CSS Social Action Email: July 19

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have. James Baldwin
 
This is a weekly update detailing social action oriented events/actions/meetings that you can plug into in Madison, WI.

CSS ANNOUNCMENTS:
Friends of State Street Meal
Shaarei Shamayim's next meal for the homeless through Friends of the State Street Family is on September 16th. If you would like to help make and serve nourishing food to our neighbors, host an epic cookie-baking party at your place, or do something memorable before you head to Octoberfest, please consider signing up for our next meal. Donations are also appreciated, and can be made through the sign-up sheet here.
 
Dane Sanctuary Coalition
CSS is one of the 36 faith-based organizations, schools and campus ministries in Dane County that joined the new Dane Sanctuary Coalition.  The coalition intends to provide sanctuary for undocumented immigrants and refugees. If you spend time on Facebook ‘like’ the Dane Sanctuary Facebook page to be updated on needs for the Coalition.  Next week’s social action email will have details on how you can support this effort.
 
VOCES DE LA FRONTERA UPDATE:
Voces Solidarity Challenge
We are in our final push for the Voces challenge. Two more fundraisers are planned for this summer and I will have more details about them next week. The response to this challenge has been amazing and we will have a final tally on how much we raised by the end of the summer.
 
EVENTS AROUND TOWN:
July 22: Reception: Faces of Incarceration: Changing the Narrative
Click here for more details.
 
July 27: Our Local Power: How to Make a Difference in Dane County
This event is sponsored by Indivisible Madison and Our Wisconsin Revolution at the Madison Labor Temple, 1602 S Park St., from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. “Our Local Power will get behind the scenes and show that County Boards, City Councils, School Boards, and Village and Town Boards make critical decisions that impact our lives.” For more information click this link.
 
Aug 3: We are Many – United Against Hate
The group is holding a forum at the District #1 Old Schoolhouse (110 N. 2nd Street) in Mt. Horeb from 7:00-9:00 p.m. Click herefor more information about this event sponsored by the Mount Vernon United Church of Christ (MVUCC), Southwest Wisconsin Area Progressives (SWWAP) and the Linda and Gene Farley Center for Peace, Justice & Sustainability.
 
SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES:
Jewish Social Services Refugee Program
Attend the August 21st, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. volunteer orientation to volunteer with the JSS refugee program. It will take place in the JSS conference room at 6434 Enterprise Lane. Snacks will be provided. RSVP to Becca.
 
ACTION ITEMS
Whatever is happening today with the healthcare bill:
The Trump administration is considering actively undermining the markets because that is the kind of leadership we are living under. It is hard to know what to do when our President is indifferent to the real suffering lack of health insurance would cause the people he represents, as long as he can dismantle President Obama’s signature accomplishment. While Trump seems to be mainly swayed by what he hears on tv and his inner circle, you can contact the President here and here to let him know your thoughts. Might as well keep buzzing. Might as well contact Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services, here to let him know your thoughts too.   
 
After 7 years of telling us that ObamaCare is the worst thing to happen to the United States, the Republicans are determined to make sure they repeal the bill. Maybe with a replacement and maybe without – as long as they can say it is repealed. For anyone following the news this is moving too fast for this email to be current. As of Tuesday night, they don’t have the votes to repeal and replace. Both because of pressure from the left and the right on Republican Senators. But whatever its status when you read this, McConnell is determined to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump is on record saying we should let ObamaCare fail. So, keeping up the pressure is important. 5 Calls has some talking points and phone numbers to call.
 
Below are useful things to read.
-Indivisible has a guide on why full repeal is even worse than the previous Senate and House bills and some talking points.
-Kaiser Health foundation on five ways the Senate GOP bill could change our health plan options.
-Vox explains what just happened with the health care bill.

Schedule a Hearing on Progressive Tax Reform in Wisconsin
The Progressive Workgroup goal is to develop and promote innovative and progressive public policy. Assembly Bill 200 will help reverse the spread of income inequality in Wisconsin, but the bill is struggling to get traction. But friend of democracy, Rep. John Macco (the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, R-De Pere) has refused to respond to requests for a public hearing. You can call or write him to request that a public hearing gets scheduled.
“The tax cut proposed in AB 200 is specifically targeted to individuals making less than $60,000/year and families making less than $100,000/year. For example, a family of four making $45,000/year would receive an additional $607 for tax year 2017. We pay for these middle class tax cuts by repealing the largest corporate tax giveaway in Wisconsin history – of which 88 percent goes to Wisconsinites making more than $500,000/year – and instituting a Millionaire’s Tax by creating a fifth tax bracket for Wisconsin’s most wealthy.” The text of the bill here.
 
Stripping abortion training from UW hospitals
Oh, right, it’s not just in D.C., things are still bad in Wisconsin. Assembly Bill 206/Senate Bill 154 would prohibit UW hospital and clinic staff from performing, assisting in, training, or receiving training in the performance of an abortion. This bill will limit the training options for resident obstetrics and gynecologists, reduce access to female healthcare statewide, and greatly damage the University of Wisconsin’s ability to educate future physicians, putting the accreditation of their OB-GYN training in grave danger. OB-GYN residents will be barred from participating in abortion training procedures. If UW loses its ability to train OB-GYNs, Wisconsin's severe shortage of OB-GYNs will certainly increase too. Currently, 1 in 3 Wisconsin counties don't even have one OB-GYN.
This is what the bill says.
Op Ed from Robert N. Golden, M.D., dean of UW School of Medicine 
Fact Sheet from Women’s Alliance for Health
Contact your assemblyperson and state senator and urge them to vote No on these bills.

MISCELLANEOUS:
**As I take a minute to feel good that the AHCA didn’t pass, I want to point out the work of Adapt. Adapt, disability rights activists that engage in nonviolent direct action, did incredible work to save Medicaid. (at least it is saved for now – I don’t want to jinx anything) 
 
** The Southern Poverty Law Center has campus chapters. This is a nice article about a teenage asylum seeker who is now a social justice advocate in Maine.
 
** The NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that President Trump's voting commission “was formed with the intent to discriminate against voters of color in violation of the Constitution.”
 
**Self-referential posting. Check out my Op Ed in the New York Times last week.