Happy Tuesday, Activists!
Sorry for the late update, but plans for our rally have been changing by the hour. Today presents a big opportunity for us. President Biden is in town to deliver a speech about voting rights. From news reports he is getting pushed from many quarters to come out strongly for the For the People Act, including from Indivisible and from us. So far he has not done the job previous presidents have done for their major and difficult legislation and we need him to get in the game. In short, after all the work we and other grassroots have done for the past four years to get the Democratic Trifecta and the recent really hard work to push for the For the People Act, we want him to #JoinUsJoe.
As we tweeted on Friday:
“We’re happy to see the President is coming to town to talk about protecting the right to vote, but we need him to talk about the fight over the For the People Act and the urgency of Congress getting it done & sending S. 1 to his desk — not more of what we saw yesterday from the White House.”
Come out to today's rally and make your voice heard!– Sign up here for the event so you get any updates. Bring your signs!
Where: People's Plaza, 5th and Market St.
When: 2:15 to 4:30 pm - or whenever you can get there.
We just learned in a UPI article that the speech is now slated to start today at 2:50, so come out between 2:00 and 2:30 so we can spread the word and get media attention that we are in it to win it! We'll be there until 4:30 or whenever it's over.
Here's the plan -- There is limited access across the street from the Constitution Center. So we are left with rallying at People's Plaza, 5th and Market. But the sidewalks are open so some of us will march around the block with our signs and make ourselves visible to everyone including media. This will be fun!
As Ezra told us in our call with him on Sunday, this is all part of the legislative process. Politicians don't want to do the hard things -- they need to be forced to do it. And we know what that hard work looks like, as Indivisibile has described: "Tuesday’s speech is a starting point — but alone, it’s insufficient. Ultimately, this is not a job for one speech. Clinton didn’t give one speech to try to pass NAFTA — he gave 18. Trump didn’t give one speech to try to get tax cuts for his wealthy donors — he gave a dozen.”
If you can't come out - call our senators!! Today is the day for lots of phone calls!
Tell them you want them to vote YES on the For the People Act (S.1). And tell Senator Casey that you want Joe Biden to make this bill a priority! He has Biden's ear, from what we hear.
Sen. Toomey – Phila offices: 215-241-1090; D.C. 202-224-4254; email link
Sen. Casey – Phila office 215-405-9660; D.C. 202-224-6324; email link.
For outside PA – Find your Senators’ phone numbers and emails at this link.
See you this afternoon!