ProWo Notes Feb. 11, 2020

Susan W., Lena S., Sue F., Kathy D., Debra F., Alison H. Carol P. , Patty S., Nancy M. Joan T., Lucy F., Michelle S., Jane Z., Rhonda H.

Let me know if I've left out any important points ---J

Announcements


Joan made a presentation at the Women Power the Vote Workshop sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Greater Hartford. The League is non-partisan, but it does take positions on issues. For instance, it is a longtime supporter of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

The Town of Bloomfield issued a proclamation making Friday, February 14 The League of Women Voters Day.

Joan has a checklist of concrete actions we can easily take regarding voting. You can see the checklist here:

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Af6697ecf-3360-48a1-b370-3e4aeeb1e425

Lucy announced the Sister District book discussion group on Sunday, March 29, 4pm at her house. We will be discussing “All Politics are Local.” Sign up by emailing sisterdistrict1ct@gmail.com.

Jane announced we will have a Sister District fundraiser on Saturday, April 25, 3pm. It will be a workshop on Ayurvedic techniques to keep us strong and focused. Watch for more info.

Conversation

Michelle shared an article, “America needs the left, center to get along” by David Leonardt as well as an article “Everyone will be forgotten - but maybe not what they’ve done” by Mary Schmich, both published in the Hartford Courant. (See below)

We discussed the role of the media. We should have framed Iowa as “let’s learn from this.” We live in extreme times, the press has extreme reactions otherwise they won’t get noticed. The President was elected because the media glorified him. Is there a way to push back against the media?

How do we get our news?

NYT, NPR, WP, CNN, MSNBC, New Yorker, Financial Times - business newspapers need to report real information for businesses.

Remember every click is a success measure when we read online.

Atlantic article on fake news:

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-2020-disinformation-war/605530/?fbclid=IwAR2BDcpu8r37qoFZu0aQ02f1WwGqsB0D3E-xK6n92Anx2-4MVdvOpLbCBeY

Podcasts I listen to:

Political Gabfest


Pod Save America

Amicus

Other sources

PoliticalCharge.org

Michelle reads Heather Cox Richardson on Facebook.

Lucy suggested Red for the Blue, which summarizes what the right is saying

We want to sponsor specific events. Let’s decide what those are. We could do our own voter registration, for example.

We should identify candidates who we want to campaign for.

We want to work on the Amy McGrath and Sara Gideon campaigns.

We should write op-eds

Rhonda let us cast our ballots: Dream Team, #1 issue, Presidential candidate

Presidential candidate

Amy Klobuchar

Elizabeth Warren

Deval Patrick

Peter Buttigieg

Michael Bloomberg

#1 issue
Climate (4)


Campaign finance reform

Health care

Disinformation

Corruption

Economic inequality

Electability

Revenge (how do we counter the President’s revenge)

Dream team

Warren/Klobuchar (3)

Buttigieg/Bloomberg

Bloomberg/Booker

Pelosi/Sciff

Buttigieg/Klobuchar

Klobuchar/Booker

Warren/Buttigieg

Warren/Abrams

Warren/Murphy

Bloomberg/Klobuchar

We acknowledged the importance of climate change. Sue is an artist who believes art can influence policy making and make us feel more emotionally connected to the issues. She introduced the The Algonquin Water Song. Indigenous women created the song to help us feel more connected to water. This can build momentum, such as dialogue about water issues.

https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2019/07/29/women-of-the-world-sing-the-algonquin-water-song/

We should create educational forum for how we can be more aware of conservation.

Jane handed out a suggested Plan of Action for ProWo.