Welcoming Afghan Evacuees to Portland A4D’s October Meeting October’s meeting began with a eulogy of Muriel Lezak, one of the founders of Indivisible97201, which merged with One Small Thing PDX to form Act for Democracy. Muriel was a world-renowned neuropsychologist who will be dearly missed by all who knew her. After Melinda Fleming encouraged everyone to join a COIN Squad (see below) and presented her slide show of two In Portland We Care events (see below), we heard from our guest speakers about the experience of fleeing one’s homeland and how each of us can make a difference in the lives of newly arrived evacuees. Salah Ansary, Lutheran Community Services Northwest’s Senior District Director of Multicultural Community Services (MCS), and Jennica Stephenson, MCS”s Development Manager, were joined by Ned Rosch who recently joined with his neighbors to raise funds, find housing, and welcome a newly arrived Afghan refugee family to Portland (see The Oregonian’s coverage of the story). Portland is expected to receive as many as 200 or more Afghans in the coming weeks and months. A4D is exploring how to assist these families and welcomes any volunteers who would like to participate in putting together a plan. Please email a4dpdx@gmail.com if you would like to get involved. And be sure to mark your calendar for the fourth Tuesday of November when County Commissioner Sharon Meieran will join us at our monthly meeting. We Succeeded! A4D received $500 in donations prior to October 31, which means we reached our goal and will receive another $500 in matching funds from Indivisible National. Thank you so much to everyone who made a donation during this matching funds campaign. We will be able to do even more good works to protect our increasingly fragile democracy thanks to you! Indivisible Tuesday Tomorrow Meet with Wyden & Blumenauer Staff Tomorrow is Indivisible Tuesday and your chance to speak virtually with Senator Wyden and Representative Blumenauer’s staff. Details here. And if you’re free this afternoon from 2:00-4:00pm, it’s not too late to make calls to Virginia, which goes to the polls tomorrow. Register here. In Portland WE CARE Wins Hearts A4D’s In Portland WE CARE campaign drew to a close last Friday, when volunteers delivered the final round of gift baskets and flowers to the Robert W Franz Cancer Center. Thank you to everyone who made the deliveries such a great success! In Portland We Care was part of the statewide In Oregon We Care campaign, in partnership with the Oregon Nurses Association. Indivisible Cedar Mill and other local volunteers joined the effort. Nurses and healthcare workers have had to function under especially brutal conditions during the pandemic. In Portland we care by getting vaccinated, wearing masks, supporting our healthcare workers, and fighting vaccine disinformation wherever we encounter it. Start a COIN Squad A COIN Squad is like a regular call squad, but with letter writing, emailing, texting, phone banking, letters to the editor (LTEs), and social media engagement added in. To record your activity, go here. The steering committee of A4D’s COIN Squad, Connect for Democracy, during the week ending October 24 called four members of Congress, sent 32 emails and letters, spent ten hours canvasing, and was active on social medial Why not pull a few of your activist friends together and record the activities you’re doing? You’ll be surprised by how much you get done!
- Act for Democracy