rep already supports what you're asking for, adapt your script as a thank you— yes, this is important to do too!): "Hello. My name is __...