CRAG: No Kings March, 200 people! & weekend thoughts

Hello CRAGgy Friends,
Welcome new people! (join here)

1. Great crowd to Celebrate 250 years of NO KINGS
2. Second Bergman(less) Town Hall on Tuesday
3. What I'm Reading/Watching (and Owls!)
4. Upcoming Local Township/city meetings CALENDAR
5. Events, meetings, and organizing CALENDAR

“It is not shameful to do little.  It is shameful to do nothing.” Alexie Navalny (1978-2024), Russian opposition leader, anti-corruption activist, and political prisoner. (h/t CW)
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1. Great crowd came out to:

Celebrate 250 Years of No Kings!
I counted 202 people on the bridge yesterday, despite the chilly drizzle. Fabulous signs, some lovely costumes, and fantastic energy. I saw many people beyond the crowd. Welcome!!
We had many positive responses from vehicles; the anti's were slow to organize and only appeared as the march wound down.
I tried out my new "take a candy" counting method, starting with 331 pieces, letting everyone take one, and ending with 129 pieces. I measured by weight, which is more accurate than the number of pieces listed on the bag (and easier). This method for crowd estimation could work anywhere that people pass through a squeeze point.
I didn't get many good photos (please share yours!); here are some CBS photos from around the country, and some from NPR.

2. Second Bergman(less) Town Hall on Tuesday

• Tuesday, April 22, 6:30 pm
• Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 604 Bridge St, Houghton, MI 49931
• Details and Register (optional) through Indivisible.
• Video Highlights from the first town hall.
• Organized by FEISTY(R) and Keweenaw Indivisible.

Come speak up!or come to support others.

3. Reading/Watching

Here are a few pieces I've found useful, inspiring, or alarming recently:
Jess Piper, who organizes progressives in rural Missouri, recently did a very good interview (podcast) on iHeart's HotDish. Her newsletter is on Substack. She's all about rural action, spoiler alert: local visibility is essential.
Scott Dworkin gives a daily substack good-news update on wins against the regime.
McSweeney's keeps a running catalog of administration's "cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes": Lest we forget.
Things I'm looking out for:

• Details of plans for Medicaid. Medicaid Expansion seems to be on the chopping block. The is the program that subsidizes ACA (ObamaCare) insurance. In Michigan, subsidies are available for anyone who would pay more than 8.5% of their income for health insurance.
• Deputization of sheriffs as a deportation force. So far his list (bottom of that page) shows only one in Michigan (Jackson) but nearly a dozen in Wisconsin and several in Minnesota.
• Universities
  • How Universities can escape, M. Gessen, NYT (gift link) (I didn't know about Bard College's activism.)
  • Rep Ro Khanna gave an eloquent speech at Yale last week (full text, pdf)

If ever there were a moment in our nation's history for the defense of liberalism — as a defense of free thought and the examined life — it is now. Those who sneer at our universities — who mock thinking, learning, and degrees for cheap applause while credentialing themselves — are engaged in rank hypocrisy. They are gatekeepers of privilege, dissuading their fellow citizens from pursuing for their families the very opportunities they seek for their own children.
And Owls!

• for a break watch our local Great Horned owlets grow on the Owl Nest Cam, installed and maintained by Copper Country Audubon.
  

4. Upcoming Local Township/city meetings CALENDAR

We are trying to get someone to speak up at every possible local meeting. Stand up, say your piece How are government actions affecting you? How do they hurt your community? You don't have to say a lot; some people just say a sentence or two "I'm worried about Medicaid cuts"; "I don't want Elon Musk having access to my private data."

• Wednesday, April 23
  • 5:30 pm, Houghton City Council
  • XX- moved to April 30, 7 pm, Portage Lake District Library
• Friday, April 25
  • 9 am, Michigan Tech Board of Trustees
    • I will speak here; please join me
  • 1 pm, Calumet Township
• April 30
  • 7 pm, Portage Lake District Library

When and where does your local city or township board meet? Let me know. Thanks to those who have shared. I'm constantly updating- recently added Allouez, and more Baraga County locations.

3. Events and meetings CALENDAR

TUESDAY:
April 22nd, 6:30 pm. Second Houghton Bergman(less) Town Hall
Ongoing (you can be busy every Wednesday!):

• Yoopers for Ukraine Rally at the bridge Wednesdays at 5 pm (note time correction).
• “Houghton County Dems meet every 1st Wednesday, 7 pm at the Super 8.
• Unpack and Unwind” 2nd Wednesdays, 7 pm to 8:30 pm; Hampton Hotel on the seventh floor (accessible with elevator). A casual space to share ideas, vent, ask questions, and connect with others over progressive thoughts and curiosity.
• April 16, 3rd Wednesday, 6 pm HC Dems April Meet-up, 5th and Elm.
• AWAVE 4th Wednesdays. Gathering at 5th and Elm, Hancock.
• April 20, 3rd Sundays Keweenaw Against the Oligarchy (KATO) Monthly meeting, 7 pm, 5th and Elm

Keep in Touch and Thanks for all your support
Stay Well
Sarah