Newsletter, August 11th
Take Action to support our democracy, protect our immigrant communities, and learn to build the coalitions needed to fight authoritarianism!
Local Elections Matter!
Some people look at what’s happening in DC and with ICE overreach locally and think, “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
This is not true! As the Indivisible Guide points out, power is distributed at many levels in America. In addition to our federal representatives, local and state officials are fighting and winning every day! See examples here, here, here, here, and here.
In Washington State, the voter turnout for our August primary will come in somewhere in the neighborhood of 28%. We need to get the word out that we need fighters at every level of government who will not comply in advance with whatever power grab Trump announces next.
One way to do that is to join our Talk with a Friend program. Would you be willing to talk to three friends and make sure they understand the stakes and plan to vote in November? Sign up here.
Take Action – Urge Rep Schrier to Fight ICE Overreach
In a continued effort to see Representative Schrier take tangible steps to defend us – her constituents – against the current and growing threats of ICE, Indivisible members delivered this letter to her Issaquah office on August 6th.
The letter was signed by Indivisible Washington’s 8th District and fifteen other Indivisible chapters in our Congressional District. It was unprecedented for sixteen Indivisible groups to sign on to a letter to our U.S. Representative to Congress.
We know that immigrants living and working among us in the 8th District have been kidnapped by masked men, detained at the privately-operated ICE detention center in Tacoma, chained like criminals – which they are not – and flown to other states and other countries. One that we know of was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Our immigrant neighbors are living in fear.
We continue to thank Rep. Schrier for speaking out on health care issues, but we also, repeatedly, urged her to speak out about the inhumane treatment of immigrants, violations of people’s rights and lack of due process. In addition, we have asked her to conduct a congressional oversight visit to the detention center in Tacoma, which has longstanding reports of poor medical and sanitary conditions, including recent reports of tuberculosis which is highly communicable. She has not taken these steps.
Please call Rep. Schrier (202-225-7761) to let her know how important it is to you that she visit the detention center, speak out, and take other tangible steps to defend us – her constituents – against the current and growing threats that we all see and face.
This link will take you to more information.
Back to School Book Drive
For those who missed the announcement, Indivisible WA-8th CD is collecting diverse books for the Issaquah Valley Elementary School library.
Please buy a book or two to bring for our September 6th meeting. Details are here. Please email indivisiblewa8@gmail.com to let us know which book(s) you purchased so we can keep the wish list up to date.
It’s not too early to put the September 6th meeting on your calendar! State Representative My-Linh Thai will be one of the speakers.
Solidarity in Action – Building Coalitions
The current Indivisible training series revolves around solidarity: We need a mass, diverse, and united resistance movement to overcome the slide towards authoritarianism. But, how do we build real solidarity with people who are not like us?
The next training session, Building Partnerships and Coalitions will feature speaker Christina Jiménez discussing strategies and best practices for forming, managing, and sustaining effective coalitions to amplify social, community support, and advocacy efforts.
Attend this online training on Monday, August 18th, at 4:00. Sign up here. Time doesn’t work for you? Sign up anyway and they will send you the recording.
