Welcome to Escondido Indivisible’s weekly action plan for June 21, 2021! Pick an action or two and commit yourself to doing them. As President Obama said in his farewell speech: Believe in your ability to bring change. Show up, dive in, stay at it.

Actions | Contact Info for Elected Officials | Tips for Communicating with Public Officials

Voting Rights

• Contact Senator Feinstein and Senator Padilla and express support for H.R.1/S.1 to strengthen our democracy. Thank them for being cosponsors of S.1. Note that Representative Issa voted no on H.R.1, but the House passed the bill with a 220-210 vote.  See Indivisible Democracy Guide, Indivisible Guide on H.R. 1: Strengthening Our Democracy and Support Democracy Reform with H.R. 1/S. 1.
• Contact State Senator Jones and ask them to support AB-37 to extend vote by mail to all elections in California. AB-37 passed the Assembly 59 to 16. Assemblymember Waldron voted no against extending vote by mail and making voting more accessible.

Police Accountability

• Read-up on Despite public objections, Escondido approves hike in police department budget and Report: San Diego Police Department Enforcement Practices Reveals Distinct Racial Disparities.
• Contact Assemblymember Waldron and ask her to support SB-2 to create a decertification process for peace officers. SB-2 passed the Senate 26-9.  Senator Jones voted no to holding police accountable for misconduct or criminal conviction four times during the three hearings and on the Senate floor. See SB-2 Fact Sheet and Police Decertification Bill Moves Forward (scroll down).

Global COVID-19

• Read-up on All Nepal Needs to End Its COVID-19 Crisis Are Vaccines, Biden And Mastercard Give Millions To Global Vaccine Effort. Is It Enough? and The Vaccine Donations Aren’t Enough.
• Contact Senator Feinstein and Senator Padilla and ask them to push for more U.S. contributions to distribute the COVID-19 vaccines globally.

Economic Inequality

• Read-up on The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax and You May Be Paying a Higher Tax Rate Than a Billionaire.
• Read-up on Executive Pay 2021: How the pandemic fueled corporate bonuses in 2020, CEOs are getting paid bonuses like there was no pandemic and C.E.O. Pay Remains Stratospheric, Even at Companies Battered by Pandemic.
• Contact Representative Issa, Senator Feinstein and Senator Padilla and ask them to pass legislation such as S. 53/H.R. 603 to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. Senator Feinstein and Senator Padilla are co-sponsors of S.53. See Raise the Federal Minimum Wage to $15.

Escondido Indivisible is a grassroots group dedicated to affecting changes in our local community. Our website is at EscondidoIndivisible.com, and our sister group is at Escondido Indivisible on Facebook. Send us links and comments at EscondidoIndivisible50@gmail.com and @EscInd50 on Twitter. And feel free to forward our newsletter to interested parties! If you were forwarded this letter, you can subscribe here, and check the archive here.