Chop Wood, Carry Water 8/23
Hi, all, and happy Wednesday.
Tonight is the first Republican debate; I won’t be watching. I’m not interested in giving Republicans’ toxic messaging any additional oxygen. Even if I wanted to check out the show, moreover, I don’t have cable. So best of luck to those of you who are going to watch, and I mean that sincerely. I expect it will be painful and disheartening; expect to hear lies, dog whistles, and insults against those who least deserve them. Do not expect to hear solutions to our most pressing problems. That, after all, is not what today’s Republicans offer.
But we do seek solutions here, and on that note, I want to tell you about a wonderful workshop I attended yesterday.
The workshop in question was the first session of my Carbon CREW class—I posted about it here last month. I signed up because I wanted to better understand what the Carbon CREW folks are up to before I urged others to check out their workshops. But now that I’m one class in I’m going to go ahead and say do it! The session was hopeful, inspiring, and deeply motivating—the opposite of a Republican debate!
You can sign up for a 5-week session here or email me if you want to join ours; it’s technically “sold out” (the sessions are actually free) but we had a good number of no-shows, so we still have space. Our cohort will meet at noon PT / 3PM ET every Wednesday for the next 4 weeks (and yesterday’s class was recorded, so you’ll be able to easily catch up).
The sessions are about an hour and twenty minutes and there are short and easy reading assignments from this book (available, alas, only on Amazon) before each one.
Even if you can’t take the workshop, I highly encourage you to get the book and/or watch this beautiful and deeply hopeful Ted Talk by Damon Gameau, its author.
What I love about the work Carbon CREW—as well as so many others in the climate movement—are doing is that it’s grounded not in the problem, of which we’re all too aware, but in the solution. And it turns out that that solution may hold the key to much more than just surviving. It could help us to finally thrive.
I’m excited about this workshop, and even more about the larger climate awakening we’re seeing. It contains all of my favorite things: hope, action, and community!
The same things I try to bring you here.
And the same things that will, in the end, help us prevail.
P.S. Almost every action in today’s newsletter was inspired by or sent in by one of you! Amazing work! Keep ‘em coming!
Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
I'm calling to urge the Senator to oppose S. 1409 the Kids Online Safety Act or KOSA. This bill would be a threat to free speech online and would put LGBTQ+ kids at further risk in an already scary time for them. If the Senator cares about kids' safety online, please ask them to work to pass comprehensive data privacy legislation that actually protects children, instead of harming them. KOSA is going to get weaponized by the wrong people; don’t let it happen. Thanks. [H/T and more info]
Extra Credit ✅
Please read this short article about changes the EPA just made to how it defines PFAS. Then join me in submitting a quick comment to their chemical safety department here. You can personalize the letter and/or the subject as you like. You do NOT need to give a URL—that line is optional.
Subject: Changes to the Definition of PFAS
I am concerned by the news that the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics plans to take a “case-by-case” approach to PFAS, a move that as the article states, will put "the toxics office at odds with other EPA divisions, other federal agencies, the European Union, Canada and most of the scientific world." This move will inevitably reduce the number of toxic chemicals reviewed. It seems like the Office is more interested in protecting industry profits than human life. This decision needs to be reconsidered and reversed. The US should lead the world in environmental safety. Thank you
[H/T subscriber Joshua H]
Get Smart! 📚
One of my readers forwarded me this fascinating piece about how better to influence your legislators. The person who wrote it did two studies and came up with some very surprising—to me, anyway—and encouraging results. He presented an angle I’d never really considered; it offers a way to make headway with even the most disagreeable reps.
This knowledge will affect my scripts going forward. I highly recommend the article--it’s a short read.
Chop Wood, Save the Planet! 🔥
In our Carbon CREW workshop yesterday we took this short “Think you’re making good choices on climate?” quiz from the New York Times. None of us did especially well. But we learned a lot! See how you do, and consider sharing it with friends!
Give 💰!
Good news in the Cop City fight! A federal judge granted an extension for the Atlanta organizers to gather the signatures they need to Stop Cop City. The new deadline is immanent!
In these last couple days, there is a final push to close the funding gap. The Movement Voter Project has set up a fund to help local groups doing the work. All donations are welcome and so appreciated.
Win Races—text! 🗳
Y’all, if texting is your jam I can’t recommend enough signing up with Movement Labs. They’re doing smart, strategic work on everything from federal elections to local races to candidate recruitment, and they need more texting volunteers!
You can attend their next volunteer huddle on September 7th from 5-5:45 PM ET (register here) or view upcoming campaigns here. Highly recommend this org!
Win Races—write!
Postcards to Swing States has postcarding into Louisiana, Kentucky and Virginia, all of which have VERY important elections this fall, and they need more writers! Can anyone help?
You provide your own cards. Sign up here.
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
[to your Senators] [H/T subscriber Bob M] [Quick send: text SIGN PYJWZI to 50409 ]
I am writing to you in your capacity as one of my Senators and a respected member of the Senate regarding Senator Tuberville’s unconscionable hold on military promotions for the sole purpose of seeking to change a policy that he has no jurisdiction over.
I assume you are at least as frustrated and angry as I am about this. I realize that there are procedural hurdles, and changing the procedures may either be difficult or incur unintended consequences, but it seems to me that any action would be better than none.
I realize that dealing with all of the promotions individually would take years, but would you support removing the three Joint Chiefs candidates from the list of over 300 promotions and advancing their nominations individually? That would restore some stability at that level, and might be enough to free some Republican Senators from the clutches of one of its most hypocritical members.
Our national security is at risk. Please do something. Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
Signed up 22 college students to vote in NC today!
Ok, friends. Here's my idea of the week:
Watch "Bargain Block" on HGTV at 9/8c tonight instead of you-know-what. The guys, Keith and Evan, are rehabbing inner-city Detroit one block at a time. They are AWESOME. I met Keith briefly on Father's Day at a downtown Detroit restaurant, and he was genuinely nice. Take back our cable; don't give your eyeballs to FOX!!