It’s ⏰ Time to Impeach Trump ? (Rally)

It’s ⏰ Time to Impeach Trump ? (Rally)

This Saturday, Indivisible members and friends across the nation will gather at rallies to urge Congress to impeach Trump. Why bother, when it’s polling so poorly? After all, the GOP-run Senate won’t do their duty, and we’d just wind up with Mike Pence? Still, we should do it because it’s the right thing to do.

In this week’s update:

Rally:⚖️The People’s Court Moves to Impeach Trump

Want Congress to impeach Trump? All in favor, say “aye” and come join us!

Saturday, June 15th, 12:00 p.m.
U.S. District Court (and Union Station)
1717 Pacific Ave, Tacoma

Trump claims the Mueller Report exonerates him. But that’s not what Mueller said.

“If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.”
— Robert Mueller

Let’s tell Congress to do its job & begin impeachment proceedings now! Congress must use the full extent of its oversight and investigative powers to get the full truth and hold Trump accountable. Even if the Senate won’t vote to impeach Trump and the polls show only 43 percent in favor, it’s the right thing to do.

Our theme is “In the People’s Court.”

If you can, come dressed as an old-fashioned judge with a black robe and a long, white wig. If you can’t, please wear black. And definitely bring signs!

✍️ Also, Please Sign This Statement to Congress

Indivisible U.S.has a letter that demands that Congress conduct an impeachment inquiry. This needs to happen before we can impeach Trump. Please read this Statement to Congress, then scroll down and sign with your name, your chapter (Indivisible Tacoma), and your congressional district number. It only takes a couple of minutes!

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Father’s Day Rally Outside Tacoma Immigration Prison

Hosted by La Resistencia
Sunday, June 16, 2019 at 2 PM – 4 PM
Northwest Detention Center
Tacoma, Washington 98421

Join La Resistencia to tell ICE and GEO that Father’s Day should be spent at home with family and community – and NOT in prison!
At the rally we will be fundraising for Saja Tunkara, who was ripped away from his wife and two children and then deported after calling out the medical neglect and mistreatment of ICE and GEO. Saja is still in need of medical care. All funds will support him and his family.

If you cannot attend, please donate at: https://www.gofundme.com/immigrationsave4lives

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Meetings ?️ with Our MoCs & State Legislators

Photo of Indivisible Tacoma members meeting with Maria Cantwell.

March 23, 2019. 10 members of Indivisible Tacoma met with Sen. Maria Cantwell to ask for her support on core issues. We also congratulated her on getting S.R. 47 passed. The Natural Resources Management Act is a massive package of over 130 bills sets aside millions of acres for public lands.

Trump supporters are calling and meeting with our lawmakers. Are we?

We’ve got some meetings coming up with our Members of Congress (MoCs), and our state legislators. The more of us who show up to these meetings, the more support they see for a bill, and the more pressure it puts on them. And if you can’t show up, you can still make a phone call or send an email (or letter) in support

Here’s how these meetings work: Folks from the Legislative Action Team call our MoCs and set up meetings with them or with their district directors. We then write a letter with a list of policies and/or specific bills we want them to support. 15 minutes before the meeting, we all gather in the lobby to sign the letter. At the meeting, we present the letter and tell stories about how these issues impact our communities and our personal lives.  And then, we ask if we can count on their support for these issues.

Since Washington’s a “blue” most of our lawmakers vote the way we want most of the time. But not always. For starters, the 28th Legislative District (LD) still has a GOP relic in our state Senate (Steve O’Ban), and the 25th district’s state legislators all have (R) after their names. Nor are any of our senators and reps in Washington onboard with Medicare for All or the Green New Deal.

Want to get involved with these meetings? Fill out our contact form: https://indivisibletacoma.net/contact-us/

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Newsy ? Bits

350 Tacoma Torches ? PSE and Debunks Their LNG “Clean Energy” Myths

Puget Sound Energy claims their liquid natural gas (LNG) plant will provide clean energy and cleaner fuels for ships at the Port of Tacoma. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Sure, liquid natural gas burns cleaner. But the fracking and methane-laden processes involved in producing LNG is another story entirely.

LNG: Environmental Benefit or Tragedy? (General Meeting

Indivisible Tacoma general meeting, featuring Daniel Villa & Bradley Thompson from 350 Tacoma.Weds. June 5, 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Congregation1115 S 56th St Tacoma, WA 98408

Posted by Indivisible Tacoma on Wednesday, June 5, 2019

What’s Wrong with the LNG Plant? Let Us Count the Ways.

If you don’t have time to watch, here’s a quick summary of the points made.

  • This project violates the Puyallup Tribe’s water rights — which U.S. treaties guarantee in perpetuity — and is an assault on their culture.
  • The Tacoma City Council approved the LNG plant based on a faulty Environmental Impact Study (EIS)
  • Fracked gas is worse for the climate than coal, because methane is 96 times worse than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period.
  • Tarika Powell from the Sightline Institute notes a multitude of safety concerns. For starters, many residential and public areas are less than 3 miles away.
  • At $310 million, plus $13.5 million for access roads, the LNG plant is danged expensive. PSE customers will pay 43% of the cost and will only get 7% of the energy produced. And that’s not even counting the massive tax breaks.

For more information, see 350 Tacoma’s What’s Wrong with Puget Sound Energy’s Fracked Gas Project?


House Passes H.R. 6, the ? American Dream and Promise Act

H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act, has finally passed the House of Representatives with unanimous Democratic support. ? ?

This. Is. Huge. And the victory belongs to every single person who called their member of Congress and showed up at district offices across the nation to demand #DreamAndPromiseNow. And, of course, the lion’s share of the credit goes to those who organized this: United We Dream, UndocuBlack, the National Immigration Law Center, the National TPS Alliance, and the efforts of champions like Reps. Chuy García, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.

Of course, Republicans in the Senate are unlikely to pass this without adding “border security” measures that we won’t support. But protecting DREAMers is a clear example of how the Democratic Party can improve the lives of millions of people… If we can take back the White House and the Senate.

Nominees Wanted for Our State ? LGBTQ Commission

From the Rainbow Center‘s newsletter:

The Governor’s Office is welcoming nominations for the LGBTQ Commission. This is the first time that a state takes the initiative to create a Commission with the sole purpose of protecting LGBTQ residents. Rainbow Center encourages people from our community to take part of this historic moment by applying to be a Commissioner. It will be very important for the diverse and resilient LGBTQ community in Pierce County to have a voice at this Commission.

Also, congratulations to the Washington State Legislature. They were busy during this last session working to protect LGBTQ rights in the state. Among the important pieces of legislation signed by Gov. Jay Inslee there were:

  • Anti-bullying protections for trans students.
  • Higher fines for hate crimes.
  • Adding non-binary options to state records.
  • The creation of a state-wide LGBTQ Commission.

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Calendar of Upcoming Local Events

Below are highlights from this and next week’s events with our progressive allies. For a complete list of community happenings, see our Calendar of Events page.

The Black Celebration

hosted by the Black Affinity Dinner Planning Committee and sponsored by the Just & Healthy Food System.

Sat. June 15, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
2136 MLK Jr. Way, Tacoma, Wash. 98405

Free (more info at EventBrite): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-black-celebration-tickets-61661398904?fbclid=IwAR2Fz1FQ6dUfHtH8cas0Xe97NfwLZmHklfq7aPZkyy41S7F1xzz3ONKVzaM

This is an event honoring Amazing Black People and the work they do in Tacoma.

Please join us for this free event that will include dinner, DJ, performances, and most importantly the honorees. The honorees are people we as a committee believe are doing phenomenal work in the community.


Point Defiance Beach Cleanup

Saturday, June 15, 2019
9:00 a.m.– 12:00 p.m.
Point Defiance Marina
5912 N Waterfront Dr, Tacoma, Wash. 98407

Join other volunteers to make a difference in the health and cleanliness of our beach. Meet at the Point Defiance Marina at 9 am. This event occurs rain or shine! Beach cleanup events are held every 3rd Saturday at Point Defiance Marina.

For more details, click here: https://www.metroparkstacoma.org/calendar/mobile_detail.php?id=10746


Salt March Kickoff Celebration

Hosted by 350 Tacoma with Earth Corps

Saturday, June 15th, 10:00a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Rhone-Poulenc Salt Marsh
1747 Port of Tacoma Rd, Tacoma, WA 98421-3714

Gloves, tools, snacks & water provided.

350 Tacoma, with the support of EarthCorps and Tacoma Environmental Services, has been working hard since January 2018 to steward and restore a small neglected salt marsh on the Blair Waterway in the Tacoma Tideflats, nestled between an oil terminal and a container shipping yard. Literally hundreds of people have volunteered their time, passion, energy, and labor to love this little oasis back to health. And we’ve still got so much work to do!

Now come celebrate with us! EarthCorps and the City of Tacoma are marking the first year of their Tacoma Open Spaces Program. Join us on June 15, 10am to noon, as we take a break from the work and celebrate what we’ve been able to accomplish.

Food and beverages provided. Plant-based food catered by Quickie Too! No RSVP necessary.

For more details, click here: https://www.earthcorps.org/volunteer/event/a0E1E000005vrTvUAI/?fbclid=IwAR0v3EsZuO7oJJR3rhY_g-jRu2XenLNwEn1A6R9TwEwlK60wgMczvy3bC94


Democratic Party: Voter Outreach Across Pierce County

Saturday, June 22, 2019
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
IBEW 76 – 3049 S. 36th St., Tacoma, Wash. 98409

Schedule for Voter Outreach Event

  • 10:00 a.m.: Doors open, social and refreshments
    with your local Democratic leaders
  • 10:45 a.m.: Panel Discussion – The Importance of Voter Contact!
  • Rising Star Volunteer Training – Deep Listening Canvassing 101
  • Get Active! – Team Up for Deep Listening Canvassing, Phone Banking, OR Postcard Outreach Campaign
  • 2:30 p.m.: Let’s Eat! – Light meal served by our elected leaders
  • Closing Remarks

Volunteers will be entered into a drawing for free tickets to the IMAX Presidential Debate Event (June 26 and 27) and other prizes. Get an extra chance to win for each friend you bring!


Community Conversation on Race & the Power of an Illusion

Saturday, June 22, 2019 at 5 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Salishan Family Investment Center FIC
1724 East 44th Street, Tacoma, Wash. 98404

Join our Human Rights Commission’s Racial Justice and Equity Committee for a community conversation on race and the power of an illusion. This free event provides an opportunity for an open dialogue around race in the United States.

To learn more about Tacoma’s Human Rights Commission, visit https://www.cityoftacoma.org/humanrightscommission.


Fierce Vulnerability: Direct Action that Heals and Transforms

WWFOR’s 61st Annual N.W. Regional Conference at Seabeck, Wash.

June 28th-July 1st, 2019

Hosted by the Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation (WWFOR)

Traditionally we have had multiple workshops on a variety of issues under a common theme. In recognition of activists’ needs at this particular point in time, all of our 200-250 attendees will share a single focus. You are invited to join us for a long weekend of learning and growing and practicing in community.

Held at the beautiful Seabeck Conference Center, this is a family friendly event with programming for teens and child care available.

For more info, click here: https://wwfor.org/annual-conference/

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?And Remember…

Impeach Trump: Illustration with Donald Trump behind bars.

It’s time for us to impeach Trump.

12 Days of Christmas

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12 Days of Christmas

                  ⭐ Donate here to give detainees money for bonds 

Separated from family and working for only a dollar a day, it won’t be much of a Christmas for the more than 1,400 undocumented immigrants detained at Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center. Despite its location in the Tacoma Tide Flats, most local residents are unaware of this private prison, not to mention the inhumane conditions, overcrowding, and lack of adequate care experienced by detainees there.

That’s why, this holiday season, Indivisible Tacoma is teaming up with the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) Resistance for “The 12 Days of Christmas,” providing some welcome holiday relief and letting detainees know they haven’t been forgotten. 

Every day December 13-24, 2017, members of Indivisible Tacoma, along with a variety of other local grassroots, community, and religious organizations, will reinforce the efforts of NWDC Resistance activists to support detainees and raise awareness of the human rights crisis in our backyard. 

Join us in one, more, or all of the events below!

Day 1. December 13th – NWDCR meeting & 12 Days kick off. 

Time: 6:30-8pm.

Address: 1115 S 56th St, Tacoma, WA 98408

Place: Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Congregation

RSVP: Facebook

Featuring: the documentary short film Hunger Strikes: A Call to End Immigrant Detention and speakers:

  • Dr. Megan Ybarra, professor at the University of Washington and leader in the Northwest Detention Center Resistance

  • Wendy Pantoja Castillo, Tacoma migrant rights activist and leader in the Northwest Detention Center Resistance (NWDC-R)

Join us to learn from the NWDC-R leaders locked away in the Tacoma immigration prison via the video and in person from those struggling on their behalf outside about why we should join the struggle.

Come learn how you can join the fight for human dignity and fairness…here, there and everywhere.

This event is free and open to the public.

There is wheelchair ramp access through a side door at the southeast corner of the building. One gender-neutral, disabled-access restroom with grab bars is located on the same level as the meeting room. Service animals are welcome.

Day 2. December 14th. Make some noise! Music, drumming at the NWDC.

Please contact us for more details.

Day 3. December 15th. Fundraiser for detainees to buy toiletries.

Please contact us for more details.

Day 4. December 16th. Chalk art at the NWDC.

This is a big visitation day. Let’s let the families know they are supported and loved with welcoming messages and drawings as they enter. This is a family-friendly event, and some sidewalk chalk will be provided.

Time: 10am-12pm

Location: 1623 E J St, Tacoma, WA 98421

Place: NWDC

RSVP: Facebook

Day 5. December 17th. Giving gifts to children, partners, and families of detainees.

Please contact us for more details.

Day 6. December 18th. Pairing volunteers up with pen pals inside the prison. 

Please contact us for more details.

Day 7. December 19th. Writing letters to detainees.

Please contact us for more details.

Day 8. December 20th. Action meeting: transcribe poems, short stories, quotes in natively spoken languages to deliver to detainees.

It’s difficult to send detainees books, so we’re providing them with handwritten reading material.

Time: 6:30-8pm.

Address: 1115 S 56th St, Tacoma, WA 98408

Place: Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Congregation

RSVP: Facebook

Day 9. December 21st. Online donation day.

Did you know detainees in Tacoma’s immigration prison work for $1 a day, while shampoo costs them $8 a bottle? Imagine working for 8 days just to be able to wash your hair. That’s the reality of everyday life for detainees living under the Geo Group and ICE detention regime.

And that’s why this Christmas, we’re raising money to give to detainees so they can buy toiletries and make phone calls. To donate, please go here:

https://www.youcaring.com/detaineesinthenorthwestdetentioncentertacomawa-1040410

Day 10. December 22nd. Raising community awareness.

Indivisible Tacoma members with fliers will educate the public about the NWDC in a high foot-traffic area.

If you’re interested in volunteering for this day, please contact Alexis.

Day 11. December 23rd. Music fundraiser.

Join us for a night of live music. This event is open to the public, and donations for detainees’ commissary accounts are appreciated.

Time: 6:30-8pm

Address: 1115 S 56th St, Tacoma, WA 98408

Place: Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Congregation

RSVP: Facebook

Day 12. December 24th. Candlight vigil and singing. 

In the hush of night, as Christmas Eve draws to a close and Christmas Day arrives, join us for a candlelight vigil and carols. 1,400+ immigrants—our neighbors—are spending Christmas in Tacoma’s immigration prison. What will Christmas look like for them, separated from their families? 

We invite people all faiths, no faith, and agnostics to join us as we sing Feliz Navidad, Silent Night, Cielito Lindo, and other songs and carols.

Time: 11:30pm-12:15am

Location: 1623 E J St, Tacoma, WA 98421

Place: NWDC

RSVP: Facebook

Resist Those Who Profit from Human Misery!

Today’s post comes from a freshman activist who attended the Tacoma City Council meeting regarding the Northwest Detention Center:

Those who profit and flourish, monetarily and/or ideologically, from the Trump agenda, are smart enough to distance themselves from his name and his rhetoric. But they still base their arguments on some well-dressed variation of, "Let’s agree, those bleeding-heart liberals simply don’t get how things really work."

This bleeding heart begs to differ.

Yesterday, countless brave members of the community shared testimonies about life-or-death health care crises, rape and sexual assault, malnutrition, extortion, exploitation of labor, lack of due process, willful separation of families, and near-complete lack of either operational accountability or transparency in the Northwest Detention Center. Representatives for this company, which profits from human misery, stood in their suit and ties, arguing essentially this:

Nevermind the snowflakes; there is no avalanche.

To which I say: no! Resist. Resist. Resist. Find solidarity through your Indivisible Tacoma community. By whatever legal means you’re comfortable with, and for whichever issues Trump stirs that strike most against your core values, speak up with your elected officials.

You don’t even have to be politically liberal or a so-called snowflake to take these urgent, important steps. You just have to resist some part the Trump agenda.

Don’t assume that Facebook activism actually accomplishes anything. March, boycott, and picket, but perhaps most potently, take the unglamorous, seemingly boring actions of engaging in everyday democracy, every day.

Your actions and your voice and most of all, your tenacity, are the undoing of those who, blatantly or tacitly, support a fascist president and take strength in a wink-nod approach that underestimates your power. Expose the cracks in that approach by making yourself heard.

Be indivisible, Tacoma.

Letter to Tacoma’s City Council

Letter to Tacoma’s City Council

25 April 2017

Dear Mayor Strickland and Tacoma City Council Members:

Indivisible Tacoma is a nonpartisan group of over a thousand local citizens. We came together after the election out of concern that the Trump administration does not represent our welcoming, West Coast values. Although we are not experts on immigration, law enforcement, or the zoning of real estate, as neighbors and community members we reject the politics of fear.

Here are our thoughts on the zoning regulations before the Council today:

1. We are strongly opposed to the existence of any private prison anywhere, including here in Tacoma. No private corporation should be put in a position where profit steers them toward the incarceration and mistreatment of human beings.

2. We strongly support increased scrutiny of public correctional facilities, which should include a difficult permitting process that includes input from the community on whether this kind of facility is even addressing a genuine need, or whether we can find other solutions for public safety.

3. It is important to get this process right, and we do want the City Council to make sure that any regulatory framework the City imposes will be effective and will hold up in court. However, promptness is also important. Please update these zoning regulations and make them permanent as fast as possible.

4. We would like to request an additional hearing or other forum to discuss our concerns about human right violations at the Northwest Detention Center. We are very concerned with reports coming out of the NWDC about the conditions in which people are being held, the nutrition and hygiene situation, and the fact that detainees are being put to work for literal slave wages. We support the Northwest Detention Center Resistance and would like the City Council to listen to people with firsthand experiences and accept their guidance when directing the Health Department or other appropriate agencies to address these issues. An additional hearing would be very helpful.

Thank you for listening to our concerns. We look forward to speaking with you again at the next opportunity on conditions inside the Northwest Detention Center.

Sincerely,
Indivisible Tacoma