So, the Green New Deal Day of Action has come and gone, and it's time to turn our focus to the future. If you hadn't heard, this past Tuesday (11/20/18), hundreds of people across the country came together to visit their local representative's office to demand they support Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's Select Committee on a Green New Deal, which may just be our best hope at stopping climate change for good. If you've never heard of the Green New Deal, you can click here to learn more about it. If you don't know about what exactly we did on Tuesday, you can click here to learn more about that as well. Anyway, I wanted to dedicate this week's post to talking more in depth about what exactly happened on Tuesday, what it means for the future, and how exactly The Sunrise Movement is planning on continuing this fight.
Rep. Seth Moulton's Office
First, I figure I'll start off by talking about what exactly I was a part of on Tuesday. Around mid-afternoon, about fifteen people (both young and old) met at representative Seth Moulton's office to talk with him about supporting the committee. Going into the meeting, we had high hopes, as thus far Moulton has shown himself as a pretty progressive democrat, the exact demographic we are targeting. Unfortunately, Moulton himself wasn't in the office at the time of our visit, but we were able to talk with one of his staffers about the issue.
Our meeting mainly consisted of two elements: first, the sharing of personal stories (one of which was from me!), and second, the explanation of and reasoning behind the Green New Deal itself. As we progressed through both of these elements, the staffer we were with seemed fairly receptive. Unfortunately, we couldn't get an immediate confirmation on whether or not Moulton would support the deal, but by the end of the meeting the staffer promised he would get in contact with him as soon as possible to discuss whether or not he would support it. At maximum, he said, we would know for sure about whether or not we have Moulton's support within three weeks. Obviously, this isn't quite the time frame we were shooting for, but at least we were given a set date.
The rest of the nation
While unfortunately I was unable to attend any of the other events around the Massachusetts area (or the rest of the country for that matter) I heard many of them were great successes. Hundreds of people took to dozens of offices all around the country, bringing stories, banners, and the hope for a better future in order to demand that their representatives support the Green New Deal. If you'd like to see some of the results for yourself, you can check out some pictures of the various events by clicking here.
A quick correction
Before I get into the total results of the day, I just wanted to offer a quick correction for one of my previous posts. In my second Green New Deal post, I had mentioned that preliminary voting on the committee would take place the day after Tuesday (11/21/18). As far as I can tell, this was incorrect, and led to some confusion. All voting (as far as I know for now) will be taking place sometime after the new House has been sworn in this January. I've corrected this section of the post, and and am very sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
The results
So, you're probably all wondering what exactly we got out of this day. Well, I'll be honest: the results aren't huge, but they are promising. In total, the groups got two more representatives to pledge their support AND sign the no fossil fuel money pledge. This means we will have two more politicians in the house who not only support and will fight for the Green New Deal, but will also refuse to take any money from fossil fuel companies looking to sway their opinions. This brings our total up to twelve representatives, and they are:
Now, I know that only two representatives doesn't sound like a whole lot. I mean, what can they do in a house of hundreds? That's a great question, and yes, when looked at it from that angle, twelve total representatives can't do much. However, there are some real benefits here. We will soon have a democratic house, and typically democrats vote in favor of climate change policy. So, if we can have 12 democrats secured as voting for the committee already, then they set an example for their fellow party-members to do the same. Each time we get a representative on board, the chances of this committee being passed go up even more.
We also have to keep in mind that these twelve didn't only sign on to support the Green New Deal: they took the no fossil fuel money pledge too. That means we have twelve more honest, fair representatives who won't be influenced by the dirty money provided by fossil fuel industries. That's a great first step! And, while only two more reps. have signed on since Tuesday, than number doesn't count all the representatives (including Seth Moulton) whose staffers will be talking with them soon about the deal. I expect to hear more confirmations, especially from Seth Moulton, within the coming weeks, once they've had time to hear about and decide on supporting the deal. We're off to a great start.
Conclusion
So, that about wraps it up for the Green New Deal Day of Action. I think it was a great success, but there's no time to stop now. We've gotten a bit of momentum, both in supportive representatives and in the media, so it's time we take that and use it to our advantage. In fact, the Sunrise Movement is planning on doing just that. This Tuesday (11/27/18), they will be hosting a call talking all about their next plans when it comes to continuing the fight for the Green New Deal. They're hoping to make the movement bigger and better than ever, and they need your help. If you'd like to sign up for the call, then click here. And as always, continue to call and tweet your representatives, asking them to sign on to the deal if they haven't already, and thanking those who have already done so. Additionally, Sunrise has a tool to write to your local newspapers to ask them to cover the Green New Deal, so make sure to use that too. But. if you take anything away from this, it should be that we can't stop now. The seed of a movement has been planted, and it's time to water, nurture, and care for it, so we can create a truly beautiful, healthy future.
All credit for images used in this post goes to:
https://www.sunrisemovement.org/green-new-deal-day-of-action
https://www.facebook.com/SunriseBoston/photos/pcb.698763323844382/698760953844619/?type=3&theater
https://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/rep-seth-moulton-votes-no-on-fast-track-authority/article_5c0a903f-05b3-51b9-b8ae-3d8045cf549a.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?g=y&sk=aUZ7AYnYR&terminal_id=25fca6a529524666862eb785385d8974&cpt=1543151756078&origin=y&jump=afs&aff_platform=aaf&SortType=default&SearchText=house+judiciary+committee&aff_trace_key=277032ec7e624b43ac9979245fb75fde-1543151756078-03324-aUZ7AYnYR&tc=af
https://www.sunrisemovement.org/gnd/
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