“Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.” –Stephen Hawking

One one-minute action item!

1. Tell Congress you want more victories for science. Send a quick form email via Union of Concerned Scientists to our reps in Congress. Spend a minute to personalize it to make even more of an impact. (Don’t worry, you can opt out of getting any emails from them.)

“True resistance begins with people confronting pain…and wanting to do something to change it” –bell hooks

Congratulations to all who participated in some way in the March for Our Lives rallies this weekend. There were at least 800 marches held internationally, with millions of participants. These impressive and impassioned youth organizers will help turn the tide.

Congress is on recess these next two weeks. But we can still take action.

1. Rep. Ro Khanna is hosting a town hall tomorrow (3/28) from 7:30-9pm at the Sunnyvale Senior Center, 550 E Remington Dr. (map) RSVP on Khanna’s website.

2. Call our senators and your rep to express outrage over the appointment of John Bolton as National Security Advisor. Bolton will promote a militant agenda, just as he did under G. W. Bush’s administration (his pro-war policies led us to invade Iraq).

Background info from 5 Calls: “Bolton’s resurrection as Trump’s National Security Advisor signals a sharp return to a hawkish and pro-war foreign policy, especially with regard to Iran and North Korea. Bolton has advocated for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea. As National Security Advisor, Bolton will be responsible for the intelligence Trump receives, a grave risk considering his history of manipulating intelligence to serve his political agenda. His pro-war positions may easily encourage and amplify Trump’s strongman tendencies and lead us into unnecessary military escalation. While Bolton’s position in the White House is ultimately up to Trump, Congress must do its job to serve as a check on the Executive Branch. They must fervently speak out against Bolton’s appointment and be reminded that he was an unsuitable candidate under Bush who failed to gain confirmation. He is a polarizing figure who will likely promote a nationalist and warmongering agenda for the country and echo Trump’s most bellicose and aggressive tendencies.”

• Sen. Dianne Feinstein: (202) 224-3841 or (415) 393-0707
• Sen. Kamala Harris: (202) 224-3553 or (415) 355-9041
• Rep. Zoe Lofgren: (202) 225-3072 or (408) 271-8700
• Rep. Ro Khanna: (202) 225-2631 or (408) 436-2720
• Rep. Anna Eshoo: (202) 225-8104 or (408) 245-2339

“March for Our Lives” is this Saturday, March 24. If you’re concerned about gun violence or school safety, or you want to support young people who are, please come out and march. We encourage you to bring friends and meet up with Together We Will — San José to march in downtown San José. See the TWWSJ invitation and the official San José march event.

Can’t march this Saturday? Here are some ways to participate in gun control activism and advocacy from home:

1. Join, donate to, and sign up for updates and calls to action from, gun control organizations like:

• Everytown for Gun Safety
• The Brady Campaign
• Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
• Giffords Law Center

Locally, join the San José chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

2. Register — yourself and others! — to vote. In California register via California Online Voter Registration.

And donate to organizations that are registering folks to vote or working on securing voting rights, like:

• Rock the Vote
• Voto Latino
• League of Women Voters
• Brennan Center for Justice

3. If you live in a district where your elected representatives have accepted NRA contributions, call out those politicians and pressure them to stop taking the money. See a list of Congressional recipients based on OpenSecrets.org data (Google Sheets).

4. Let your elected officials know how you feel about common sense gun control. Everytown for Gun Safety makes it easy. Or use 1-844-USA-0234 to reach all your Members of Congress, or use Resistbot via Facebook Messenger.

5. Educate yourself about various policy proposals.

• Summary of federal and state policies about guns in schools: Guns in Schools (Giffords Law Center)
• California-specific information: Guns in Schools in California (Giffords Law Center), School Safety (California Teachers Association)
• Opinion piece about making schools safer: There are ways to make schools safer and teachers stronger—but they don’t involve guns (Brookings Institution)
• When people ask, “What can we do? Violence is everywhere in our society,” refer them to this World Health Organization (WHO)’s paper on decreasing violence (PDF).

6. Learn about the way that bringing more police into schools or arming school staff will strengthen the school-to-prison pipeline and disproportionately pose a threat to children of color.

• More Cops In Schools Means More Black Kids In The Criminal Justice System (Huffington Post)
• When School Feels Like Prison (The Atlantic)
• Students, Police, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline (UF Law Scholarship Repository, PDF)

7. Take a moment to acknowledge the debt that we owe Black Lives Matter and other youth of color for setting the example of mass protest against reckless gun usage. As BLM Network co-founder Patrisse Cullors said recently, “…we wouldn’t be seeing this level of protest if we didn’t have this [example] for the last five years. Black Lives Matter really set this idea of how we fight and how we protest into action.”

Read more and commit to supporting other communities affected by gun violence, especially urban youth and people of color, with your money and activism.

• When Teens Protest, Race Matters (Citylab)
• Parkland is sparking a difficult conversation about race, trauma, and public support (Vox)

8. When talking about gun safety, remember police violence against people of color, and consider, too, that the crusade to enact policy changes to reduce gun violence is one link between the March for Our Lives and the protests against the police shootings of unarmed people of color. The Washington Post calculates that 230 people have been killed by police this year, and just this past weekend, an unarmed black man, Stephon Clark, was killed in his own backyard by police in Sacramento.

• Fatal Force: 230 people have been shot and killed by police in 2018 (Washington Post)
• Updated: Black man shot by police was carrying cellphone, not ‘tool bar,’ when he was shot, department says (Sacramento Bee)

On a related note, read this piece arguing that meaningful gun control should disarm both the public and much of the police: We need gun control that disarms the public and the police (Center for Community Change)

9. If you have children or young people in your life, talk to them about their feelings and perspective on gun violence and mass shootings. Some questions — from the Anti-Defamation League:

1. How do you feel about what you know and have heard about gun violence and mass shootings? What else do you want to know?
2. Do you know people who have different opinions on gun violence? What do they say and how does this influence (or not) your point of view?
3. What do you think should be done to keep people safe from gun violence?
4. Why do you think so many people feel it is important to protect people’s right to own guns?
5. Why do you think there are so many more mass shootings than there used to be?

10. Donate money to the March for Our Lives organizers to defray the cost of permits, security, staging, porta-potties, etc., to help make the event go smoothly and safely. Locally, donate to the March for Our Lives San Jose (GoFundMe).

11. In general, petitions aren’t considered as powerful or effective as calling your Members of Congress. Still, here’s a petition backed by Everytown for Gun Safety urging Congress to back common sense gun laws.

12. Want to feel fired up? Check out this video from a Stoneman Douglas High School student’s answer to a NRA ad: Stoneman Douglas student Sarah Chadwick turns the tables on that ominous NRA ad (YouTube)

TAKE ACTION by staying in the fight to condemn the raids and press for a permanent solution.

1. Send a message to your mayor or your city councilperson to ask about their immigration practices and to voice your opposition to practices that unnecessarily separate and traumatize parents and children.

Here’s a script:

“Hi, my name is ___________ and I’m a resident of _____________. I’m contacting you to ask your position about using taxpayer resources to support ICE raids on undocumented immigrants in connection with CIVIC Bay Area. What is your position? I urge you to use your power to STOP inhumane and unjust ICE raids. I also demand that you commit to protecting places of worship, schools, and hospitals by not apprehending people in or near these sensitive locations. Raids don’t make our communities any safer, and conducting operations directly outside such locations is a moral outrage and a violation of liberty.”

2. Sign the petition to release from ICE custody Alejandra Pablos, a well-known leader and organizer and a vocal advocate for immigrant, LGBTQ, and reproductive rights. She is being held without bond and may not get to go before a judge until December.

• Release Immigrant Rights Activist Alejandra Pablos from Detention (Mijente)

3. Show your commitment to immigration reform by donating to United We Dream, a Dreamer-led group at the forefront for the fight for comprehensive immigration reform, or starting your own campaign using their tools.

C2A While our young activists march for their lives, other vulnerable communities in our country keep fighting to protect theirs. ICE agents continue to strike terror among undocumented communities around the country with their raiding and detaining. And Trump has further escalated the war on those who want to protect immigrants from these raids by announcing the DOJ’s (weak) lawsuit against California, a sanctuary state.

The need for legislative immigration reform remains urgent, as undocumented immigrants continue to wait in limbo. When Trump terminated the popular DACA program on September 5, 2017, he set a 6-month deadline of March 5, 2018 for its end. Because his lawyers bungled it, current DACA recipients can still renew their status. But new applications aren’t being accepted, and we still lack a permanent solution.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

• Bay Area immigrant families prepare for ICE raids with emergency plans (Mercury News)
• The Government’s Case Against California’s ‘Sanctuary’ Policies Is on Weak Legal Ground (ACLU)
• DACA’s March 5 ‘deadline’ marks only inaction (CNN Politics)
• Immigration Detention Map & Statistics (Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC))

TAKE ACTION by urging Representatives to Support the Request for Independent Living (IL) Funding. All Representatives can be reached by the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or  (202) 224-3091 (TTY), and you can find your Representative’s direct DC and local office numbers as well as other contact information at Contacting Congress. You can also use Resistbot to turn texts into faxes, mail, or hand-delivered letters.

C2A SCRIPT:

“I would like to ask Representative [________________] to sign on to Representative Hanabusa’s Independent Living Appropriations request. The funding for Independent Living Programs is vital to ensure people with disabilities can live independently. Local CILs do much needed work for their disabled constituents!”

TAKE ACTION by calling your Representative and asking them “to vote in favor of H.R.4909 the STOP School Violence Act of 2018 before another tragedy occurs. Arming teachers is not going to prevent gun violence, and children’s lives are at stake at every moment we don’t act to protect them.”

• Rep. Anna Eshoo: 650-323-2984 or 202-225-8104
  
• Rep. Zoe Lofgren: 408-271-8700 or 202-225-3072
  
• Rep. Ro Khanna: 408-436-2720 or 202-225-2631
  
• Rep. Jimmy Panetta: 831-424-2229 or 202-225-2861

Take Action! Call our Senators and tell them: “Don’t let Big Banks run wild. Keep Dodd-Frank.”

Contact them by phone:

• Sen. Dianne Feinstein: (202) 224-3841 or (415) 393-0707
• Sen. Kamala Harris: (202) 224-3553 or (415) 355-9041

When calling: remember to leave your name and ZIP code.

Alternate ways to contact: RESISTBOT through FB or your phone by texting RESIST to 50409. EMAIL via democracy.io or FAX via FaxZero.

Easy form letter about nuclear weapons that gets sent to Sacramento

Urge your assembly member to support the resolutions so California can take a powerful stand against nuclear weapons policies that increase the chance of nuclear war and put all of us at risk, and help send a powerful message to Washington that we need to change the nuclear status quo.

• California: Call on Your State Legislators to Stand for Reducing Risk of Nuclear War (Union of Concerned Scientists)