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Action Blast Archive
April 22, 2021 WCI’s Thursday’s Blast! Activities and Actions Update
Support passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act by making some quick calls today!
And spread the word.
Action: The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021. ( HR 1280) passed the House on 3-3-21 along party lines. It has now been received in the Senate but to date, no Senate number has been assigned nor has action been taken. Now President Biden is pushing the bill again in the wake of the Chauvin verdict. There is a similar bill that is stalled in the MN Senate.
Contact Senators Klobuchar and Smith to let them know you support the reintroduction and passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
Senator Amy Klobuchar: Phone Wash DC - 202-224-3244 Mpls - 612-727-5220;
email: klobuchar.senate.gov/public/email-amy
Senator Tina Smith: Phone Wash DC - 202- 224-5641 Minneapolis: 651- 221-1016;
email: smith.senate.gov/contact-tina
Contact Rep Emmer to let him know that you are upset (angry, distraught, outraged) that he voted against HR 1280 but now he has an opportunity to redeem himself. Ask that he use his influence to compel Senate Republicans to support the passage of The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
Phone Wash D.C.- 202- 02-225-2331 MN: 763- 241-6848
Consider a Letter to the Editor in support of the above and or calling out Rep Emmer for his lack of support.
About the bill: For the complete bill click: Geo.Floyd Justice HR 1280 For fact sheet: Fact sheet for Geo Floyd Justice in Policing
May 6, 2021
Contact Today!
On Monday Sen. Paul Gazelka and his GOP cronies in the MN Senate advanced a Voter ID bill that would disenfranchise countless Minnesotans. Minnesotans overwhelmingly rejected this very same effort on the ballot in 2012. Let's show them we're ready to defeat it again.
Add your name and tell the MN GOP: stop attacking our voting rights! Copy and paste to add your name
WalzforGovernor.org/NoVoterID
Fri. May 7th at 10 AM (CST) Antiracism 101 Presentation & Conversation
Presented by: MAVA Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration
Join us for a virtual presentation and conversation* on antiracism. During this webinar, presenters and participants will define and discuss important terms, including racism, white supremacy, white privilege and white fragility. We will also practice responding to instances of racism that may show up in volunteer programs using various practice scenarios. Participants will leave with resources to address and dismantle racism. This webinar welcomes those who are newer to conversations on race and those who would like to share their knowledge and experiences with others.
May 6-12th: Veterans Restorative Justice Act
“No veteran left behind; pass the House version.”
Please call your Minnesota Representative and Senator and leave this message:
“My name is __________ and I live at _________. I’m calling about the Veterans Restorative Justice Act. I believe that no veteran should be left behind and that’s why the House language in the State Government Conference Committee needs to pass and the Senate version needs to be rejected. My phone number is _________.”
You can find your MN Representative and Senator telephone numbers by going to this site: https://www.gis.leg.mn/iMaps/districts/ or use this link on the WCI website:
May 10th: WCI Monthly Meeting 6:30-8:30
David Watts the Director of Solar Project Development at United States Solar Corporation will be speaking on why solar power is good, what he hopes that Wright County will do moving forward and how consumers can demand more solar power.
May 15th, 2021 (12-5pm EST)
Tools for Anti-Racism Conversations with Friends & Family
Join Indivisibles from Across the Southern Region---Virtual event
Click on link for more information
https://indivisibleproject.formstack.com/forms/tough_talk_tools_for_anti_racism_
Conversations_with_friends_family
Join Minnesota NOW (National Organization of Women) for their Racial Justice Book Read.
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
Sunday, May 16 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Our first book takes a deep dive into how white supremacy permeates our culture and informs our everyday thinking. It challenges us to reflect deeply and explore the ways these systems have impacted us, and how we have learned behaviors that reinforce this culture.
MN NOW Racial Justice Statewide Book Club
May 15th: Health Care for All Minnesota Exercise-A-Thon
Would you like to make a plan to get in shape this spring AND help raise money to ensure all people in Minnesota have access to health care?
Join our Wright County team and help raise money by setting your own personal exercise goal (as big or as small as you want) then promote with your friends and families to receive sponsorships! This is a totally individual activity. You can do it on your own or with friends. You set our own goals and then find sponsors. All sponsor donations go to Health Care for All Minnesota (www.HCA-MN.org). The team will have an optional kick off event, socially distanced walking, at Sturges Park in Buffalo @ 1 pm on Saturday May 15. All are welcome! To learn more or join the team email Renee Cardarelle at rc.card@live.com.
New Twitter account! CD6 Common Ground is a subcommittee of Wright County Indivisible and our purpose is to monitor and hold our Representative, Tom Emmer, accountable. Too many times the Congressman has stated he believes one way and then votes contrary to what he has stated. So, we have established a Twitter account – CD6 Common Ground -- to provide another social medium to interact with other like-minded people in our community. This account will be used to inform, illuminate, protest and promote calls to action in an effort to hold Congressman Emmer accountable for his actions! Check it out! Write a tweet! Follow to build it up! CD 6 Common Ground Twitter
Listen at your convenience to: MinnCentral Currents podcast
Our Health Care dilemma: Under Covered Featuring our very own Renee Cardarelle and Senator John Marty.
Episode 6: Under Covered (podbean.com)
https://minncentralcurrents.podbean.com/e/episode-6-under-covered/
80 years ago, America stepped one foot out of the depression and right into World War II. In order to avoid the looming threat of inflation that came with the sudden change in available workers back home, the government placed a cap on wages. But they let businesses offer employer-sponsored health insurance to attract employees. While this resolved the immediate problem in 1942, it created a new problem in America: Job Lock. By 2009, a report found that Job lock costs U.S. workers an estimated $3.7 billion every year in foregone wages.
Action and Activities June
Monday, June 7th, 7:00-8:00 pm Free!! Connections Lab: Framing in Action
Topics: The Science of Misinformation, the Pivot, values and non-value frames, a short history of the rise and fall of the Republican Party and a Don't think of an Elephant moment. To register: Framing in Action: Beyond the Basics II
Wednesday, June 9th, 5:30: Join Indivisible’s Truth Brigade Campaign
WHY is it that the human brain is primed to accept obvious lies as truth--even when the consequences are deadly? And HOW can we use an understanding of the way our brains work to change the hearts and minds?
Join Indivisible’s Truth Brigade Campaign call on the psychology of disinformation, with Nikita Salovich, cognitive and behavioral scientist. Register here
Tuesday and Thursday Nights: ZOOMBA CLASSES for ADULTS
Starting June 8th and 10th...Join in the fun of learning Zoomba! WCI is partnering with Ballet Folklorico to bring diverse communities together through dance! Optional donations accepted. Contact Renee for details and directions: rc.card@live.com
Monday, June 14th WCI Monthly Meeting 6:30-8:30
Speaker: Jay Weatherford Executive Director of Wright Cty Community Action
Thursday, June 17th, 6:30 pm (Zoom and phone options)
Steve Simon, Minnesota Secretary of State
Filibuster--the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and By-The-Way the Impact on Voting Rights" Presented with Annandale Huddle for Action.
We are delighted to welcome Steve Simon, Minnesota Secretary of State, to Annandale Huddle. Steve is MN's 22nd Secretary of State and has been in office since 2015. Prior to his time as SOS, he was in the legislature for 10 years representing his hometown of Hopkins and St. Louis Park, where he was chair of the House Elections Committee, where he authored and shepherded our "No excuses absentee voting" law into the passage with bipartisan support. He also authored the law that allows for online voter registration in Minnesota and traveled the state debating Mary Kiffmeyer in 2012 to defeat the Voter ID constitutional amendment.
WCI Potluck! Join us in July in Buffalo!
Enjoy together a time outdoors to reconnect with each other! Smiling, familiar faces in an outdoor setting where the purpose is...FUN! Details to follow!
ACTIONS!!!
Indivisible National:
Call your senators now & tell them to eliminate the filibuster Right now, Republicans are using the Jim Crow filibuster not just to stand in the way of investigating the events of January 6th — they’re using it to block essential democracy reform legislation like S.1, the For the People Act — all while Republican state legislatures across the country are passing hundreds of sweeping voter suppression laws that will make it harder for people to vote and have a say in our democracy. No more. The choice is clear: save democracy or save the Jim Crow filibuster. But we can’t do both. Stop what you’re doing right now and make a call to both your senators. Tell them to eliminate the filibuster to pass critical democracy reforms.
We don’t have time to waste. Click on the blue above to contact your senators!
Take Action - Contact Great River Energy-
Coal Creek Bail Out
Great River Energy (GRE) provides electricity to 28 rural electric cooperatives (including Wright Hennepin Electric) serving 700,000 Minnesotans. Last year, GRE announced its plan to retire its Coal Creek plant in North Dakota in 2022. Unfortunately, GRE is now backtracking on its promise to retire this dirty, expensive coal plant and replace it with clean energy. Through backroom deals, the fossil fuel industry is attempting to bail out Coal Creek and potentially stick you and your neighbors with a bill to pay for it.
This sale is bad for Minnesota and member-owners
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Selling Coal Creek would be a disaster for our climate. The plant emits the equivalent emissions of over 2,500,000 cars every year.
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This backroom deal is not transparent so member-owner impacts aren’t clear. Who is paying all these costs? Will GRE be purchasing power from this plant after the sale? We don’t know - because the deal is happening behind closed doors.
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There is a better deal for GRE member-owners. There are proposals as part of Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan to provide funding for electric cooperatives to retire expensive coal plants and replace them with clean energy - investing in rural communities and supporting communities in the transition away from coal.
In order for this sale to move forward, GRE’s board of directors and member cooperatives must approve it. It is critical that they hear from member-owners like you. Your contacts can have a great impact.
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Contact Great River Energy. Call 763-445-5000 to leave a message asking GRE to retire Coal Creek instead of selling it
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Identify whether your electricity is provided by 1 of GRE’s 28 rural electric cooperatives, If so, call and /or email your local cooperative to “vote no” to selling Coal Creek in a backroom deal
East Central Energy: Call Joe Morley, GRE Board member, 612-390-5000, Find your board rep
Connexus Energy: 763.323.2600, Greg.Ridderbusch@connexusenergy.com (CEO)
Dakota Energy: Joe Miller, Public Relations Director,
651-463-6178 or publicrelations@dakotaelectric.com
Great River Energy (GRE) Main Line 763-445-5000
Stearns Electric: (800) 962-0655, Tony Ampe, Board President, tampe@stearnselectric.org
Sample Message
Hi! My name is _____________ and I am a member-owner with ________ cooperative. I have heard that GRE is planning to sell its Coal Creek coal plant to an unnamed buyer instead of retiring it as planned. The Coal Creek plant is a huge financial and climate risk and should be retired. I am calling to ask GRE to retire the plant as planned and reject the backroom deal from North Dakota.
Message to your local coop:
Hi! My name is _____________ and I am a member-owner with ________ cooperative. I have heard that GRE is planning to sell its Coal Creek coal plant to an unnamed buyer instead of retiring it as planned. The Coal Creek plant is a huge financial and climate risk and should be retired. I am calling to ask _____ cooperative to reject the backroom deal from North Dakota and ask GRE to retire the plant as planned.
Contact jessica.tritsch@sierraclub.org with questions.