“In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.” ― Thucydides (400 B.C.)
Saturday, November 21 - Rally Against the DeSantis Anti-Protest Bill
Join the Northside Coalition, Jacksonville Community Action Committee and other groups mounting a public protest this weekend against the Governor's proposed legislation aimed at criminalizing legal public protests and discouraging local jurisdictions from any reallocation of funding that cuts police budgets. Click here for the state's own summary of the bill. The rally will take place at 1 pm in front of the Duval County Courthouse at 501 West Adams St. If Covid concerns keep you home tomorrow, remember to express yourself to our state legislators and local news outlets.
Learn How To Lobby More Effectively
And speaking of expressing ourselves to our elected officials, a terrific training opportunity is coming up. David Johnson of the Unitarian Universalist Justice Florida group has spoken to BAM in the past. His organization is a leader among statewide progressive groups in their focus on tracking and responding to legislation in Tallahassee. They are partnering with Indivisible Florida to offer a Legislative Training Workshop the first week of December. Because of Covid, their working assumption is that most meetings will be taking place virtually rather than in Tallahassee. The exact date of this Zoom training will be determined based on when the majority of interested people are available. Click here to register.
Write Our DC Delegation - Yes, Again
Channel your outrage over the circus the President and his enablers are making of the "peaceful transfer of power" our democracy has long prided itself on. With Covid out of control across the nation and plausible vaccine candidates now in the wings, every day a coordinated national approach to the virus is not taking shape is costing actual human lives. The continued assaults on the legitimacy of the election, long after the legal challenges have failed, is a direct undermining of our form of government. This has gone well beyond partisan politics. Tell Rubio, Scott and Rutherford it's time for them to congratulate Joe Biden on his victory and get to work on the next Covid relief bill.
How to Help in Georgia
Many thanks to the BAM postcarders who have stepped up to help with a speedy national effort to reach 750,000 unregistered individuals in Georgia who have until December 7 to register and be eligible to vote in the Senate runoffs there. BAM's part of the action is 1,000 postcards going out now. It's been exciting to meet individuals and groups from all over the country focused on this effort. But there is lots more going on.
As we all know, the runoff for these two Senate seats in January will have a massive impact on the Biden Administration's ability to act. This means tidal waves of money and volunteer attention are swirling into Georgia now. For a broad overview of the phone banks, letter writing campaigns and other activities now targeting Georgia voters, this Mobilize blog is a good start. At this point, with so many players already involved, our local Duval Dems do not plan to organize anything directly, so join one or more of these Georgia-focused actions. We'll keep you posted if that changes.
Tell Us What You Did in 2020
We've been dazzled over the past year by the dedication and creativity of BAM's membership. In our last newsletter we sent a survey asking each of you to tell us about the work you did in this critical election year to promote the candidates & issues you cared about. Thanks to everyone who's already taken it. To everyone else, please take the time to send us your answers. Individual answers are private - all this survey will give us is a broad portrait of the many different activities we know our group took part in. This is data we'd love to share at our December meeting, so please click here, and give us your best guess about those hours you waved signs or phone banked or wrote blistering emails to elected officials. Do it today before you forget!
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