Volunteer Opportunity

Hello ALL!

I miss you guys and think we should get together for a breakfast soon.

Now, on to business.

South Euclid Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams-Byers is running for re-election. She is running unopposed at the moment but still needs signatures to turn into the board of elections so that she is actually on the ballot. Canvassing will be this Sunday, May 7th, 3pm-6pm. If you can't make it the whole time that's ok. Canvass as long as you are able. We will meet at the judges house. Message me if you are interested and I'll pass along her address.

I know some of you were asking about the merger of our Muni Court with Lyndhurst. This is not a done deal. The vote that city council had last year was to simply to ask the state to allow them to investigate the feasibility of a merger with ANY neighboring city. Lyndhurst, in my opinion would be a bad city it merge with as it is very different demographically. Some one at the Den meeting mentioned that it would also change our representation in state or house congresses. I am not sure how true that is. It was suggested that Cleveland Heights may be the better option if we were to go through with it. City Council President Jane Goodman mentioned that we would be able to keep Judge Williams-Byers after merger. I am not quite sure what that all entails and if she is at the next meeting I intend to get clarification. Also, mentioned was that there may be 3 public town halls on the subject.

I will endeavor to keep you all informed on this.

Now, some personal news.

I was elected Secretary of the South Euclid Democratic Club. I am trying to bring it into 2017 and have set up a twitter, @southeucliddems and Facebook, South Euclid Democrats, account. There will be a website shortly.

Whew!

I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted. I guess I haven't much to report, although I know we are all resisting in our own little ways; post cards, protests, petitions and phone calls. Every day I feel like there is another report of some disappointing news or scandal coming from the White House. At times I've felt overwhelmed by it and suppose I have taken a step back for a break. But I should be back to full fighting mode by mid-May!

In the meantime:

The March for Science takes place on April 22 in Public Square at 9am. There will be kid friendly activities like face painting, fun with water, etc until 10am along with speakers. THEN WE MARCH!  I will be going but am volunteering with the organizers and will not actually be marching. If anyone else is interested in volunteering get ahold of me and I'll see what we can do.

They are also asking, if you can, that you go out to the fair grounds for the Earthfest. I think you can take the red line straight out and if you show your RTA pass or ride your bike you can get in free. Earthfest


There will be a sign making party on April 20 at 7pm at the Happy Dog Euclid Tavern. Some materials will be provided but bring anything you want to use or would be willing to donate.
Signage party!

In case you are looking for signspiration here are a couple of sites that you can use for ideas or download and print. The first and third are free and I believe the second is for money.

http://www.sciencemarchcle.com/posters.html

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/march%20for%20science+posters

https://www.beyondcurie.com/march-for-science-posters/

Guest Blog: SURJ

My name is Amoriya and I participated in the Women's March a week ago. Whether in DC or Cleveland, it was a moment of strength and sharing. The energy that has been released was incredible.  We owe a debt of gratitude to the women of color who did much of the organizing.

 

​Now many are thinking about the sustained action that will be required to make a difference.  There are many opportunities and it is good to remember they all intersect.  I would like to ask you to consider looking at and working against the underlying oppression of racism that was so masterfully used to gain votes this election.  I have come to understand that that finding ways to point out out and disrupt the practices that support white supremacy is a key to ending white, women's oppression, economic injustice and ALL forms of injustice.  When women of color are free, we'll all be free.

A group in Cleveland called Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ Northeast Ohio) has a mission to organize white people 

to work along side groups of color ​for racial justice. 

​There is a ​

​

general meeting 

​and orientation ​

every month on the first Thursday.  It will be this coming week - 

​FEBRUARY 2​, 7-9 PM AT THE WESTSHORE UNITARIAN CHURCH 20401 HILLIARD

 (We are steadily looking for a free

​,​

 more centrally located meeting place, but perhaps women from your area will want to carpool.)  

​Opportunity for ORIENTATION BEGINS AT 6:15  

​

At the meetings we often have education sessions on increasing awareness 

​of our own 

unconscious support 

​of​

 racism 

​and many participate in local areas close to their homes in working groups.  This is a concrete way (along side of others) that we can maintain the momentum of a spectacular moment in women's history here and around the world.  

​Learn more:  SURJ NEO and on Facebook.  ​I would love to talk to you further  bethamoriya@gmail.com    and please find and speak to me when you are there 

    FEBRUARY 2​, 7-9 PM AT THE WESTSHORE UNITARIAN CHURCH 20401 HILLIARD

                  Every first Thursday of the month: Orientation 6:15  

Guest Blog: Women's March on Washington

I knew this was a BIG event when, from the charter bus zipping across the Pennsylvania Turnpike through the foggy night, I saw an amazing number of other charter buses also heading East.  And when we stopped for the first time at a service plaza about mid-state, there were minimally 15 other buses also taking a break.  There was a crush of hundreds inside, either standing in line for the bathroom or in lines for food and/or coffee.  It didn’t take long to verify that ALL were headed to the March in DC.  The feminist messages on shirts, the “pussyhats” everywhere all gave it away in short order.  Women, many chatty with excitement at 4:00 am on their way to a highly-publicized and anticipated national protest, shared their cities and states of origin.  I was amazed at the group who’d gotten on their bus 24 hours earlier in Duluth, Minnesota--an almost 30 hour trip for them.  Wow.  My friends and I were only riding from Cleveland, about 8 hours.  And in about 5, we would all be in DC to meet up with hundreds of thousands like us from places farther and wider than that, by far.  I felt a part of something epic.

Sleep deprivation did little to dampen our enthusiasm upon arriving at RFK Stadium about 9:00 am.  There were buses as far as the eye could see in that enormous parking lot, and a steady stream were still arriving.  People, mostly women, were pouring off these boxy, monster vehicles and heading west in a steady mass toward the Capitol and the National Mall, where the rally for the march was to begin.  But not before opportunistic entrepreneurs arrived with boxes full of “Women’s March” t-shirts for sale, hailing us from near and far.  We couldn’t pull $20 bills out of our pockets and purses fast enough to capture a tangible memory of this historic event, and before we ever got to it.    

We walked through the residential neighborhood of Capitol Hill, passing by townhouses that got nicer and more grand as we got closer to the Capitol itself.  Signs supportive of progressive causes dotted lawns.  One couple came out to the sidewalk with a French press full of coffee, a full creamer and paper cups to give to the marchers.  Now that’s support!  As we continued west, our numbers grew larger and more diverse, coming from different directions, with more signs above heads exclaiming our thoughts, feelings, concerns:  “Women’s Rights are Human Rights,”  “Black Lives Matter,” “Make America Smart Again” and “Not My President.”  Once east of the Capitol, the vista expanded. The scene became one of a jaw-dropping sea of humanity converging and moving in one direction, toward the sounds of chants and muffled speeches at the southeast corner of the Mall, near the National Museum of the American Indian at Independence and 4^th SW.  It was after 10:00 am now and the rally was beginning there, at a large stage, from which a long line-up of speakers and musicians would gin up the already animated crowd.  (If only I could see and hear Gloria Steinem, that feminist icon I’ve admired all my life.)

It is difficult to describe the density of the masses of people that we encountered as we struggled around the National Museum of the American Indian.  When I say it was all but impossible to move in any direction once getting to this furthest southeast corner of the National Mall, I am not exaggerating.  If I suffered from clinical claustrophobia, I would have been in a full-blown anxiety attack, possibly causing a scene.  If I had fainted, I wouldn’t have fallen down.  That’s how tightly we were packed together.  Despite the reality of having minimal control over our own movement or how much body contact we were forced to have with complete strangers, I cannot describe how safe it all felt.  Everyone was kind, polite and in good humor.  And it was like this all day.  There were not enough porta-potties,  and we never could get near the stage where the speakers were addressing the crowd.  So close and yet so far.  That was easy to give up though.  We could watch all that online after we got home.  We decided to slowly inch our way north and maybe west.  That was the direction we all would move in a couple of hours anyway—around 1:00 pm—when the march toward the White House at 16^th and Pennsylvania Avenue began.  We’d get a “head start” on the main event if we headed that way early.

We made it to 4^th Street NW and Madison Drive, and to the East Wing of the National Gallery.  We stopped in there, with hundreds of others, to find restrooms.  Women invaded the Men’s room—there were SO many more of us.  We tried not to look in the direction of the urinals as we headed into the stalls opposite.   A little uncomfortable but the men were very cool and understanding.  Desperate times.  We ate in the cafeteria and couple of us had a beer.  It was a good break.

When we emerged onto 4^th Street it was probably 2:00 pm. The march had begun moving and the street was a solid mass of smiling, chanting progressive citizens expressing their issues in every way possible as they walked north toward Pennsylvania Avenue:  voices, clothing, signs, shirts, hats, hands and feet.  The diversity of our numbers was wide in every way:  gender, race, age, ethnicity.  It looked so representative of our nation.  We joined the slow steady movement and became part of what felt like one giant organism.  Here we all were, those who have felt so completely dispirited since November 8 when a man so unqualified in experience and so undeserving in personality and humanity won election as our President.  Our shock, disbelief and sadness has now been transformed into anger and action.  And we were together in the nation’s capital, publicly bonding ourselves, our energy and our commitment together toward the goal of resisting the threats his administration will likely pose to our civil rights and our safety in the world.  It feels wonderful to be here among our like-minded brothers and sisters in this peaceful demonstration.

Though the distance from 4^th Street to 16^th Street and Pennsylvania is only 12 blocks, it took almost 3 hours to walk it.  But it was OK.  We were moving.  And there was so much to take in along the way:  so many faces, so many messages to read, so many chants to join.  Some of my favorite chants:  “Tell me what democracy looks like—This is what democracy looks like!”  Or men starting with “Your body, your choice” and women following with “My body, my choice.”  Or “The people united will never be defeated.”   Walking by the Newseum, the museum honoring journalism and its history, with the First Amendment carved in it façade---so profoundly moving now that we have to worry about the survival of the free press.  A few blocks later we passed the Trump International Hotel, where a chant of “Shame, shame, shame” broke out.  And where, at the end of the march, hundreds of the protest signs that had been carried all day were left lying all along the perimeter of the hotel along the12^th Street side.  Just another message sent.

By about 5:00 pm, as daylight was starting to dwindle, I, unbelievably and against all odds in a crowd this size, found my dear sister, Marie, who had traveled from Florida to be a part of this—a high point of the day for both of us.  Soon after that, my friends and I were at 14^th Street, and decided that we had gone far enough. Since the official endpoint of the march was at 16^th Street in front of the White House, two blocks away, the crowd was really starting to back up and further movement forward would require a Herculean effort.  We didn’t have enough gas left in the tank for that.  So we started our journey back the couple of miles east we needed to cover so we could get back to our bus for its 7:00 pm departure back to Cleveland.  We split up—four walked the whole way, two of us (me included) decided to brave the Metro.  By the time we came up from underground in Capitol Hill, it was almost dark.  To celebrate our memorable day, we took time to duck into a little bar, had a quick sandwich and a drink, called an Uber to RFK Stadium and met up with our friends to wait for the bus.  We limped to our seats, got out our neck pillows and said goodnight.  We had done it.  We had been part of possibly the largest protest of a Presidential election in history—over 500,000 in DC, over 2 million worldwide.  We can only hope this is the start of something that will make a difference.

Cheryl

Women's March

Unless you are boycotting social media and the news you know that there are Women's Marches going on across the nation this Saturday, January 21!

The main march will be in Washington DC, so we will start there.
If you were lucky enough to get a seat on a plane, a train, or an automobile here are some things you may need. Also, you my friend are crazy awesome and I'm incredibly jealous.

The organizers released a guiding vision and I found it inspiring.

Women's March App  Contains an activity feed, a map, list of speakers and the agenda.

Rally Bus If you are taking a bus through Rally Bus they have an app that may allow you to keep track of your bus.

DC Metro The DC Metro will open at 5am on Saturday for the march. I have used this app in the past when I've visited DC and found it very helpful.

Posters: The amplifier foundation and ThoughtMatter have posters available for download which you can then print at Staples or some sort of store.

Where to EAT This website will tell you which restaurants are donating a share of their inauguration weekend profits to Organizations including Planned Parenthood, ACLU, and Human Rights Campaign.

Also, on the Women's March website they have a download of the ACLU's Know Your Rights: Demonstrations and Protests.

Now, there will be a sister march here in Cleveland. It will start at Public Square at 10am with guest speakers till 11am. They say there is no restrictions on backpacks or bags but I would try to keep it small. The Facebook page says there are 3,000 going and 4,900 interested in going, so have a plan if you get separated from friends. Weather in Cleveland is looking good for Saturday, high of 58 with a 10% chance of rain. Dress appropriately.

SEE YOU ALL AT THE RESISTANCE!!

New Year. New Beginning

Hello 2017! While it may be the year He Who Must Not be Named (HWMNBN from now on. It's a lot to type out.) takes office, it could be the year we make huge strides in...
Organizing
     Democratic Woman's Caucus
Fighting for Woman's rights
      NOW Greater Cleveland
Fighting for Equality
     Standing Up for Racial Justice
     Human Rights Campaign
Volunteering
     Refugees
     Planned Parenthood
     Food Bank

Now, the Wall of Us Weekly Acts of Resistance:
-Action One, expose HWMNBN's cabinet picks.
-Action Two, form a local resistance group. I think we can check that off the list!
-Action Three, weaken racist news outlets by stopping their ad dollars.
-Action Four, support resistance artists.
 This LINK will take you to the site and give you a way to do the act.

There are also two new pages on this blog. One contains the phone numbers of our elected officials. The other has a list of up coming events I think our members might be interested in. I will try to keep each page up to date.

12-12-16

Just a couple of things for this week if you want to do some activism and organization:

1)  TUESDAY: 12-13-16
        A) The Broadway Musical ALLEGIANCE, George Takei's story of life during WWII for Japanese Americans, will be at the Richmond Town Square Mall Theater at 7:30pm.
   
         B) NARAL will have a briefing and volunteer appreciation ceremony at CASE 6pm
                Dittrick Museum of Contraceptive History
                 11000 Euclid Ave

2) WEDNESDAY: 12-14-16
             The Ohio Democratic Party is hosting CONCRETE ACTION NOW meetings across Ohio and Cleveland will host one at 6:30pm here:
 SEIU 1199
1771 E. 30th st
They will discuss lessons learned this election, establish the Activist Action Plan and announce upcoming statewide tour (I'm not sure what that means). '
          I hope to go but I need to get some stuff done on my kitchen before Friday.

3) WALL of US weekly acts

        A) Pruitt and Global Warming
        B) Protect the ACA
        C) Electoral College and Russia

4) If you are looking for other small ways to fight injustice you can sign up for the Injustice Boycott HERE