Green Party of Texas January Newsletter
Post-Inauguration Events, First Administration Actions
As January comes to a close, we have now seen the first actions of the Trump administration. Millions have sustained consistent waves of protest since the Inauguration to say they do not consent to Trump's inheritance of the imperial presidency, which immediately continued the policy of drone strikes and banned entrants from all the Muslim countries that have been targeted since 9/11. Subservience of energy policy to industry concerns is assured. Clearly, the wheels of empire grind on.
But as objectionable as Trump and his policies are, it is important not to miss the point that our biggest problem lies in a bipartisan system which has allowed the imperial presidency, unchecked corruption, and the trampling of constitutional & human rights to develop & continue. Americans believe in the fundamental principle of liberty & justice for all, but they don't know how to put a leash on their government. At the moment, however, they seem motivated.
As Greens, we seek to support & connect with the movements that reflect our platform and 10 key values. By participating in the actions that motivate you as an individual Green, you help to build awareness in the movement that the Green Party feels as they do. Here is information on several upcoming events working for positive change that you may wish to support:
CAIR & Super Bowl Events
On January 31st, CAIR is holding their Texas Muslim Capitol Day to lobby lawmakers and connect with them about the concerns the Muslim community has in this now overtly hostile environment.
February 3-5th, several events are taking place, coordinated by Houston Stands With Standing Rock and bringing the message for US to #PuntThePipelines to the Super Bowl. They have plans for an airplane banner among other things and need your support to pull it off, so please go check them out. Resistance to pipelines & fracking is coming home to Texas! @texaswaterprotectors
On February 7th, the people will take their complaints directly to Energy Transfer Partners in Dallas, and GPTX encourages you to make your voice heard by writing in during the public comment period for the Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Impact Assessment for #DAPL, which ends February 20th. #WaterIsLife #SaveBigBend #NoTPP #NoKeystoneXL #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #OccupyTheSuperBowl #HonorTheTreaties
There are many other events around the state, and Facebook is a good place to find them. We are adding events to our facebook page and encourage county parties to do the same.
85th Legislative Session
It is also the beginning of the Legislative Session and committee members will be assigned this week, but hearings are already starting! For example, On Thursday there is a Senate Hearing on SB4 which seeks to prevent Sanctuary Cities.
While bills like this and the "Potty Bill" serve as focus distractions for the media, there will be thousands of bills filed in the next month and a half that will never make the news. This year the Party has teamed up with other organizations to push our Election reform agenda as an official coalition - Texans for Electoral Competition. Our Legislative Committee is also tracking what other groups are tracking, like Equality Texas, who is tracking bills that effect the LGBTQIA+ community, Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy who are obviously tracking cannabis bills, and others.
We plan to keep you all updated on bills that need your action, but we could use some more hands to help out. There is so much that happens in the next few months and we are all volunteers. If you are interested in helping keep the party and the membership up to speed on what good and horrible bills are making their way through the legislative process by helping in our Legislative Action Network (phone/txt trees, lobbying, etc.), please let us know!
Upcoming in February
Two big party building events are happening at the Austin office (1105 E 6th St, 78702) in February. The first is an Organizer Training on Feb 12 at 3p, which will be streamed online for those who can't make it. The second is the State Executive Committee's Working Retreat on Feb 18 & 19.
If you are able to come to Austin for either of these, please sign up so we know for how many to prepare.
A few reminders:
State Executive Committee meetings are open to the membership to participate in or observe, and draft minutes of conference calls are posted immediately after the meeting is over at the same link as the Agenda that is sent out prior to the meeting. In lieu of a call in Feb, we will be meeting in Austin.
If you haven't already, please become a sustaining donor. Since we are not corporate-funded, we rely on people like you to make sure we have funds to produce materials, host events, maintain an office, and we would love to hire some staff if we can get to that level of sustainers.
In solidarity con todos en the struggle
Green Party of Texas
p.s. we recently merged the Stein campaign's election database for Texas with our own, there are many duplicates that we are attempting to correct, so if you get this multiple times, that is why. Please bear with us as we clean up the database, and feel free to email us and let us know how many emails you received so we are sure to catch them all. thanks for your understanding.
