We are mounting a new campaign to resist Trump’s Agenda and build a local activist community that creates substantive change in Santa Fe, in NM and potentially in communities outside NM. It is something you can do from home every day. Today details on stopping DeVos and Sessions. DeVos action needs to happen this morning. Read on and then act.

Today is about an ongoing strategy to resist Trump’s Agenda and build a progressive community in Santa Fe. But also remember to click here to find out Opportunities and Events that are coming up.

The Core Activists.  There are two or three-dozen folks who are extremely active in Retake Our Democracy and it is in large part due to their efforts that we are developing as quickly as we are. But there were 450 folks at our first Town Hall and 250 people who came to the first set of Action Team planning meetings. We now have over 450 people who have taken the time to go to our website and complete the sign-up form to tell us how they want to get active.

Our blog posts all kinds of actions, training, and planning meetings, and almost daily I emphasize that one of the most important things you can do is to reach out to others, either by forwarding the blog broadly and encouraging folks to sign up, or to reach out by phone or email and tell people you know what you are doing and encourage their involvement. But that isn’t happening. I get the feeling that the reaching out part is difficult for many of you. Maybe you are not accustomed to asking your friends or family members to get involved. Maybe it feels like you are taking advantage of your relationships and that may be uncomfortable. But while you are definitely taking advantage of your relationships, let me tell you why it is OK.

For ten years I was a development director for two different non-profits. Part of my job was to help board members feel good about asking friends and family for donations. Many said they were uncomfortable, at first. My response was: If you knew a tremendous movie, restaurant, or musician, you would feel perfectly fine recommending it to others. You would feel you were doing them a service recommending a recipe, CD, or book.

Periodically I send out a ‘concert alert’ to a circle of friends here in Santa Fe to recommend they attend and maybe we all go out for dinner before the show. In doing this, I am asking those friends to spend money and time on something because I think it is worth it. Asking your friends and family to get involved with Retake is really no different. They are busy people, perhaps with limited time. You have knowledge of an organization that makes it easier for people to do something that you likely feel many of your friends or family members might want to do or should do, if encouraged. So you are doing your friends a favor. There are a zillion bloggers out there and a zillion organizations offering ways to be involved, but you know and like this one, so since you have experience with us and can recommend it to others, it is very much like recommending a movie you just saw and loved. Only this is more important.

I am encouraging you to get out of your comfort zone and start making it a daily practice to do some form of outreach, at least a few minutes. There are also other ways in which you can be active every day, from home, without too much time, and with perhaps tremendous impact. To encourage this daily activism, our blog post will begin with 2-3 suggested actions for that day. At least do number 1, as it is urgent, but maybe do the other two, as well. Get out of that comfort zone. Here are today’s suggestions:

• This one is urgent as the DeVos vote is today.  So do this now.  Email the link below to everyone you know. Tell them the link has information on how to raise their voices against the nominations of Sessions and DeVos. DeVos is currently tied 50-50 and it looks like No. Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis could be swayed as he has stated he is undecided and wants to hear from people and not just from NC. Sen Feinstein is leading the charge against Sessions and has gotten a week delay in the vote, which is reported to be almost as close as the DeVos vote. Feinstein has a strategy to try to stop Sessions, who Steve Bannon called “the spiritual godfather of Breitbart.”   Forward this link to friends immediately. It has info on how to take action.
• Join Us at the Town Hall & Bring Friends.  Call or email 3-4 friends in Santa Fe and ask them to join you for the Town Hall on Feb 11, 3:30-5:30pm. Moreinfo below. This is a critical meeting for galvanize our community in support of a number of progressive initiatives advancing in Santa Fe and at the Roundhouse. Join us, but bring friends and maybe plan on dinner afterwards and talk about how you can form a small activist group and work together.
• Forward today’s blog to ten friends anywhere in NM or the US. In the email mention that you are getting more and more active, and ask them to take a look at this blog and consider subscribing. Include one or two of the links below, prior posts that have been particularly well-received. Or just ask your friends to go to the website and scroll down the list of blogs and check a couple out. The key here is to follow up. Ask friends if they have questions. Ask them what they thought of the post. See three suggested posts below, but maybe you have a favorite you think would work better. Great, go for it.

Staying sane during these insane times. https://retakeourdemocracy.org/2017/01/29/the-stress-of-trump-maintaining-sanity-in-insane-times/

The Martin Heinrich (bad) Vote on Canadian Reimportation of Pharma. https://retakeourdemocracy.org/2017/01/18/more-on-heinrich-canadian-prescription-drug-vote/

The Owl and the Hawk.
https://retakeourdemocracy.org/2016/11/09/a-very-strange-troubling-time/

Those are your three suggestions for today. Expect three more tomorrow. This is how we build our base and build our power: engaging others and coaxing them to get involved. This is not a time for despair as there are so many tremendous things we can accomplish here, Trump or no. Below is the scoop on our Town Hall on Feb 11, and tomorrow I’ll fill you in on our Moral Monday, Feb 20.

Town Hall, Feb 11, 3:30-5:30pm, Center for Progress & Justice, 1420 Cerrillos Rd., Santa Fe. Join us to experience the power of community at our second Town Hall meeting. Santa Fe City Council Member Renee Villarreal will be the keynote speaker, discussing the City’s Participatory Budget Process, the Soda Tax for Expanding Early Childhood Education, the expanded Sanctuary resolution, and her involvement in Retake Our Democracy’s development of a People’s Platform for Santa Fe. Paul Gibson will follow Councilor Villarreal with a description of the Community Conversations process and how it is designed to lead to a participatory neighborhood-based process that generates a Santa Fe People’s Platform that we will use to advocate with our Mayor and City Council. Councilor Villarreal is very intrigued by the process and I am reaching out to other City Councilors to engage them. We will have more on Community Conversations in tomorrow’s post. These two presentations will take no more than 30 minutes, allowing time for conversation.

Then we will have two 35-minute breakouts. Option I: Community Conversations: Your Personal Activism Strategies (Auditorium), and Option II: Strategies For a Blue State Resisting Trump (Community Room). We will then offer the same two breakouts again, so you can participate in both. After the breakouts, we will return to the Auditorium for reports on each breakout (20 minutes).

PLEASE RSVP by clicking here, which will take you to our Facebook event page. Click the “Going” button. If you don’t do FB just RSVP by responding to this email.  But please do RSVP for this. It will be very important we know how many are planning to attend.  And now that you are going, give 2-3 friends a call, invite them to join you and then go out for dinner.

In Solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

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