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A U G U S T A C T I O N S
Show Up and Speak Out
Your elected representatives are waiting to hear from you!
Hello WILPF Friends,
As you know, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are back in their home districts for summer recess until September 9. Possibly, they may be called back for a special session of either branch to consider urgently needed gun legislation. Already, the House has passed HR 8 -- Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019. What about the Senate?
Speak out
over the next weeks!
Which of the many action options will you pursue? Frame these issues as a national and international human rights crisis
and stress that the US is the only country not to have ratified the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child.
Continue your vigils
on current topics and/or new ones:
- The crisis at the border, a cluster of issues, including immigration, the abuse of refugees and asylum seekers, and separation of children
- "No Way to Treat a Child" in the Middle East through support of H.R. 2407 and in the U.S.
- Climate chaos and getting the US back into the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
- Peace, a peace economy and cutting the military budget to fund human needs: affordable housing, public water infrastructure, healthcare for all, and so much more. Read "There is No Such Thing as a Green War."
- Abolish nuclear weapons. The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons just got its 25th State Party, bringing it half way to entry into force. See NuclearBan.US and support H.R. 2419, the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic Conversion Act of 2019."
- Women in Black
- Ending the war on Yemen
- Mediation as an alternative to violence and conflict
- And more!
Invite family members, friends and community organizations to join your vigils. Host an afternoon sign-making party with lemonade, watermelon and cookies!
Order newly edited Climate Justice+Women+Peace inforgraphic cards, sashes, banners and other resources here.
Information for ordering buttons will be posted soon.
Do something to end gun violence!
In Dayton, when Gov. Mark DeWine began to speak Sunday at a community gathering, one person quietly said "Do something," then the crowd burst out chanting "Do something, Do something!" Listen to this Democracy Now program on gun violence and gun control.
Congress is gridlocked. Call your House member's and Senators' DC office to demand a special August session of Congress to pass legislation now. Find your House member's phone here
and your Senators' office number here.
We must demand:
- License guns owners as we do car drivers
- Expand Brady background checks and make sure checks are done before every gun sale
- Close the "Charleston loophole" that allows a gun sale to conclude even if a background check has not come through after 72 hours
- Ban assault weapons and restrict high-capacity magazines
- Fund states to enact "extreme risk" laws that allow family and law enforcement to seek a court order to remove guns from individuals who are in danger of harming themselves or others
And act locally:
- Picket Walmart, the largest seller of guns in the US, and that also gives political contributions to candidates and legislators
- Work in your community and state to create gun buyback programs
Attend or organize a town hall event
Check out this new Town Hall Project
website
Find a town hall meeting here
for your local,
state or congressional representative or candidate. Invite friends and family to
join you and step up to the mic to ask a question that includes some useful data
and other information. The Town Hall Project has
sample questions in this
August Recess Guide for Progressive Foreign Policy
to ask that includes printable one-pagers on Yemen, Iran and nukes.
If your representative is not having a town hall meeting, invite like-mined groups to join WILPF to host a grassroots town hall event to discuss issues and policy solutions. Place an empty chair with a coat at the table with the name of your representative. Invite the press!
Have a friend snap a photo or video of you and send it to [email protected]. We will post it on the WILPF Facebook and Twitter pages.
There is no better time than now to Show up and speak out!
Thank you for joining our August actions.
Nancy Price
At Large Member, WILPF US Board
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