From the editors: Tuesday evening, 5/24. As we are writing this newsletter, we are hearing the tragic news about today’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Our hearts go out to the victims of this senseless tragedy. We must stand together against gun violence and demand that our elected officials do their duty to protect us. The situation is still developing, but in the meantime, please consider donating to the leading activist organizations fighting gun violence. The LA Times also has an article about how you can guide your kids through this horrifying event.
Black Lives Matter to millions of Americans of all ages and ethnicities, millions of whom united to protest systemic racism in our police forces, including the senseless murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013, the chokehold that ended Eric Garner’s life in 2014, the unjustifiable shooting of Breona Taylor inside her own home on March 13, 2020, and the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. We have also mourned and protested an escalating cascade of White Supremacist mass shootings, including the killing of 9 people during church services in South Carolina in 2015, 11 people during services at a synagogue in Pittsburg in 2018, 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019, and 10 people at a neighborhood supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, 2022. The solidarity among Americans eager for more progress toward racial justice drove voters to the polls in 2020 and will do so again in 2022. It has been only 56 years since the Civil Rights Acts were signed into law, and those rights need to be actively defended.
Unfortunately, our fifty-fifty Senate contains too many Republicans whose party policies are so unpopular that they've resorted to using racism to fuel their political campaigns more and more overtly since 2008. The so-called “reasonable Republicans” have been unable to control its escalation, and now their base of support includes white supremacists driven into a frenzy by the resurgence of lies like the Great Replacement Theory. The Republican Party has refused to defend our right to vote dangerous white supremacists and their enablers out of office, even after they attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Last week the NAACP released a plan to combat white supremacy and hate crimes that focuses on issues a majority of Americans support. While Congress may not be able to pass legislation on these matters until we vote more Democrats into the House and Senate, we need President Biden and the Department of Justice to take action now to protect us from dangerously escalating hate crimes.
Tell President Biden and AG Garland: use executive action to protect our communities from white supremacist terrorism!
Vote NOW in the primary election!
It's election time again! Yes, again, for the third time this year. The May–June primary election is happening now, and you should have already received your ballot. As usual, we have much more info on our blog and at https://indivisiblesf.org/vote. We now have links to some voter guides, so if you’re stuck, check those out.
We’ve endorsed No on Prop H. We’ll have more to say in our blog post coming soon, but the No on Prop H page from the ACLU of Northern California is a great start.
Get your third round of free COVID-19 test kits!
This week, the Biden Administration began offering a third round of free COVID-19 home tests from the USPS – and new orders include eight tests rather than four. If you already ordered during the first or second phases of the program, you can now request a third shipment. If you haven't placed your first or second order yet, you're free to place as many orders as you need to catch up. Order your free tests today!
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If you’re interested in participating in activities like drafting letters to our Members of Congress and developing our strategy for influencing them, the Indivisible SF Federal Working Group is where it happens. Our next meeting is on Thursday, May 26. Details on how to register below.
ISF Federal Working Group meeting: Thursday, May 26, 7:30–9 PM. Register here to join our regular Zoom meeting, where we work together to develop strategies for influencing our Members of Congress and the Biden administration to support a progressive agenda. All are welcome to participate and contribute, even if you’ve never attended an ISF meeting before.
Bay Area Coalition Phone Banks: Wednesdays and Saturdays. Our friends at Swing Left need your help talking to voters about the upcoming primaries and midterms. Join Swing Left and the Bay Area Coalition on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings to make calls to voters in California and around the nation. Sign up for a shift:
- TODAY, Wednesday, May 25, 5–7 PM
- Saturday, May 28, 10 AM–12 PM
- Wednesday, June 1, 5–7 PM
ACLU text and phone banks against the SF DA recall: Wednesdays. Every Wednesday until the end of the election, the ACLU of Northern California is hosting phone banks asking voters to vote No on Prop H. Defeating Prop H keeps San Francisco District Attorney Boudin working for justice and equity from the DA’s office. Sign up for a shift:
- TODAY, Wednesday, May 25, 5:30–8 PM
- Tuesday, May 31, 5:30–8 PM
- Wednesday, June 1, 5:30–8 PM
Voter registration drive in the California Central Valley with Swing Left: Saturdays. Swing Left needs your help registering voters in Central Valley CD-13 and CD-22, from Modesto to Bakersfield. They will conduct door-to-door and COVID-safe canvassing to register voters every weekend until November 8. Sign up here:
- Saturday, May 28, 9 AM–3:30 PM
- Saturday, June 4, 9 AM–3:30 PM
- Saturday, June 11, 9 AM–3:30 PM
About this week’s photo
If you’ve seen our newsletter posts on Twitter and Facebook, you might have noticed that we include a photo or graphic with each issue.
Today’s image is a photo of a woman at a memorial for those killed in last week’s shooting at Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York. It was featured in a CNN article covering the tragedy.
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Keep Fighting,
The Indivisible SF Team
If you'd like to support our all-volunteer team:
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