During Tuesday’s Humboldt County Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Health Officer Dr. Teresa Frankovich gave an update as to where the Humboldt Nation stands on the issue of “re-opening” the county.  The ray of hope is that Humboldt will begin stage 2 re-opening this Friday.  Stage 2 re-opening will include:

• Retail (e.g. curbside pickup)
• Manufacturing
• Offices (when telework is not possible)
• Opening more public spaces

 

Read a summary of Governor Newsom’s May 4th re-opening announcement here.

View a slide set of California’s four-phase re-opening plan here.

Supervisor Rex Bohn introduced a letter to Governor Newsom asking for a state-wide easing of the shelter in place restrictions.  The majority of the board displayed reluctance to approve the letter and Bohn rescinded his proposal.  Read Rex’s letter here.  

Read a summary of the BoD meeting here.

Indivisible endorsements

With so much of the news focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, did you possibly forget that 2020 is the most important election year of our lives?  Indivisible has not.

First, after surveying Indivisible group leaders from around the country, Indivisible has announced its endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden for president.  This endorsement may seem obvious but Biden was not everyone’s first choice for any number of reasons.   Indivisible was founded on a progressive Democratic platform.  But in the end, 95% of the survey participants voted to endorse Joe Biden. 

 

So now is the time to remember the Indivisible Pledge from a year ago:

1. Make the primary constructive.
2. Rally behind the winner.
3. Do the work to beat Trump!

 

Joe Biden is not the only candidate that Indivisible has endorsed. View the candidate endorsements here.

Postcard Writing for TJ Cox (CA-21)

We have an opportunity right now to support one of the incumbent Democratic California representatives for which we wrote postcards in the 2018 midterms: TJ Cox!  TJ is up for reelection this year (along with many other first term California representatives).  TJ is running against the former incumbent who he beat in 2018, Republican David Valadao.  The congressional district is CA-21 which encompasses the San Joaquin valley including Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties.  The Latinx community makes up more than 70% of the population.

Thanks to our Sonoma Indivisible friend, Jack, I have made a new contact, Mary, who is with a group called East Bay for TJ.  According to Mary, “In the last election we coordinated the CD21 canvassing and other campaign activities for volunteers and other resistance groups in the Bay Area. In fact Jim and I spent 2 1/2 months in the district helping organize grassroots efforts because TJ’s field operation was so short staffed.”

Along with phonebanking and canvassing, East Bay for TJ uses postcards to reach voters in the district.  This is where Indivisible Ferndale comes into play.  Once again, we can make a difference in the 2020 election cycle by writing postcards directly to CA-21 voters.  Mary’s team has identified through election records which voters request ballots in Spanish.

I now have scripts in both English and Spanish in support of TJ Cox here.  

If you are ready to write postcards in support of TJ Cox, please send me an email with the following information:

1. How many postcards can your write for TJ?   There is a minimum of 20 postcards with a donation of $10 to cover postage and printing.
2. Let me know if you would like to write some or all of the postcards in Spanish.

 

Mary stated that all postcards should be completed by the end of June and sent in bulk to her.  She will forward the postcards on to congressional district CA-21 for postmarking and final delivery to voters.

The Big Send

In other news, Vote Forward, has initiated a letter writing campaign to voters called The Big Send.  According to their website, “Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. Our mission is to empower grassroots volunteers to help register voters from under-represented demographics and encourage them to vote. We build tools to enable Americans, wherever they may be, to encourage fellow citizens to participate in our democracy.”

To understand how this letter writing process works watch a short video here.

If you are interested in knowing more about this Get Out The Vote campaign, go here.  According to the VoteFWD website, “For the launch of The Big Send, we are proud to partner with our friends at Swing Left, Indivisible, People For the American Way, Daily Kos, Women’s March Foundation, genEquality, Democracy in Color, and Stand Up America.”   Vote Forward wants to write over 10 million GOTV letters to voters!

A Self Portrait of America

During one of his daily press briefings last week, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo unveiled a collage of colorful, handmade face masks that were sent from all over the country to New York, which is ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic.  As the collage was unveiled, Cuomo said, “That’s a self portrait of America.  And you know what it spells?  It spells ‘Love.’”

If you encounter a member of the Humboldt Nation who either refuses to wear a mask  or doesn’t “get” the reason why we should be wearing masks when we are out in public, please quote Governor Cuomo:

“I wear my face mask to keep you safe.  You wear your face mask to keep me safe.”

If you want to see what real leadership and compassion looks like and get the real facts during this pandemic, then check out Governor Cuomo’s daily press briefing which usually begin around 8:30 am here.

Stay Safe and Stay Strong because Together, We are Indivisible!