by Indivisible Tacoma | Dec 6, 2020 | Actions, Events, News
You may have read about this Trump-like maneuver.
The County Council intends to break up the Health Department. (Speculation: It looks as if they want to fire Dr. Chen and lift COVID restrictions. Pam Roach hates contact tracing and masks, and she has only a few weeks left on the Council.)
The Pierce County Council Republicans are trying to dissolve our health department in the middle of a pandemic!
On Dec 1, Pierce County Council Chair Doug Richardson scheduled Ordinance 2020-136 for a hearing sponsored originally by him and for unknown reasons changed to Council Member Pam Roach.
Ordinance 2020-136 would dismantle the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, with an intent to consolidate it as a regular department of Pierce County under authority of the County Executive and County Council only.
This is a vast departure from the long-standing, independent Public Health Department, jointly governed by cities, towns, Pierce County and a medical professional – thus politicizing our local Health Department.
This ordinance came as a surprise to the Board of Health, The Health Department, and to their Tacoma partners. If passed, reversal is likely impossible.
A huge thank-you to all those who have worked to make these resources available, especially the Pierce Co Democrats from whom I shamelessly borrowed.
In this piece you will find:
- speaking/writing points to use when communicating with the County Council
- links to the elected officials
- information about a #SaveTPCHD Rally scheduled for Tuesday
Talk to friends and neighbors about joining the efforts, share the media report links and know that whatever you can do, is appreciated by those on the front lines.
EMAIL:
Contact County Council Members and County Executive Bruce Dammeier NOW and until DECEMBER 15.
Tell them the politically-driven dismantling of our public health department during this roaring pandemic is reckless and dangerous.
1. E-mail: Council Contact Information | Pierce County, WA – Official Website
2. Comment Online on Proposed Ordinance No. 2020-136 (pierce.wa.us)
MESSAGING TO THE PIERCE CO. COUNCIL & THE CO. EXECUTIVE
Don’t put politics before health.
The politically-driven dismantling of our public health department during this roaring pandemic is reckless and dangerous!
We need our public health workers focused on the pandemic, not politics.
This sudden move is a divisive distraction at the exact moment we all need to pull together and pull through.
A global pandemic is not the time to play politics with our healthcare.
No consultation, no community engagement.
The City of Tacoma was not consulted as a stakeholder and partner in this policy move, nor were any other cities or towns in Pierce County.
Healthcare workers, community members, and those who rely on Tacoma-Pierce Health Department the most were all shocked by this sudden and unexplained action.
This is a significant dissolution and reorganization of a half-century-old partnership that deserves more than ONE WEEK of discussion.
Bad idea, at the WORST time
This 11th hour surprise move weakens our efforts rather than strengthens them.
At a time that partnership and collaboration is so essential, this dissolves and weakens the ability for our county and city leaders to work with medical providers, educators, parents, workers and employers.
This move has ramifications for everything from drinking water and drug treatment and maternal health.
We are in a spike of a global pandemic; not the time for playing politics with healthcare. This should not be rushed.
CALL TO ACTION!
We urge the Pierce County Executive and County Council to postpone further policy discussion and legislative action on this matter until such time that a full analysis and robust stakeholder engagement can be completed.
We request that County officials reach out to cities and towns, the medical community, educators, and other vital stakeholders to fully vet the implications of the decision to dissolve the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department prior to considering any legislation.
A final vote is scheduled on December 15, 2020.
Comment at Virtual Public Hearings:
Rules Committee Meeting
When: Monday, Dec. 7th 10:00 AM
Agenda: Meeting Agenda Dec. 7, 2020
Join: Open Zoom Link enter the Webinar ID: 945-1382-9108
Via Phone*: 253-215-8782
County Council Meeting
When: Tuesday, Dec. 8th 3:00 PM
Agenda:Council Document (pierce.wa.us)
Join: Open Zoom Link enter the Webinar ID: 976-6178-7423
Via Phone: 253-215-8782
County Council Meeting FINAL VOTE
When: Tuesday, December 15th, 3:00 PM
Agenda: TBD
Join: Open Zoom Link enter the Webinar ID: 976-6178-7423
Via Phone: 253-215-8782
*Chair calls for comment press *9 on your phone to “raise your hand”, which notifies the Zoom host you wish to speak. (Note: if you are using a cell phone and have been on the call for a while, you will need to “wake up” the screen before pressing *9).
by Indivisible Tacoma | Nov 16, 2020 | Actions, News
We breathe and celebrate. Thanks to all of Indivisible Tacoma’s energetic, aware, focused community for committing to the work. Your activism is awe-inspiring!
STEPHAN COX’S INTERVIEW WITH INDIVISIBLE’S LEAH AND EZRA! –
https://www.facebook.com/IndivisiblePodcast/videos/1024641781343656
Indivisible founders Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin talk about Indivisible’s role in making Trump a one-term president and discuss next steps, through the end of the year and beyond.
From Indivisible National
In short, we’re focused on 5 things during the “lame duck” period between the election and Inauguration:
- Taking the two senate run-offs in Georgia on January 5th
- Fending off any final Trump catastrophes
- Bolstering House progressives’ voting bloc power
- Ensuring Biden makes good early personnel choices
- Winning the upcoming COVID response and federal funding fight
What we can do now – Ballot Curing in California to help Democrats hold on to Congressional seats. Check out these CA opportunities:
- CA-39 Gil Cisneros – The campaign is running an aggressive ballot curing effort both on the phones and knocking on doors. Phone bank: https://www.mobilize.us/cisnerosforcongress/event/362517/
- CA-10 TJ Cox – The campaign is running an aggressive ballot curing effort both on the phones and knocking on doors. Phone bank: https://www.mobilize.us/coxforcongress/event/355740/
- CA-25 Christy Smith – The campaign and progressive groups are running an aggressive ballot curing effort both on the phones and knocking on doors. Phone bank: https://www.mobilize.us/grassrootsdemocratslahq/event/362522/
- CA-48 Harley Rouda – Progressive groups are running ballot curing phonebanking. Phone bank: https://www.mobilize.us/grassrootsdemocratslahq/event/362632/
WIN Town Hall – Thursday, Nov 19, 2020 07:00 PM
Environmental Priorities with Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon & Sen. Marko Liias
Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMucuqvrDIuHNNej63iOfeDAd4vVM6w57-a
by Indivisible Tacoma | Oct 26, 2020 | Events, News
Here’s a score sheet to measure progress on election night (week).
It’s set up to follow:
-
Key Tossup states for the presidency;
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Key Senate races to determine control of the senate;
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House races where Democratic wins would allow that state’s to vote for Biden if the presidential race went to the House; and
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Key WA races.
by Indivisible Tacoma | Sep 14, 2020 | Events, News
National Voter Registration Day!
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
National Voter Registration Day is a nonpartisan civic holiday celebrating our democracy. Celebrated on the fourth Tuesday of September, and first observed in 2012, it has gained momentum.
ACTION!! This week, talk to five people about their registration!
“Did you get a ballot for the August Primary election?
Have you moved recently?
Are all eligible persons in your household registered?”
Challenge them to get five more people registered.
Tell them all to pull out their phones and check their registrations at: https://voter.votewa.gov
by Indivisible Tacoma | Sep 14, 2020 | News
Courtesy of Indivisible.org:
The tragic events of the last few weeks have reinvigorated calls to defund the police. We’re demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Jacob Blake and all the lives destroyed by police violence with more than just reforms — we support defunding the police. In this moment of national reckoning over police violence and systemic racism, we want to make sure your questions are answered about why we’ve taken this stance in solidarity with Black lives. As active allies, we’ve treated the last few months as an opportunity to educate ourselves more on this topic, and we’re happy to share what we’ve learned so far:
1. First and foremost, we have to put this conversation in context to understand how we got to where we are today. The history of policing in this country began as a way to preserve the slavery in the South, with patrols drawing from vigilante groups to surveil, capture, and terrorize the enslaved Black population. This kind of targeting continued even after emancipation, rearing its ugly head with the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and the enactment of Jim Crow laws. And, in more recent history, politicians of all backgrounds have enabled the policies that have led to the militarization of police. This history is reflected in what we are witnessing today, as police officers and vigilantes (like Kyle Rittenhouse) inflict violence on Black lives on a daily basis. We all want to feel safe, but in Black and brown communities, police and law enforcement often represent harm and terror — not safety.
2. So, what do we mean when we say “defund the police”? The movement to defund the police is about reallocating the hundreds of millions (sometimes billions) of dollars currently being spent on police to directly serve and reinvest in our communities. This opens up funding that will transform entire communities as we know them. When people have their basic needs met, they’re less likely to end up in the kind of dangerous situations police officers are called upon to ‘handle.’ As just one example, according to a study from the Treatment Advocacy Center, a person with an untreated mental health issue is 16 times more likely to be killed by police than other members of the community.
Instead of funding police to handle situations that don’t require law enforcement, here’s what that funding could be used for instead:
- Crisis intervention specialists
- Social workers
- Behavioral and mental health experts
- Food assistance and clean water
- Housing assistance
- School budgets
You might be thinking, “How will a mental health expert stay safe during a potentially dangerous situation? Won’t we need the police instead?” To that, we point to the fact that even though policing has become more heavily militarized, more weapons don’t ensure officers are safe. Furthermore, the force is unevenly brought to bear across communities, with police disproportionately targeting communities of color. If police officers enter a community with this kind of militarized mindset instead of the goal of defusing crises, they are less capable of prioritizing safety and de-escalation.
3. Why say “defund” instead of [insert option here]? We hear you. During such a contentious time in our history, it might seem like we should be prioritizing strategic language at every turn. The thing is, allyship is about listening to the people who are most profoundly affected and taking their position seriously. Defunding the police comes from Black and brown grassroots organizations, like Movement for Black Lives’s (M4BL), who are rightfully at the forefront of this fight for justice. The #DefundHate Coalition, spearheaded by immigration rights organizations at United We Dream and Detention Watch Network, relates their own mission to cutting funding for ICE and CBP to defunding the police in solidarity with Black lives. As a white-led organization, it is not Indivisible’s place to make suggestions about how Black and brown activists are expressing their demands. We want to participate in the conversation, but it’s not our place to reframe it to be more palatable to the masses to people of color’s lived experiences.
More than taking the lead from Black-led organizations, we’ve found that the word “defund” is actually a perfect way to describe their intentions. Conservative Republicans have been comfortable using the word “defund” when it comes to Planned Parenthood for years. We’re using the word in the same way. We want to defund the police — in other words, take funds from a certain program to free up that money for another purpose. We need to step back from this broken model of “protection,” and reinvest in a shared vision of community safety, infrastructure, and recovery that does not rely on the police.
If you want more information, here are a few resources we recommend:
We won’t stop saying Black Lives Matter, and we’ll back it up with a commitment to anti-racist initiatives that we believe will bring us closer to a more perfect union. We hope this email has provided useful context and resources for you to read and share.
In solidarity,
Indivisible Team
by Indivisible Tacoma | Aug 30, 2020 | News
Dear Invisible Tacoma Members,
Indivisible Tacoma has been working hard to make our website a useful resource for our activism.
We are pleased to be able to launch a new page highlighting resources around racial justice. We hope you find these resources give you a few new ways to combat our current horrific state of affairs around race.
This was truly a team effort and a big thanks goes to our Webmaster Kathy Porter, for her many hours of research and design work and to DaMita O’Dell, Ellen Floyd and the IT Communications Team for their ongoing input.
Please share widely with family and friends so that we can engage our community in this important work.
Read on for the introduction and link to the full web page…
IN SUPPORT OF RACIAL JUSTICE
“It’s not enough to just say the words Black Lives Matter, we must make it true. We need to be willing to listen, learn, protect and lift up our Black community.
The murder of George Floyd may have brought the efforts of the BLM movement to your attention, but right here in our own area we’ve seen people die during interactions with police. There are many local activist and organizations who have always been doing the work of social justice and building up of the Black community and other communities of color.
We are encouraged by the ongoing protest happening throughout the surrounding areas of Pierce County and grateful to all those willing to stand in solidarity to protect Black lives. We welcome your support of racial justice and hope you will engage with local groups who need your support to make sure our community is a place where everyone is safe and has the ability to thrive.”
– DaMita O’Dell, Indivisible Tacoma Go4Action Team Lead
You’ll find the full page at this link: https://indivisibletacoma.net/in-support-of-racial-justice/
