The Voter - December 2023
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- Take Action with the League Now
- Action Workshop Tomorrow - Saturday, December 2
- LWVTPC All-Member Program Planning - Sunday, December 3
- Proposed Climate Study Group
- On Becoming Web Savvy
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Sign up for LWVTPC’s Instagram
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Recommended Reading on Homelessness
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Creating Healthy Communities through Cultural Appreciation
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- Settling Down to Think
- Rosemary's Blog
| | | Don't Miss These Engagement Opportunities | Take Action with the League Now!
With the Washington State Legislative Session starting on Jan 8, 2024, and local city and county governments moving into the new year, there are many opportunities to speak up about issues that matter. You don't have to be in Olympia to help LWV advocacy efforts in Washington State. Check out this page for ways to assist the LWVWA advocacy teams. And see some details below. | |
Action Workshop - Tomorrow, Saturday, December 2
If you haven't registered yet, do it now here. See the agenda below. | | | Action Workshop Agenda
Learn about what's expected in the upcoming legislative session on the League's key issues from our lobbyist, legislators, and Advocacy Team. On the agenda:
• Legislative forecast from LWVWA's contract lobbyist
• Panel discussion with elected state legislators
• Attend breakout groups focused on the League's key issues:
o Redistricting
o Local News and News Media Literacy
o Health Care
o Behavioral Health
o Children’s Issues & Education
o Elections & Money in Politics
o Climate Change & Energy
o Revenue
o Housing & Homelessness
o Criminal Justice
There is a $15 registration fee that supports state legislative action in areas such as the Legislative Action Newsletter. However, the League’s first priority is foster maximum participation in this and other League events. If cost is a barrier, please contact Amy Peloff, Administrative Director, to arrange for a scholarship to cover the cost. We want you there! | Save these Dates
Next month's Voter will have more information about these. But for now, please save these dates.
Speak-up School - Saturday, January 6. This is intended for people who haven't used the legislative web site, who haven't testified and want to build some advocacy skills in preparation for meetings with Legislators during Democracy Lobby Week. And the testimony coaching skills can help for other work as well.
Democracy Lobby Week - Evenings of January 22-26. The evening sessions will introduce you to specific bills that are League priorities and also offer the opportunity to meet with your local Legislators during the week days.
| LWVTPC All-Member Program Planning
Sunday, December 3, 12:30 - 3:30 pm
Fellowship Hall
First United Methodist Church
621 Tacoma Ave South—back entrance
This is an all-member potluck followed by a discussion of proposed new or continuing strategies to “defend democracy and empower voters,” and consider ways to strengthen action on previously endorsed positions. We may propose new studies, in areas that we may not have addressed before in our local League, or make recommendations to the national League.
Bring your ideas and energy for what is usually a very rewarding time. See more in the President's Message below. | Proposed Climate Study Group
By Chuck Jensen
At a recent LWVTPC board meeting, interest was expressed in having a regular, perhaps monthly, virtual gathering to discuss various climate topics. Climate change remains a very significant crisis, and more has to be done locally as well as at other levels of government.
I shared that my climate activist group, Citizens Climate Lobby, meets to discuss various news articles that our members forward to our moderator. I would suggest that League members who are interested could do the same. We could either discuss specific articles, or more general topics of common interest.
This would be a zoom meeting. I suggest an evening time, but it could be mid-day. If you are interested, please let me know at cjensen767@gmail.com and offer your preferred time and date to meet.
And also, if you have a "burning question or issue", please include that so I get a sense as to what League members have on their minds relative to climate and the environment. Thank you for your interest. | On Becoming Web Savvy
By Theresa Power-Drutis
Web-based LWV resources continue to multiply at the local, state, and national level, but these are not useful if you can’t get to them. If you’re not a “digital native” or if on-line resources are frustrating for any reason, the Communications Team is here to help. We’ll offer a 30-minute zoom session early in 2024 for members interested in using - or making better use of - the members-only web portal. If using zoom is an obstacle, let us know. We can schedule a meeting at the office to help with Zoom too.
Check your January Voter for details and contact me at tpdrutis@nctacoma.org with questions about the Communications Team or the LWVTPC website. | Sign up for LWVTPC’s Instagram
This features the fascinating Woman of the Week, and posts LWVTPC events.
How to sign up?
- Download the Instagram App on your telephone. You can do this by searching for “Instagram” in your “Play Store” if you have an Android phone or “App Store” on an iPhone.
- Once you download Instagram, “follow” our Instagram account by searching for “LWVTPC” and click on “Follow”
“Like” and comment on our LWVTPC posts.
And please share this with your friends. |  | Recommended Reading on Homelessness
By Theresa Power-Drutis
Homelessness Is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns
by Gregg Colburn & Clayton Page Aldern
About the book: “Using accessible statistics, the researchers test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain why, for example, rates are so much higher in Seattle than in Chicago. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a more convincing explanation.” ~authors' web page
For a quick summary of findings from the study, watch this 7:45 minute video featuring co-author Gregg Colburn, Assistant Professor of Real Estate at the University of Washington. The authors put forth a compelling argument, but (as with all tidy conclusions) there are counterpoints and nuances that deserve consideration as well. Here is a related article from Benjamin Schneider (San Francisco Examiner): Homelessness is a housing problem, but also a political one.
| | | Creating Healthy Communities through Cultural Appreciation
Cultural organizing has emerged as a multidisciplinary community of practice at the intersection of art, cultural work, and social change. It is about integrating arts and culture into organizing strategies. It is also about organizing from a particular tradition, cultural identity, community of place or worldview.
The Institute for Public Strategies is conducting a webinar, Creating Healthy Communities through Cultural Appreciation, on Wednesday, December 6, 10:00 am. | | | Topics discussed will include:
- Generating knowledge and understanding by placing a real emphasis on listening and story-telling
- Integrating local cultural practices, forms of expression, and worldviews into a community organizing model
- Real-world examples of celebrating and creating cultural community events
This national Institute produces projects touching many different aspects of public health, partnering with communities impacted by inequities and health disparities. They work to transform systems so that all people, regardless of race, culture, economic circumstances, sexual orientation, gender identity, or educational attainment, can live their best lives.
Get more information and register here. |
President's Message
Settling Down to Think
By Rosemary Powers
Today I am reminded of the power and the challenge of organizing and of strong women who have done the work in the past. Reviewing the life of League of Women Voters founder Carrie Chapman Catt, I smiled at a brief description of her approach to organizing. Given the successful majority vote for women’s suffrage in the US House on May 19, 1919, followed by a narrow 2-vote majority in the US Senate on June 4, Catt’s close companion Mary Garrett Hay wrote that "CCC danced all over the place and then settled down to THINK." Of course, after that brief and giddy dancing, what she needed to think about was the final stage--how to ensure ratification of the 19th amendment by the states. She wasted no time in planning for nationwide action. | | | Designing a strategy to secure voting rights for half the US population required the attitude expressed by Chicana feminist Delores Huerta, a founder of the United Farm Workers, whose open-hearted words keep me “settling down to think.” According to Huerta, “Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.”
On Sunday, December 3, we will hold our annual program planning meeting, aware of the threats to democracy that our current context reveals. Working together, we have another “chance to change the world.” We’ll propose new or continuing strategies to “defend democracy and empower voters,” and consider ways to strengthen action on previously endorsed positions. We may propose new studies, in areas that we may not have addressed before in our local League, or make recommendations to our state or national Leagues.
To prepare ourselves to “settle down to think” together, we can review our local League positions here . We can take another look at our Washington State and national League positions here. If you have an issue you want to bring, or an action or study to propose, think about what the League might do to respond (and check those local, state, and national positions to see what might already be addressing your concern).
I hope you will be able to join us on Sunday, Dec.3 at the Fellowship Hall of First United Methodist Church (621 Tacoma Ave South—back entrance) from 12:30 -3:30 pm. We’ll start with a potluck lunch and then find out what kinds of change a couple hours of focused League energy can promote.
| Read Rosemary's Blog
Each week, LWVTPC President Rosemary Powers opens the weekly Coalition to End Homelessness meetings with a relevant introduction that provides a thoughtful theme for the day. This blog presents some of those messages that are worthy of a much larger audience.
Rosemary’s comments are thoughtful and thought-provoking, and they tie current events together, occasionally including meaningful poetry. Each opening statement includes a welcome to the Coalition’s open table. The League also welcomes all to its open table and asks for readers’ support for those who are unhoused and others who are marginalized in any other way.
Read Rosemary's messages here. |
In the Interest of Empowering Voters and Defending Democracy
Here are some items of interest ...
| LWVUS comments on Healthy People 2030 Objective to Increase Voter Participation
Acknowledging the importance of voting for promoting health equity, “The League of Women Voters of the United States submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in response to its solicitation of comments on Healthy People 2030 Objectives. The League recommends next steps that the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) can take to further progress toward the new core objective of increasing the proportion of the voting-age citizens who vote.”
Noting that voter participation was lower in 2022 than in 2018, LWVUS recommends that public health organizations build trust with the public to promote registration and opportunities for voting, provide voter education resources, and encourage making a voting plan ahead of elections. For full text of LWVUS comments, see: Healthy People 2030 (2). | Observer Reports Support Voter Empowerment
By Lydia Zepeda
Do you want to find out what is going on in your local city or county government? Do you want to let others know? Do you want to use your writing skills? If so, join the LWVTPC Observer Corps! We need volunteers to report on their activities. This is how we ensure an informed community. This is how we hold our elected officials accountable.
Being an Observer involves attending at least one public meeting a month and writing up a meeting summary. Plan on a minimum of 3-4 hours a month. We especially need observers for the City of Lakewood, the Port of Tacoma, and the Clover Park School District.
As an Observer you choose what meetings and issues to follow. You can attend in person or watch remotely. While you cannot participate in the government meetings, but you can inform others what issues are being discussed, what laws and policies are being implemented, and how your local government is spending taxpayer money. It is a great way to learn about local government to prepare yourself and others to be better advocates to promote League positions.
If you are interested, please contact Lydia Zepeda at zepelow@gmail.com We can set up a time to chat about your interests and set up training.
Here are the recent reports:
| League of Women Voters of Tacoma-Pierce County
621 Tacoma Ave. S., # 202
Tacoma, WA 98402
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