“The most important office is office of citizen.”  Robert Hubbell, Today’s Edition

Hi Friend,

Rain or shine, it’s important to show up on Saturday for No Kings. And spread the word widely that you are standing for democracy on June 14.  It always surprises us to realize who isn’t reading the same newsletters and watching the same news as us.  Even people who agree that Trump must be reined in, might not even know what this important day of defiance is and need your encouragement to be part of the crowds necessary to stop his unlawful behavior.

Take a few minutes to post on social media, draw in chalk on the sidewalk and make phone calls to old friends.  There are almost double the number of protests planned for June 14 as were planned for Hand’s Off.  Three and half million people showed up then, let’s make this Saturday enormous, non violent and joyful.

Here’s a No Kings song to get you in the mood!

• Saturday, June 14, No Kings but Yaaas Queen! Pride for the People Parade. 11-3 starting in Copley Square . Ways to participate: sign up to walk with us,  join another group marching, just show up and walk at the back of the parade, help line the streets OR attend a No Kings event elsewhere.  Find one here. 
• Saturday, June 28, Bigger than Dobb’s II: Stop the GOP War on Women, 11-1, Coolidge Corner, Brookline
• Saturdays until further notice, Tesla Takedowns at showrooms around the world.  Find one here. 

• Thursday, June 12 Sign making for the No Kings but Yaaas Queen Pride for the People Parade 6:45-8:45 United Parish Church in Brookline. There will be glitter! There will be feathers! Make a sign for yourself and make one (or more) for someone else.
• Monday, June 16 Write postcards in community, sending cards to women in Virginia and others to Pennsylvania. 6:45-8:45 United Parish Church in Brookline.
• Tuesday, July 1 Pramila Jayapal’s Resistance Lab Training 1.0 watch party with Activist Evenings  6:30-9:15 pm United Parish Church in Brookline

• Every Wednesday and Thursday,  11-12:30, well run phone banks calling voters with Republican Senators with Indivisible to Stop the Trump Tax Scam

• Join Activist Evenings’ Rapid Response Team for notice of last minute actions like protests, legislation, and supporting immigrants.
• Join Activist Evenings’ Outreach Team and expand hope and courage in our community.
• 5 calls, is an app that makes it super easy to make the calls our electeds rely on.
• Tuesday, June 17 People’s Hearing on Legislative Reform 1:30-3 Church on the Hill, Boston.

• Also every Wednesday starting in June,  6-8 pm  The Good Neighbors phone bank will be calling rural Democrats in Virginia who didn’t vote in the 2024 elections to find out what issues they care about. There will be full training and support throughout the phone bank using active listening to hear what issues are important to these voters. Help find stories we can use in Virginia campaigns for 2025.

• For the month of June, donations to Activist Evenings Indivisible will be matched dollar for dollar.  We appreciate and make use of every donation we’ve received.  If you’ve never given before, or can give just a little more, this is the month to do it.
  
• With legacy media and legislatures in thrall to Trump,  the courts are on the front lines in the battle to defend democracy.  Force Multiplier’s Democracy Defenders Fund identified four effective groups in this battle where your support can have the most impact.
• Sister District figured out that we could use the GOP playbook against them and have a proven track record of flipping and defending the state legislatures that are protecting civil and reproductive rights.
• Rural Ground Game understands that focusing exclusively on urban and suburban areas is no longer electorally viable and are working on the ground in Virginia to hold the State Legislature and flip the Governor’s mansion this year.

• Your Local Epidemiologist, Katelyn Jetelina’s  newsletter has become essential reading as RFK works to gut public health:

  “In an unprecedented and deeply alarming move, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed every single member of the nation’s vaccine policy committee—the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—and announced plans to handpick their replacements.

  In other words, someone with an established track record of ignoring reality made the unilateral, ideological decision to gut one of the most trusted and effective pillars of America’s vaccine infrastructure.” read more.

• Civil Discourse is a long and important read about the laws limiting sending troops against citizens.
• Trump’s efforts to emulate Hitler’s ability to manufacture a public security crisis to justify military intervention is on on full display in California.   Read more about how the past is present in The Atlantic.
  
• Jessica Craven’s daily Chop Wood, Carry Water is always worth reading for targeted actions.  Sundays she finds good news about what we’ve accomplished.  Do yourself a favor when you are at risk of giving into the despair they want you to feel and read this.

• Governor Newsom’s speech on June 10 about Trump, “What we’re witnessing is not law enforcement — it’s authoritarianism,  What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty. Your silence. To be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.” Newsom should not be special.  Every lawmaker has a platform and can speak out.  Let yours know you’d like them to hear from them.
• Every Thursday at 3, Indivisible founders, Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, host What’s the Plan?  We watch this along with 9000 other activists and a few MAGA infiltrators to boost our mood and get a preview of the actions that are coming up.

You probably have a long list of things you care about and while calling your elected representatives can feel daunting, it gets easier with practice and takes very little time. Usually we are done making our day’s calls in under 10 minutes.

If you’ve never done it before, start by calling outside of office hours.  You’ll reach voicemail; be sure to leave your contact information and ask for a response so you are sure your opinion is tallied.  Sometimes we make calls at stop lights since our Senators and Representatives contact information are in our phones.  “Call Elizabeth Warren, Siri” and we are quickly sharing our opinion.

5 calls automatically connects you and has scripts for all of the many issues you might want to address.  Remember, you pay your electeds to represent you and they need to hear from you to do their jobs.

Multiply your impact after you’ve called by messaging friends.  Honestly, even for us, it’s sometimes great to get a reminder from someone in our circle.

• Call your Senators and Representatives to demand they do their jobs as leaders protecting democracy, end regular business in Congress and slow down the steam roller the GOP is taking to the Constitution.
• Call Governor Healey and ask her to deny Trump’s police state tactics for deportations. Then add her number to your contacts!
• Call your friends who have Republican Senators and ask them to make the calls you can’t. You can make it easier for them by having phone numbers and suggested scripts for them to follow.

Plastic lawn signs prepped for No Kings but Yaaas Queen sign making.  (TY, Michael, Diane and Ka

Be Brave.  Courage is Contagious.

Promote activism.  Forward this newsletter, let friends know what you are doing, bring someone new to an event and share the joy of being in community.

Together for Democracy,

Marjorie Siegel, Laura Walters, Barbara Weiffenbach, Suzette Abbott

Activist Evenings, An Indivisible Group

We don’t do this for the money but we need money to do what we do. Please consider supporting Activist Evening — any amount helps!