For many, August is vacation month, but if you want to take action, we've got plenty of suggestions for things you can do, here at home or wherever you may be traveling this month. Want to end gun violence, fight voter suppression, or learn about the Green New Deal? Support the ROE Act or immigrants in MA? Flip the congressional seat in NC09, turn Maine blue, or #DitchMitch? Protect Election Security or Right Whales? We can help with all those things and more!
The Muster is taking a brief vacation until Labor Day, but you can always find the latest information about actions and events on our homepage or website calendar!
JOIN US IN AUGUST!
Our Book Club is taking a vacation break in August, but we'll be busy taking action at our monthly Activism Evening on August 12, at our Weekday Warriors Meeting on August 28, and at our Summer Canvass outside the Lexington Farmers Market most Tuesdays. We'll also be co-hosting events in Cambridge on August 18 and 25. Make plans to join us!
Monthly Activism Evening
Monday August 12, 7-9:00pm
First Parish Church, 7 Harrington Rd., Lexington Come to our next Activism Evening to learn to phone bank and text for Dan McCready (NC09). We'll be introducing a new app for texting - to prepare, you can download the “OutVote” app on your phone. We'll also hear an update on state legislation and have postcards for you to send to your legislators. We may also have a guest to speak briefly about helping Maine to vote out Susan Collins. Bring pens and markers for postcards, and your laptop and phones and a headset for phone banking and texting.
Canvass at the Farmers Market
Tuesdays August 13, 20, & 27, 2-6:30pm
Next to 1557 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington Minuteman Indivisible will have a table near the Mass Ave entrance to the Lexington Farmers Market most Tuesday afternoons this summer where we'll be canvassing for Ranked Choice Voting and other issues. Talk to your friends and neighbors about the work that we're doing and enjoy great food at the same time! Sign up to join us hereor just stop by to say Hello!
Capture the Flag Film Screening
Sunday August 18, 6-7:30pm
Workbar, 45 Prospect St., Cambridge We're proud to join Swing Left Greater Boston in co-hosting this screening of Capturing the Flag, the first of a series of documentary films on modern voter suppression, election integrity, and the power of citizen action. You’ll also have a chance to meet the producer, Laverne Berry, and Aisha Dew, an organizer working on the NC-09 congressional election. RSVP here. No admission fee, but donations to defray event costs will be gratefully accepted.
Write Postcards to Support the ROE Act
Sunday August 25, 4-6:00pm
Workbar, 45 Prospect St., Cambridge The ROE Act will update MA abortion laws, which were written in 1974 and are among the most restrictive in New England. Join us at Activist Afternoons to write postcards to voters asking them to call their elected officials and help get this legislation passed.
Weekday Warriors Meeting
Wednesday August 28, 10-11:30am
Roasted Granola Cafe, 1346 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington Join us to drink coffee and socialize as we write postcards to fellow MA residents to ask them to learn about the ROE ACT and contact their state legislators. Please bring pens, highlighters and postcard stamps (and/or a small contribution for postage). RSVP or sign up for our Google group to get more info here.
END GUN VIOLENCE
Sickened by the epidemic of gun violence in this country? Get together with other local residents to mourn victims, find out how to take action, and support organizations that are working to make change.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11
VIGIL FOR INNOCENT LIVES LOST
Join Lexington Says #Enough and other community members at 6:30pm in Emery Park at Depot Square in Lexington for a call to end gun violence and to mark the lives lost in El Paso and Dayton. Sen. Cindy Friedman will be attending to discuss what is being done at the state level and there will be several tables to take action. See this link for more details.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
BENEFIT CONCERT FOR MOMS DEMAND ACTION
Lexington says #Enough and Moms Demand Action MA are hosting an afternoon of music and solidarity from 3-4:30pm at First Parish Lexington as part of The Concert Across America to End Gun Violence. The concert features string quartet, clarinet, and vocalist performing Mozart, Schumann, and Dvorak. Suggested donation $20 for adults. All proceeds benefit Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. See this link for more details and RSVP here. Donation not required for admission.
FIGHT VOTER SUPPRESSION
We're proud to join Swing Left Greater Boston in co-hosting this special screening of Capturing the Flag, a film that shows what happens when ordinary citizens show up to defend our democracy and are confronted with modern-day voter suppression. Laverne Berry, producer and one of the participants in the film, will be at the screening along with Aisha Dew, a North Carolina organizer working on voter turnout for the September 10th special election in North Carolina’s 9th District. Please let us know you're coming as soon as possible as space is limited - RSVP here. No admission fee, but donations to defray event costs will be gratefully accepted.
TURN MAINE BLUE
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14
FUNDRAISER FOR JARED GOLDEN ME-02
Join our friends from Force Multiplier in Newton from 6-8:00pm at a fundraiser where you can meet Jared Golden, the Democrat who was elected to represent ME-02 in Congress last year. It was the first time a federal election was decided by ranked voting. RSVP and/or donate here.
HELP DEMOCRATS iN MAINE!
The hard work to unseat Susan Collins is underway, and Democrats in Maine need our help! Swing Left Greater Boston has made it easy for us to get involved. Grab some friends and drive up to southern Maine for a half-day of canvassing or to help register new voters. If you aren't able to drive to Maine to help with these efforts, the Maine Dems are fundraising to hire year-round field staff, and could use any amount you're able to donate. If you want to get updates on all the local efforts to unseat Collins, be sure to sign up for the SLGB newsletter.
ATTEND A GREEN NEW DEAL TOWN HALL
Join Senator Ed Markey and Representative Katherine Clark on August 21 at Framingham High School for a town hall discussion on the Green New Deal and more. Doors open at 6:00pm. See this link for details.
HELP PASS THE ROE ACT
Minuteman Indivisible is part of the statewide ROE Act Coalition. In June, we joined fellow Indivisibles and hundreds of others at the State House for a hearing on the ROE Act that lasted over 10 hours. Now we need your help to get the bill passed! The legislature is currently on recess, but when they return in September we want them to hear from voters across the state. Without big advertising budgets, we need to reach voters by mail, on social media platforms, and person to person.Here's what you can do:
Send postcards to our legislators and/or fellow MA residents asking them to support the ROE Act. We'll have postcards at all our meetings this month and at Activist Afternoons in Cambridge on August 25 or you can email us to get postcards to fill out on your own.
Join us at Mystic Valley Action for Choice's "Take Action" event in Arlington on August 15 from 6:00-8:00pm. RSVP or sign up to be notified of future meetings here. There will be refreshments and the event will include:
Speakers from the “Bad Old Days Group,” sharing stories about life before Roe v. Wade
Remarks by Representative David Rogers
Education on the ROE Act and how it improves abortion access in Massachusetts
Grassroots organizing
Post-carding
Letters to the editor
Calls to our State Legislators
And more!
Volunteer for other ROE Act Coalition actions such as making calls to MA constituents from home during August. Sign up here.
Canvassing with us outside the Lexington Farmers Market on Tuesdays in August. Sign up here
Attending a training session at the Robbins Library in Arlington on August 21 at 7:00pm with Voter Choice MAto learn the skills to help pass Ranked Choice Voting. RSVP here.
Pledging to attend the RCV hearing at the State House this fall (date/time TBD). Sign up here.
PROTECT IMMIGRANTS The mass shooting in Texas and the ICE raids in Mississippi highlight the need to take action to protect immigrants in our communities who are living in fear of similar events happening in our own state. Learn more about organizations such as MIRA that support and advocate for immigrants, follow the MA Safe Communities Coalition on Facebook, and ask your state legislators to pass these key pieces of legislation now:
Email or call your state legislators and ask them to support An Act Relative to Work and Family Mobility (H.3012 and S.2061). This legislation would enable all qualified state residents to apply for a standard Massachusetts driver’s license, regardless of immigration status, while keeping our Commonwealth in full compliance with REAL ID requirements. As this recent editorial in the Boston Globe supporting the legislation notes, thirteen other states already have passed similar bills and a dozen more states are currently considering them.
GET THE SAFE COMMUNITIES ACT PASSED NOW!
Minuteman Indivisible is proud to partner with more than 100 other organizations in the Safe Communities Coalition to help get this important legislation passed. It’s simpler and more succinct than last session's bills, but has the same strong provisions. We've held lobby days, organized rallies, and now it’s time for our state legislators to act. Please call or email your State Reps and Senators and ask them to work to get this legislation passed. Even if they’re cosponsors, they need to hear from you! Tell them it’s a priority this session, and they need to act!
DEMAND THE SENATE PROTECT ELECTION SECURITY
Last month, Robert Mueller testified that Russia is still trying to influence our elections and the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report showing that Russian hackers tried to access election systems in all 50 states, yet Mitch McConnell still refuses to bring election security bills up for a vote.
The House has already passed these bills to protect election security:
The SAFE Act, which specifies protocols that secure elections.
Appropriations bill HR3351, which allocates money for the states to fund secure election infrastructure (among many other budget items).
Demand Senators pass these bills - here's a sample script. Even if Mitch McConnell kills the SAFE Act, support for it helps influence state-level officials (who control election systems) to adopt the security measures in the bill. Because the second bill is an appropriations bill, it can be passed despite interference from McConnell as long as at least two Senate Republicans join the Democrats in supporting it
Have friends or family who are constituents of GOP Senators (esp. Senators Murkowski-AK, Rubio-FL, & Lankford-OK and Senators up for re-election in 2020)? Ask them to contact their Senators and use this scriptto help pass appropriations bill HR3351.
Our fellow Indivisible groups on Cape Cod and the Islands are hosting a series of fundraisers this summer to support Indivisibles in Kentucky who are working to flip the Senate seat currently held by Mitch McConnell. The first fundraisers sold out, but there will be three additional fundraisers will be this summer in:
Indivisible groups across the country are also holding monthly online calls with Kentucky Indivisibles to help #DitchMitch. Email us or check our Slack to get details of how to participate in these calls on the fourth Sunday of each month at 7pm ET.
CHECK OUT WHAT WE DID IN JULY
July might be mid-summer, but MI members were still busy taking action. We
Continued our summer canvassing for Ranked Choice Voting at the Lexington Farmers Market on July 2 and 23
Wrote postcards to tell voters about the upcoming special election in NC09 at our Activism Evening on July 8, Weekday Warriors meeting on July 10, and at a "Stitch & Resist" party on July 16.
Joined fellow MA Indivisibles and hundreds of allies to lobby for Ranked Choice Voting at the State House on July 16
Helped new citizens register to vote after their naturalization ceremony at Faneuil Hall onJuly 25
Hosted a postcard party with Swing Left, Force Multiplier, and local Democratic Town Committee members on July 28 where 24 local activists wrote 200 postcards to encourage Sarasota County, FL residents to vote.
Attended an event at the State House to support federal legislation to protect Right Whales on July 29.
The Muster is coming to your inbox on a biweekly schedule this summer
Keep checking theMI Calendarand our homepage for the most current line-up of events and actions.
Andjoin our Slackto stay in the loop! Your input is welcome!
