Important Reads and Interesting Resources [for saving Democracy]
Great online resource right here in Monmouth County – the library. https://monmouthcountylib.org/
Standing up to anti-Asian racism With more reports of harassment and attacks against Asians around the U.S., here are some ways you can help respond to racism and build the safe and peaceful communities we all deserve. AFSC 3-19-2021
More Weekend (or anytime) Reads from American Friends Service Committee - https://www.afsc.org/blogs
Grassroots Democrats Newsletter (Apr 24) - https://mailchi.mp/gmail/gdhq-newsletter-apr23
Search for your state legislators by town on this NJ State website https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/municipalities.asp
Check out the Brennan Center (https://www.brennancenter.org/) for regularly updated information and insight into what's happening with the key national legislation, such as HR1 (now S1), HR5, and HR51:
The Center for Common Ground
The Center for Common Ground of Virginia is a 501(c)3 organization. Since late 2017, its nonpartisan Reclaim Our Vote Campaign has reached millions of voters of color in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. For the 2020 election including the primaries, the General Election, and the January 5 runoff, Reclaim Our Vote reached out to 13,740,224 voters. We distributed 9,081,627 postcard addresses , left 2,918,374 text messages, and made 1,740,223 phone calls.
The Center for Common Ground is hosting webinars every Thursday evening on democracy and justice issues, particularly as they impact communities of color in our southern target states.
On Thursday, April 15th at 2pm ET
Learn how to write, test, and target your emails in this 1 hour training. We'll cover the basics as well as some advanced topics, including conditional content, design, and queries.
To SIGN UP for this webinar or other upcoming events, visit bit.ly/cfcg-events.
Recordings of past webinars can be found on The Reclaim Our Vote YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgJdBh1-zpXeDhDLT1F7dow
Old (2013) op-ed here but still relevant in parts, about the filibuster and it's history: https://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/theres-nothing-special-about-the-filibuster-095812
Common Cause is a “nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.” It is well worth your while to check out their informative, motivating website. https://www.commoncause.org/
Virginia, the Old Confederacy’s Heart, Becomes a Voting Rights Bastion
For nearly 50 years, the state was subject to Voting Rights Act rules meant to deter racial discrimination. Those federal guidelines are now shredded, but Virginia just recreated them on its own. Apr 2 NYT article https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/politics/virginia-voting-rights-northam.html
Grassroots Democrats HQ dashboard. Includes opportunities to phone bank, post card, petition, learn and more.