The BLM plans to auction off more land near Chaco Canyon. This post includes info on how to resist these auctions, more information on how millions of Americans will be impacted by the GOP’s hellbent effort to repeal the ACA, and video of Retake volunteers testifying at the Santa Fe City Council on Weds.
Before information on Chaco Canyon and GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare, a few quick announcements:
We Need A Brand New Progressive Roundhouse
- Before the Roundhouse session begins, we will be posting contact information on over a dozen highly effective lobbying groups with information on how you can get their action alerts on a timely basis so that you can weigh in on key issues and bills important to you.
- The Personal Action Kit has been updated and now includes a link to Indivisible: The Practical Guide to Resisting Trump and their new publication on effective organizing. This kit was designed to enable people to be active every day in ways that speak to them. Click here to check it out.
- Click here if you’d like to hear a one-hour radio interview of Paul Gibson by Richard Eeds. The interview covers a good deal of what Retake is planning in the coming months.
- Today from 1pm-4pm, there is a sign-painting event at the Center for Progress & Justice, 1420 Cerrillos Rd. in Santa Fe, where you can create signs for the Women’s March on Washington in Santa Fe. Click here for info on the sign-making event and click here for more on the Women’s March.
- Click here to view a complete video of Retake Our Democracy volunteers who testified at the Santa Fe City Council as part
of the #DeFundDaPL. Great job by Andy Fertal, our videographer. - Personal book recommendation: The Third Reconstruction by Reverend William Barber. Aside from being an inspiration, the book provides an excellent concise analysis of the parallels between the emergence of the first (emancipation), second (civil rights movement), and now third reconstruction as well as the 14 key elements of effective ‘fusion’ movements. The great news is that Retake is already implementing 12 of these strategies, plans to initiate civil disobedience soon, and is reaching out to attorneys who might want to initiate a legal strategy.
Rally to Protect Greater Chaco from Fracking!
The U.S. Bureau of Land 
Management’s plans to auction off the Greater Chaco region for fracking. With Chaco Canyon at its heart, the Greater Chaco region of northwestern New Mexico is irreplaceable. Historically the center of Ancestral Pueblo civilization, the area today is immensely important to Indigenous peoples
throughout the American West, in particular Navajo communities in the area. Sadly though, the Bureau of Land Management has been opening the door for the oil and gas industry to frack closer and closer to this culturally vital landscape. On January 18, the agency plans on auctioning off yet more lands for fracking.
Together with our Indigenous allies, we’re standing up to say enough is enough. If you have time, join us afterwards at the New Mexico State Legislative Session opening to call on our public officials to stand up for Greater Chaco.
WHAT: Call on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to cancel plans to auction off Greater Chaco lands for fracking
WHEN: Tuesday, January 17, 2017, 10:00 – 11:00 AM
WHERE: Santa Fe, New Mexico, Bureau of Land Management State Office, 301 Dinosaur Trail Road
Click here for more information.
Stand for the Affordable Care Act
I am no fan of ACA, feeling that it fails to stand up to pharma and continues to force all of us to pay more for our coverage so that CEOs can make millions. But ACA did benefit millions of Americans. For an excellent article about the impact that repeal of the Affordable Care Act will have on millions of Americans, click here. Among the benefits that are about to disappear unless the effort to defund the ACA:
- 52M Americans with pre-existing conditions will have to share that information in insurance applications, applications that then will either be denied or become subject to exorbitant coverage costs. 52 million Americans.
- Insurers will be able to charge women higher premiums than men;
- Insurers will be able to impose lifetime limits to coverage, effectively meaning that while you are well, you can pay premiums, but when you get REALLY ill, your insurer can abandon you.
The article articulates many, many more ways in which the exit of ACA will mean health emergencies, higher premiums and increased national healthcare costs. In the video below, one man, a Republican who never voted for Obama, describes how ACA saved his life.
Sunday, Jan. 15: Democratic leaders are calling for a “day of action” on Jan. 15 to mobilize grassroots opposition across the country to Republican plans to “end Medicare as we know it and throw our health care system into chaos.” Click here for information about Jan. 15 events in Belen at 11 am, in Albuquerque at 1 pm, and in Santa Fe at 2 pm. Click here for information on this national effort.
Friday, Jan 20, 6pm-7:45pm: UNM’s Domenici Center for Health Sciences Education. What is Medicare for all? An Evidence-Based Presentation on Single Payer and the Future of US Healthcare will be presented by Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH and David Himmelstein, MD, Professors of Public Health at CUNY School of Public Health and Lecturers in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Go to Single Payer Workshop for details, precise location, and how to get more information.
Categories: Actions, Boycotts, Civil Disobedience, Economic justice, Healthcare, Healthcare coverage, Indigenous Rights, Justice
Will there be a car pool to UNM Friday afternoon? Please let me know. Maybe people could meet at the Progress center.
I can try to post something offering this up to folks, but the 5-6 times I’ve tried in the past there have been no takers.