July 11th General Meeting Notes

Ksenija began the meeting with reminders about the Lafayette Reservoir walk every Thursday beginning at 9am and the upcoming Postcard Writing meet on Wednesday, July 19th, 10:30am, at Orinda Books.

Here are the updates/actions:

Tolerance/Inclusion:

Michele Robbins gave a very compelling talk about the need for dialogue in the Lamorinda community about overt/covert racism, discrimination and white supremacy. She recommended two books, “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander and “Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together.” Slides that she presented are attached; the first slide is extremely powerful. She believes we should begin small group dialogues around this issue and most of the attendees agreed.

Camille Weeks spoke about being black in the Lamorinda community. She is currently working with the school boards and schools to promote tolerance and inclusion in the schools. Her organization, Lamorinda Diversity, is a place to provide support to those targeted by hatred or ignorance in our community, and to discuss diversity topics with kindness and respect.

If you are interested in joining a dialogue group, please reply to this email and we will be in touch very soon.

Canvassing:

Jackie Moreau spoke about her organization, Commit to Flip Blue, and their mission to help democratic candidates retake and defend both state and federal government seats across the United States but particularly in California District 10.

They are also partnering with Working America, a non-partisan organization, working towards ensuring that the priorities of working people, their families and communities are heard from our state houses to the White House, from our city councils and school boards to the halls of Congress.

Currently they need folks to assist in canvassing in California District 10 which is Stanislaus County and northern San Joaquin County including Modesto, Tracy and Turlock. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Jackie at 925-323-7818 or info@committoflipblue.com.

Environment:

Marti Roach spoke about AB398, a bill introduced by Governor Brown, which is a backroom deal he negotiated with the fossil fuel industry to extend cap and trade. The deal favors big oil, contains free allowances and offsets, bars local governments from setting standards and extends tax breaks to PG&E and the like. Please go to CalFact for more information.

The latest word is there will be a vote in the Senate at noon and a vote in the Assembly at 4pm on Monday, July 17th. Please call your state legislators to express your dislike of AB398 bright and early Monday morning, asking them to oppose the bill. During the call, you could also mention that you would like them to support SB775.

Net Neutrality:

Carolyn Knoll spoke about the day of action for Net Neutrality, Wednesday, July 12th. She asked that everyone submit comments to the FCC by midnight EDT, Monday, July 17th. And, equally important, asked that everyone contact their elected officials in DC asking them to use their influence to protect Net Neutrality. (P.S. The day of action was a huge success; many websites including Netflix, Google, Facebook, Mozilla Firefox and Amazon participated).

The following are two websites that make it very easy to submit comments to the FCC: www.battleforthenet.com and www.protectourinternet.org. Also, call your legislators, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris.

Healthcare:

Joy Pinsky gave a detailed presentation on the current healthcare bill introduced by the Senate. The Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare),which has become quite popular and, according to recent reports, is working, has been sabotaged by the current Congress due to their insistence on repealing it instead of improving it. Essential benefits under the ACA will be reduced or eliminated, coverage baseline will be lowered, deductibles will be higher and there will be a large increase in the number of uninsured. The largest increase in cost will be older “pre-Medicare” folks and those with pre-existing conditions. 50+% of insurers are considering withdrawing from the exchanges due to uncertainty imposed by Congress.

Joy asked that we sign up here to text bank. There is a training manual at that link where you can download the Hustle app for your smartphone.

Thank you to all who attended the meeting and we hope to see everyone at our next meeting on Tuesday, August 8th, 7:30pm to 9:30pm at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church.