30 weeks down, 74 weeks to mid-term elections.

Events You Should Know About

Featured Event!

Sunday, June 25 - PEG Speaker Series.

Washtenaw County Sheriff Clayton will speak on "Immigration-related Enforcement Issues in Washtenaw County." Sheriff Clayton is nationally recognized for contributions in this area and has done briefings in Washington D.C. Morris Hall in the Pittsfield Township Administrative Building, 6201 West Michigan Ave., Ann Arbor, 3 pm.

Read full text of Washtenaw County's new immigration policies here.

Saturdays, June 17 and July 1. Get ‘One Human Family’ yard signs at the Ann Arbor Farmers' Market. Volunteer sign up is full but you could offer to be an alternate, or just come visit! Sign up online for shifts from 9 am–1 pm. Sign up here. Questions, call (734) 663-1870 or email chuck@icpj.org.

Friday, June 9 through Saturday, June 10, The Arena Summit.

“Think of the Arena Summit as equal parts spring training, group therapy, summer camp and speed dating for progressives…The goal: to train a field team of inexperienced candidates, face hard truths about the past, forge lasting bonds between local communities and help disparate organizations find their perfect match.” – WIRED Magazine

Cobo Center, 1 Washington Blvd, Detroit, 48226. Friday, June 9, 3:30 pm to 7 pm. Saturday, June 10, 9 am to 7 pm. 8 pm after-party both evenings.  https://thearena.run/detroit  

 Sunday, June 11th. Learn about this new interfaith coalition of congregations, and unaffiliated individuals, who have joined together throughout the county, to support immigrants and their families. The program will take place at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 20500 W Old US Highway 12, Chelsea,  from 2:30 - 4:00 pm.  For more information, check the  WCS facebook page.

Mon. June 12: 6 p.m. Constituent hour with State Rep. Yousef Rabhi (District 53). Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tearoom, 114 S. Main, Ann Arbor

Tuesday, June 13 - Second Community Listening Session, sponsored by the Ann Arbor Police Department . The session will focus on the Human Rights Commission’s recommendation to give transparency to the Police Department and voice to the community. Bryant Community Center, 3 West Eden Court, 6-8:30 pm.

Tuesdays June 13, June 27, July 11, July 25, August 8, August 22. Planned Parenthood Events Ann Arbor Activist Nights.  Meetings will consist of event planning, occasional training, and some administrative tasks as necessary. Please check Facebook page here for updates. Changes or cancellations will be posted by 3 pm. on Tuesdays. Ann Arbor Main Health Center, 3100 Professional Drive from 6-7:15 pm. Location subject to change due to local events and actions.

Sunday, June 25 - The Gender Equity and Health/Planned Parenthood PEG Action Circle invites everyone to join their efforts.

   Carol Dickerman and Vicki Patraka are the group's facilitators and Barbara Hooberman is liaison to Planned Parenthood. At the May 21 PEG meeting, the group worked on ways to broaden its theme and appeal without losing its initial focus.

   The Action Circle went on to create two goals for future work:

• Keep Planned Parenthood from being defunded

• Retain affordable comprehensive health care at the state level.

    Anyone interested in joining the Action Circle is invited to email the facilitators about their interest in advance of the June 25 meeting. Vicki Patraka, vpatrak@bgsu.edu and Carol Dickerman cwdickerman@gmail.com

Redistricting: Meeting and Things to Read

• Wednesday, June 14 - League of Women Voters on Redistricting Another opportunity to hear the League’s presentation of gerrymandering in our nation and our state. A discussion will follow on how to change the process so it’s fair, transparent, and impartial. Newport West condo clubhouse, Spruceway Lane and Up Down Circle, Ann Arbor, 7:30 pm.

• Listen to NPR podcast on gerrymandering, then take the quiz. Can you tell the difference between a Congressional district and a Rorschach inkblot?  Find out here.

• Gerrymandering: When Politicians Pick Their Voters - The New York Times  Partisan gerrymandering — the dark art of drawing legislative district lines to specifically favor Republicans or Democrats — is as old as it is corrosive to a representative democracy. Self-interested politicians have no business making maps with the sole purpose of keeping themselves and their party in power.

• Whatever your politics check out Mi Fair Districts on Facebook. They educate people on what gerrymandering is and what you can do about it. Their resident expert keeps this page well stocked with articles, images, and videos, but please reach out if you'd like to help with their development of social media. MI Fair Districts Like, follow and share!

Things to do at Any Time

Get a Washtenaw ID. WICR (Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition of Immigrant Rights) recommends that all who wish to support the immigrant community should apply for a Washtenaw ID card of their own. When you get that ID, a legitimate alternative to a driver’s license, you legitimize all those who must rely on this kind of ID. Learn more at www.washtenawid.com.  PEGers Sharon and Chuck Newman, Janis Bobrin, Richard Gaeth, Idelle Hammond-Sass and Bernie Banet got theirs this Monday.

Read the Adopt-A-District Guide from Indivisible and act. Every American deserves to be heard. Read it here.

Urge your representative to keep funding the Food Stamp program. More than 45 million Americans rely on food stamps to make ends meet. The 2018 budget proposal cuts funding for this program by a whopping 25%.

Engage in Phone Advocacy with other local advocacy organizations.  Learn how here.

Interesting Things to Read, Watch and Listen To

Democrats Are Overperforming In Special Elections Almost Everywhere -fivethirtyeight - Read more here.

The White House’s new commission on “election integrity” has a simple, if unstated, goal: creating hurdles that make voting more difficult, especially for low-income, Latino and African-American citizens. - New York Times  More here.

Alt-right site Breitbart has taken a pretty big hit since President Trump was elected. -Vanity Fair. Web traffic measurement is more art than science, but it’s clear that . Breitbart was riding high ahead of the inauguration — the 29th-most trafficked site on the web according to web-monitor Alexa — but it’s now down to 281st place.

150 plots and attacks detailed in “A Dark and Constant Rage: 25 Years of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States,” a new report. - Anti-Defamation League. While much political rhetoric and public discourse seems to focus on Islamic terror, violence carried out by what the ADL calls “right-wing extremists” receives markedly less attention.

“Right-wing extremists have been one of the largest and most consistent sources of domestic terror incidents in the United States for many years, a fact that has not gotten the attention it deserves,” the report, released last week, reads.

Radical Civility:  Gov Snyder made a major speech denouncing the increasingly militant and aggressive nature of political discourse. A collection of articles recommending that we tone down hateful and divisive rhetoric in public discussions:

http://www.freep.com/story/news/2017/06/03/mackinac-conference-explores-civility-politics/368042001/

http://www.detroitchamber.com/tag/radical-civility/#.WTbUHGjysmI

https://www.guidedinsights.com/combat-rude-behavior-with-radical-civility/

Abolishing the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)? - Bloomberg Politics. The long-standing and nonpartisan agency tasked with evaluating the fiscal and policy impacts of proposed legislation is being threatened by White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney who didn’t like its estimate of 23 million who would lose health insurance under the Republican plan. Republicans dispute those findings, although they are generally consistent with estimates from outside analysts.

As the U.S. seems to be hell-bent on making itself less attractive to immigrants and visitors, its neighbors to the north are sensing an opening and going the other way in an effort to attract the smartest tech entrepreneurs. -Techcrunch.com Read how.

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Protectors of Equality in Government (PEG) has endorsed 11 organizations. A short description of and a link to each organization can be found on the PEG website: http://www.equalityingov.org/endorsed-organizations/

Please check out the list and choose those of interest to you for action.

Let us Hear From You

We are constantly seeking ways to improve this newsletter and make it more useful for you, so we welcome letters to the editorial team and will print them as space permits. We reserve the right to edit for space, clarity, civility and accuracy, and we will send you the edited version before publication. For suggestions regarding length, content, and similar criteria, please refer to the New York Times’ general recommendations for letters: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/opinion/23READ.html?_r=0
 

Willing to Help in the Fight?

We need your help building PEG. Click here to see see a list of volunteer opportunities. If you might be willing to be a PEG volunteer or to learn more, email info@equalityingov.org and put “VOLUNTEER” in the email subject line.
 

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Thanks to Richard Gaeth, Vicki Patraka, Jen Hoffman, Susan Burwen, Bernie Banet, Laura Nathan, Bette Cotzin, Virginia Morgan, Ellen Halter, Chuck Newman, and Susan Ayer for their help preparing this newsletter. Write us at info@equalityingov.org if you would like to learn how you can help create our weekly newsletter. It’s fun and no ongoing commitment is required.