IN THIS ISSUE

Taking Action on For the People
Week of Action for Democracy>
Swing Left Greater Boston ≠ Swing Left
NC Rep Hurtado Fights COVID-19
Slippery Slope
John Lewis: Good Trouble

CALL TO ACTION

Senators Need to Hear

Do you want Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to make voter protection his TOP priority? Do you want him to block Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) attempts to filibuster For the People?

A great way to way to protect everyone’s right to vote is to mobilize New Yorkers to call Schumer and convince him to do whatever it takes! Your postcards will include a direct phone number to Schumer's office where voters can leave a message urging him to support For the People.

Postcards are easy to fill out: They only require a short, handwritten message; slap on an address label and stamp, and you’re good to go!

Call to action

Find your For the People postcards here!

You can also
make calls to other areas of the country!
Connect voters to their Senators so they will support For the People.

CALL TO ACTION

Get Folks Together for a Week of Action

Declaration for American Democracy Week of Action

This week, the Declaration for American Democracy is holding the For the People Week of Action to mark the introduction of S. 1 and to demonstrate broad public support for these reforms. Over the course of the week, activists will hold Demand Democracy actions across the country and conduct virtual advocacy visits with their Senators.

Take this opportunity to attend Democracy Teach-Ins and learn more about issues like gerrymandering, voting rights and voter suppression, how to get big money out of politics, and how democracy reform can advance equality and social justice.

Call to action
Join any of these informative sessions on specific aspects of Democracy!

DID YOU KNOW?

This newsletter is from Swing Left Greater Boston (SLGB), not from the national Swing Left organization. SLGB is affiliated with national Swing Left but is completely autonomous.

SLGB benefited from the credibility of a nationwide organization and publication of all our events on the national website.

On the other hand, SLGB independently creates its own campaigns in partnership with organizations in swing states; we list and manage attendance through our own sites; and we collaborate on our own research projects to measure effectiveness.

NORTH CAROLINA

Getting Vaccines to Low-Income, Black, and Hispanic Residents

New state legislator Ricky Hurtado is the first Hispanic in the NC General Assembly and the only Democrat to flip an NC House seat in 2020. Hurtado knows that being an elected official requires solving real, everyday problems. At the top of his list is access to COVID-19 vaccinations. So, Hurtado asked for help reaching out to marginalized communities in Alamance County.

Activists in Massachusetts and other Blue states have responded. They're phoning NC constituents, making appointments so North Carolinians don’t have to wait on hold or get on a computer to get an appointment.

Call to action Read this account of one volunteer.

Make it easier for people in Alamance County, NC, to schedule their COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

STELLAR VOLUNTEER

A Slippery Slope …

According to Melanie Plaut, the transition from letter writing to phone calls to phone bank host was a slippery slope.

"Melanie was a prolific phone bank volunteer who answered the call when we needed hosts for the general election in Florida," writes Jeff Lobo. "After learning the ropes, she took the initiative to start a second weekly phonebank and recruited and trained a co-host to make it possible.”

After retiring as an OB/GYN in 2016, Melanie Plaut wanted to make the world a better place for the babies she delivered. Concerned about climate change, she decided the most effective step was to change our elected officials.

“I started writing letters with Vote Forward; I ended up running a group that mailed 40,000! Then, Jeff Lobo sucked me into SLGB phone banks. I'm an introvert, so this was a stretch for me. The Phone-Banking for Introverts training was the magic key -- the title alone was enough to motivate me.

“Eventually, Jeff talked me into leading phone banks; his humble but competent style made me think, ‘Wow, maybe I could do that!’ It was a slippery slope, but -- as with most things in life -- the most important parts are showing up and paying attention."

LEARN MORE

John Lewis: Good Trouble

Have you seen the documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble? Either way, join the online panel discussion of the film on April 13, which revisits Lewis’s most famous work as an activist and chronicles his life. Callie Crossley (WGBH) will moderate the conversation with Prof. Danielle Allen, Elijah Booker, and Shirley Mark. This presentation is part of the Voices for Justice series run by the Cambridge Public Library Foundation.

Call to action Register for a discussion of John Lewis: Good Trouble.
Tuesday, April 13 @ 7:30 pm