Our team at CCAN today grieves with you over the horrifying and shocking events
of yesterday.
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Dear John,
At the height of the Capitol insurrection yesterday, members of the U.S. House
of Representatives lay on the floor in fear for their lives. As police drew
weapons at rioters banging on the barred door, lawmakers were reportedly advised
to remove the pins on their lapels that identified them as House members. This
was to help them avoid being identified, beaten, and possibly murdered in the
very place they make laws.
Our team at CCAN today grieves with you over the horrifying and shocking events
of yesterday. Our thoughts go to those injured and traumatized while defending
our Capitol building from the ignorant and violent mob incited by President
Trump. And we grieve with Black and Brown Americans who once again watched
blatant white supremacy play out in Washington, DC.
We also grieve over the efforts of rioters to break more than just windows and
the Capitol’s trespassing laws. They tried to break the very system of debate
and lawmaking that allows social change – and social change groups like CCAN –
to exist.
CCAN was founded 18 years ago on the understanding that this is a nation of
laws. If you want to change this nation, we believe, you must change the
nation’s laws. Historically, that applies to racial justice, health care,
immigration – and certainly climate change and clean energy.
So when rioters attack the lawmakers themselves, the very fabric of social
change is set ablaze. Donald Trump and his followers – who will not go away even
after January 20th – yesterday achieved the logical endpoint of their four years
of destruction, where not only facts and evidence are thrown out the window but
lawmakers themselves are forced to throw themselves under desks out of fear for
their lives.
But during this dark moment, I also think of the great strides our region and
our nation have made in the last 18 years to elect new leaders who reflect a
rising American electorate, one that seeks justice and inclusion. I think of US
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, and
Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones – all three of whom care deeply about
climate change and whom I’ve had the honor of personally lobbying on clean
energy issues.
These are the brave leaders who will now lead us as we move past Trumpism and
toward a more perfect union of greater care for human rights and climate
justice.
But they cannot do it alone. We must all speak up and speak out – not just for
our own issues – but for the restoration and preservation of a safe and
truth-based system of lawmaking itself, where legislators and advocates, and the
very system of legislative debate and change, are possible.
For these reasons, CCAN joins so many of our colleagues in the nonprofit world
in utterly condemning President Trump and his despicable followers for their
actions yesterday. We join in the call for the full prosecution of every person
who broke laws and engaged in violent behavior.
And we ask you – our members – not to give up hope, no matter how disturbing and
disheartening the images of yesterday were. Remember, we defeated Trump at the
ballot box in November. And our new President – Joe Biden – appears utterly
sincere in his commitment to heal our nation and our Earth.
Yet hope can be hard to come by after a day like yesterday, we know. So we ask
you to consider the words of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who
reminds us that hope flows from action. When you take action – on climate, race,
and health care – hope flows inexorably through the action taker. More action,
with more people, means more hope.
It’s a formula that’s worked for me for 18 years as founder and director of
CCAN. As I type these final words, I feel more hopeful than when I started
writing this message. The whole CCAN staff and I are ready to fight with you –
to take action -- for a safer country and climate in 2021. We will rise up from
the sad ruins of the Trump era and the vandalism of January 6th.
Sincerely,
Mike Tidwell
Executive Director
Chesapeake Climate Action Network & CCAN Action Fund
PS: Learn more about CCAN’s clean-energy campaigns in Virginia [[link removed]] , Maryland [[link removed]] , DC [[link removed]] , and at the federal level [[link removed]] . Join us in changing our regional and national laws for a safer world.
--
Have you heard of our advocacy arm, CCAN Action Fund? CCAN Action Fund aims to
create change in public policy through voter education, lobbying, and
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