After a few short notices about what is coming this week and what you can do right now to press the Governor & leadership to introduce important bills for the 2020 session, we look back at the posts from a most momentous week.

Tomorrow’s Post: What We Can Do, Part VI? Building Local Resilience

Over the last week, we have conducted an ongoing discussion of “What Can We Do?” given international, national and state leaders refusal to stand up to the gas and oil industry and other political pressures and to take the bold actions that are clearly necessary. Tomorrow, we will look at what can be done at a local level and what some, mostly small-medium sized communities, are doing to prepare for what is to come, to build food, transportation, and energy resilience and to form plans for working cohesively when climate disruptions interrupt food, water, energy, internet and other vital services. The lessons from this can then be used in local advocacy in your community.

Reducing Number of Weekly Posts

Retake is reducing its number of posts each week from five to four, eliminating the Sunday post that featured video. It simply took too long to review a host of video to find something appropriate to the times. I’d like to continue to include video in blogs periodically so if you’d like to help by scouring the internet for relevant video, let me know by writing to RetakeResponse@gmail.com.

Updated Info on Important Bills That May Be Introduced in 2020

Over the past two weeks, we have been communicating with our allies to clarify what might realistically be accomplished in the 2020 “short” session of just 30 days. Remember, the Governor must essentially approve bills to be introduced by “putting them on the call.”

Now is the time to contact the Governor and ask that she include bills important to you on the call. It is also time to contact Speaker Egolf and Senate Floor Lead Wirth to ask the Governor to put bills that are important to you on the call.

Click here to see the status of possible legislation that could be introduced. Please note that we do not yet have bill titles or numbers. Those are published when a bill is actually introduced (pre-file begins Dec. 16). At the link above we provide terminology that will make it easy to describe the legislation you want on the call. You’ll also find contact information for the Governor and Democratic Legislative leadership. They need to hear from you now.

November 19 Meeting to Plan for 2020 Legislative Session

Legislative Planning Session, Tues., Nov. 19, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., Center for Progress & Justice, 1420 Cerrillos Rd., Santa Fe, and live streamed via our Facebook page. Last year about this time, we began meeting to plan for the 2019 session. We have done the groundwork and this year we have our Statewide Rapid Response Network in place. Now we need to convene to begin discussing strategy, incorporating what we learned last year into our process; and working together to ensure we have an impact in 2020. Please join us on Nov 19, or participate via the live stream on Facebook.

One suggestion from last year was that we need to meet at least once during the session. Our monthly schedule calls for a meeting on Jan 21, two days after the session has begun, when we should have a pretty good idea of what will be introduced. We then meet again on Feb 18, crunch time with 2 days to go in the session. We will schedule another planning session for the first week of Feb to allow for mid-session corrections in strategy. We also have a meeting slated for Dec 12, a few days begin bills can begin to be filed. So our meeting schedule is set. More about this later.

A Look Back at Last Week’s Posts

The links to the three posts below provide a kind of sequenced examination of our current situation and our options for action. Below those three links are summaries of the three posts from last week that extend the thinking.

• Part I: What We’ve Been Doing for the Past 50 Years Has Not Worked Because We are Playing by the Rules. We Need a New Approach to Resistance. Click here.
• Part II: Since Polite Protests Don’t Work, What Next? Click here.
• Part III: If the Regulatory Process is Rigged (It Is), What Next? Click here.

What’s Next, Part IV? Given the Fracking Tour, a Sacrifice Zone & an Entrenched Governor

Tuesday, October 29. Last week we launched an exploration of what kind of activist actions were required, given growing evidence of a failure of all of our systems to protect us from the corporate sector, from their historic wealth grab, from their refusal to address the climate crisis.

The Fracking Tour of Greater Chaco Canyon made it crystal clear: there are already huge sacrifice zones here in NM, and across the world there are communities already suffering from climate events. On Tuesday, we discussed what we can do. Click here to read more.

Why We Were Arrested in the Governor’s Office

Thursday, October 31. Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA) had issued demands of the Governor a month ago, entirely reasonable demands, worthy of consideration and discussion given the urgency of the times. Silence in response.

On October 30, I joined 20 others in a sit-in at the Governor’s office in support of Youth United for Climate Crisis Action. We had hoped our presence in the office would elicit a response, an outstretched hand: let’s talk. But we were greeted with silence and a refusal to engage. On Thursday, I shared my reasons for deciding to refuse to leave and to be arrested, updated you on what happened. and questioned what needs to come next.

Click here to read the full post.

Part V: So, 21 Were Arrested. What Next?

Saturday, Nov. 2. I’ve often written: a march is not a movement. Neither are 21 arrests. On Saturday we began exploring options for how we move forward from here. Plus we provided an election reminder and information on what was an important talk on the Permian Basin the following day at Collected Works.

Click here to read the full post.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: Featured, read more