Sent: Tue, Feb 2, 2021 11:51 am
Subject: Leelanau Indivisible Actions
Indivisibles,
Lots of things to share this week, on the local, state and federal level. First, locally there are two items coming up at the Board of Commissioner’s meetings in Leelanau County. Tomorrow, February 3, there will be a special Commission meeting beginning at 9:00 to discuss goals for 2021. This link will provide the agenda as well as a link for live streaming the meeting. There is time allotted before and after the meeting for public comment. https://www.leelanau.gov/downloads/02032021_cotw_session_agenda.pdf
As many of you may have read in last week’s Leelanau Enterprise, Chairman Bunek is planning to introduce a resolution to support the Great Barrington Declaration, a controversial statement that endorses the elimination of mandatory pandemic restrictions on such things as mask wearing, and social distancing with the goal of creating herd immunity. These were the views of former President Trump’s adviser, Scott Atlas. To learn more about the Declaration go to https://theconversation.com/5-failings-of-the-great-barrington-declarations-dangerous-plan-for-covid-19-natural-herd-immunity-148975. and be prepared to comment at the next regularly scheduled BOC meeting on February 9. The agenda and link to this meeting has not yet been posted, but I will send it to you before the meeting. You may also mail a letter to the Commission. One letter from a resident who opposes this resolution has already been posted on the County website. https://www.leelanau.gov/downloads/pc_corres_montie_02092021_1.pdf
If you are available this afternoon at 2:00 PM there is a Civics 101 presentation by the GT Democratic Party about the County Commission. Although some of the information may be GT specific, there is useful material for those in other counties. You must preregister at https://www.facebook.com/gtdems/events/?ref=page_internal.
An easy action that you can take, is to go support Oil and Water Don’t Mix and sign the petition to President Biden to support Gov. Whitmer’s action to decommission Enbridge’s twin Line 5 oil pipelines in the Straits. https://www.oilandwaterdontmix.org/president_biden_support_the_line_5_shutdown?recruiter_id=12618.
Another quick action is to support moveon.org’s petition to have Marjorie Taylor Greene removed from the House Education and Labor Committee. It will take seconds to add your name. https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/remove-rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-from-the-house-education-and-labor-committees-1?share=d8da44f1-161f-44ec-9886-d9105458f1e2&source=s.fwd&utm_source=s.fwdThey have also requested that you call Representative Jack Bergman at 1-833-933-0208 to ask him to demand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is removed from the Committee on Education and Labor now.
And there is especially exciting news! Constituents in the 1st Congressional District in Michigan have formed an organization to hold Jack Bergman accountable for his recent votes in the House to undermine the election results. It is called Defund Bergman and they just launched their campaign today. They have the goal of reaching out to his donors and ask that they no longer support his campaign. They have a website, defundberman.com that lists his donors, as well as a Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/DefundBergman/. You can support this effort by joining their Facebook page and following the actions they will offer weekly, by visiting the website for the donor list, and by signing up for updates. This is grassroots at its finest and we need to show our support. It’s not too early to think about 2022.
One last concern today. The Post Office and its Board of Governors is run by Trump appointees including the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. I’m sure we all remember Mr. DeJoy’s efforts during the last election to mess with vote by mail. President Biden does not have the authority to fire DeJoy. That is in the Board of Governor’s purview. However, he can fire the Board for cause. You can follow this issue athttps://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/01/25/house-democrat-pascrell-calls-on-biden-to-fire-entire-postal-service-board-of-governors-dejoy/?sh=6ba80e34ee6f
One last event this week that would be worth your time to attend. The League of Women Voters of Leelanau County is holding a childcare forum, this Wednesday, February 3 at noon. It will be a webinar and can be accessed at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_W92enl-5SBmOxzweWUe3wA. It will focus on affordable quality childcare.
Wow, that’s a lot to take in. Hope you made it to the end of the email. And we thought that things would settle down after the election. Boy, were we wrong.
Enjoy the rest of this beautiful day, and tomorrow as well. Heard that we may be getting a bit of real winter at the end of the week.
Jill
