Hi Folks, it’s a For the Heart Wednesday. One thing we didn’t learn or teach well during and after Covid is how to live with insecurity. The need to cope with an unpredictable future is massive right now. My approach is to keep doing “the right thing” in response to the chaos that we are living in, try not to spend time figuring out “what’s going to happen next” and work for peace by building community here where we live.
Some Good News – The Maine Legislature has passed the two bills regarding Wabanaki Sovereignty, LD 395 and LD 785, and LD 2106 to keep ICE out of private areas in public spaces!! Now it is up to the Governor to sign them.
Top Action to Take Today:
Contact Governor Janet Mills here (207-287-3531) and ask her to sign LD 395 and LD 785 into law. Also ask her to not veto LD 307 “An Act Regarding Energy, Utilities and Technology.” which would put a moratorium on huge data centers being built in Maine.
For the HeartFor Your Heart this third week of Spring: We want peace, but are we, peace, right now?Being peace doesn’t mean you are not angry. Being peace, we hold our anger, know it is there, and act with awareness.
Nancy Hathaway Center for Studying Mindfulness
Psalm
~~~Wisława Szymborska
How leaky are the borders of man-made states!
How many clouds float over them scot-free,
how much desert sand sifts from country to country,
how many mountain pebbles roll onto foreign turf
in provocative leaps!
Need I cite each and every bird as it flies,
or alights, as now, on the lowered gate?
Even if it be a sparrow—its tail is abroad,
thought its beak is still home. As if that weren’t enough—it keeps fidgeting!
Out of countless insects I will single out the ant,
who, between the guard’s left and right boots,
feels unobliged to answer questions of origin and destination.
If only this whole mess could be seen at once in detail
on ever continent!
Isn’t that a privet on the opposite bank
smuggling its hundred-thousandth leaf across the river?
Who else but the squid, brazenly long-armed,
would violate the sacred territorial waters.?
How can we speak of any semblance of order
when we can’t rearrange the stars
to know which one shines for whom?
Not to mention the reprehensible spreading of fog!
Or the dusting of the steppe over its entire range
as though it weren’t split in two!
Or voices carried over accommodating air waves:
summoning squeals and suggestive gurgles!
Only what’s human can be truly alien.
The rest is mixed forest, undermining moles, and wind.
More Actions Today if You Have the Bandwidth
Call/Write our Congressional Delegation and ask them to STOP THE WAR in Iran by doing the following: Enacting the War Powers Act, Refusing to Fund Supplemental Funding Requests and moving to impeach Trump. See 5calls.org for more details. The ACLU has a simple form letter you can personalize that they will send to our Reps.
The Maine Legislative Session is OVER for 2026: The following bill has not been acted on yet:
LD 1870 The climate superfund bill “Resolve, to Assess the Total Cost to the State of Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” is on the Appropriations Table. It has a $600,000 price tag but will result in much more than that coming in from Companies who pollute in Maine. If you support this important legislation, please contact members of the Appropriations Commitee (207-287-1635) and your local representatives to support its passage. Call/Write our Congressional Delegation and ask them to begin Impeachment Proceedings for Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary. He has taken a wrecking ball to the military leadership of the Pentagon by removing 13 top level people including: the Army Chief of Staff, Chief of Chaplains, Head of Defense Intelligence Agency, US Military Representative to NATO, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief of Naval Operations, Commandant of the Coast Guard.
5calls.org has more arguments to support his impeachment. (In Reference to Pete’s Christian Nationalist Ideology, check out the young Bob Dylan and Joan Baez singing the beginning of ”With God on Our Side” here.) Call our Congressional Delegation and ask them to speak out on Trump’s latest series of threats to commit genocide in Iran: There are two routes to removing Trump – Impeachment and invocation of the 25th amendment. Both exceedingly unlikely to succeed, both absolutely necessary to push for. We simply have to respond to our unhinged, destructive President with all the tools at our command. Chellie Pingree has already signed on to the 25th amendment effort, let’s try to get Golden, King, and …..yes, Collins on board with this. Go to 5calls.org for more on impeachment.
Let our Congressional Reps know that we need them to oppose the recent Executive Order issued by Trump that he doesn’t need to abide by the Presidential Records Act. Go here for more information on this. (Thank you to Noreen for this!) Maine Related Actions
Even though the legislative session is over it appears that the Appropriations Committee continues their work until June 18th and will be deciding whether or not to fund the following bills: Maine’s LD 814, the “Older Mainers Act” is on the appropriations table and should be passed this session. Contact your local legislators and the appropriations committee to support LD 814. The Older Mainers Act will pay for itself if the Agency on Aging services can keep just 103 older Mainers out of Medicaid-funded nursing homes for one year. More information on this act go to AgeWise Maine. The Southern Maine Agency on Aging has a letter you can personalize to send. The bill asks for 9.75 million dollars to fund these programs in the oldest (per capita) state in the nation. This bill will save the State over 10.5 million dollars annually, so essentially it more than pays for itself.Ask our local legislators to support several important bills that have gotten into the appropriations committee budget: $10 million to make child care affordable (LD 1955), and $11 million for the eviction protection program (LD 1522). The Maine People’s Alliance make it easy to contact your folks and have a letter you can personalize right here. These bills are referenced below and can also be found in full on the Legislature’s website here. Child care is a huge issue for working parents in Maine. Contact your local Representative and Senator and the Appropriations Committee and ask them to support: LD 2066 will make the Child Care Affordability Program Educator Employment Award permanent. This will ensure that current employees at licensed childcare programs receive tuition support and will help to both recruit and retain qualified staff.LD 1414 will increase infant and toddler payment rates through the Child Care Affordability Program for eligible families. To use the MPA’s Action Network to write a letter to your Rep and Senator on these supports for childcare in Maine go here. Remember Quality Child Care for all is great for the economy!!!! Keep ICE out of our DMV records. Ask Secretary of State Bellows (207) 626-8400, and your local Representative and Senator to act to prevent ICE from having access to our Motor Vehicle records without a Judicial Warrant. So far 5 states have blocked ICE including: Washington, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota with Oregon in process. Blocking ICE will achieve greater Public safety from preventing illegal scrutiny of our movements, illegal deportations, as well as increasing trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement. For more on this go to 5calls.org.
Educate yourself about Local and Statewide Elections. Remember, you have at least 90% more power to determine local outcomes than national ones, probably 50% more power to determine Statewide outcomes than national ones, and interestingly our news ecosystem covers mostly the National where we have the least power. Here are some things to explore:
To find local elections going on in your area try these resources: The Maine Monitor listing of town meetings; the Secretary of State’s listing here; and finding your municipal clerk who has the answer to your questions here. When you call her, check out the possibility of working the primary and next year’s election as a poll worker, or getting your students, or adolescents (must be 16 and preregistered to vote) to do the same. (Thank you Zoe for these links!) If you haven’t yet, please email Aaron Frey Maine’s Attorney General and ask him to join Rob Bonta, California’s Attorney General in launching an anti trust suit against the companies that will be owned by one man – David Ellison – a huge Trump backer. His company will own: CBS News, Tick Tock (where 1 in 5 Americans get their news), CNN, HBO (John Oliver), and Comedy Central (John Stewart) as well as AI company Oracle. An Anti-Trust suit is in order, and the States Attorney Generals can get one going. More at 5calls.org on this. At the same time request that he sue to find out what DOGE did to our Social Security data – a whistleblower is alleging that it has been transferred to a non-governmental actor. Ask your local representative and Senator, and the Judiciary Committee to supportLD 2176“An Act to Create a Right to Judicial Review Under the Maine Civil Rights Act for Persons Erroneously Detained” PASSED!!
From the Maine League of Women Voters: Sign up to support fair elections with the Maine League of Women Voters here.Also, here is your annual reminder to check for Clean Elections on your tax return. Learn more here. On the Maine Income Tax Form, Line 1, check a box to designate $3 to the Maine Clean Election Fund. Checking yes on the form does not impact your tax bill or refund in any way. Federal Actions:
The SAVE act will continue being debated in the Senate.See Joyce Vance’s excellent sub stack attached below on the facts associated with the non-problem that the Save Act solves.C
ontact Senator King and thank him for voting NO on the SAVE act HR 7296 (narrowly passed the house) – , and let Susan Collins know that we oppose her support for this act and demand that she vote against ending the Filibuster and against passing the SAVE Act through Budget Reconciliation which Republican Senators are now offering. The new SAVE Act adds new requirements that voters present a proof of citizenship both when registering to vote and when casting a ballot – 5calls.org has more on this. While you are at it, let them know to vote No on the MEGA Act, HR 7300 both of which are voter suppression efforts.“Make Elections Great Again” (MEGA) would ban mail in ballots, limit absentee voting Go to 5calls.org for more information and a script for this call/contact. Contact King, Collins, Pingree, and Golden to refuse the new Iran War funding request for 200 Billion Dollars and Impeach Pete Hegseth!! This is more money than they cut from SNAP in 10 years, more money than was cut from the ACA.Indivisible has set up a quick email you can send to them here. Get more background information and another way to contact them at 5calls.org. After you email your folks, call them with the same message. Note – Jared Golden is offering a new War Powers Act in the House – the specifics seem pretty good. Ask Chellie Pingree to support this. Ask Representatives Golden and Pingree to support the “Prevent an Unconstitutional War in Cuba Act,”introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The text provides an exception for the president to use force if there is an imminent threat. This puts Democrats and Republicans on record for opposing or supporting the unconstitutional Trump wars. More on this in the Hill.
Call Senators King and Collins to urge them to support a formal conflict-of-interest review before the Paramount deal closes (around March 20th). The government must require strong data firewalls and full transparency around Oracle’s (AI firm owned by the Ellison Family) role. Also see request to Attorney General Frey on this above.
Epstein Files Related Actions
See the More Bandwidth action above and check out Joyce Vance’s sub stack attached below about the Bank of America’s 72.5 million dollar settlement with survivors around the charge that the Bank enabled sex trafficking.
Contact King, Collins, Pingree or Golden to demand the following in relation to the Epstein Files: Demand the DOJ release all documents legally mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Ask them to demand as well that the DEA(Drug Enforcement Administration) release an UNREDACTED version of their 2015 “Project Chain Reaction” investigation into Epstein and 14 co-conspirators into a massive drug trafficking ring they were involved with. Todd Blanche has blocked this release. See the full details in Heather Cox Richardson’s post which is attached. For more on this please go to 5calls.org. We have not forgotten. (Where is a Daniel Ellsberg when we need them?)
To support Sexual Abuse Survivors:
Ask your Congressional Representatives to co-sponsor and support “Virginia’s Law”, a billthat would remove the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits related to sexual abuse and trafficking. This law, named after Virginia Guiffre an Epstein abuse survivor and outspoken advocate for justice, would empower survivors by giving them a legal means to seek justice with not expiration date. More details on this law here.
Call Senators King and Collins to urge them to cosponsor S. 2746, the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act and to support the bill with members of the Senate Finance committee where the bill resides currently. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee (that oversees US banking) has been demanding access to Epstein’s finances. To this end, he introduced S. 2746 which would require the Secretary of the Treasury to produce suspicious activity reports relating to Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. More on this at Democracy Now For a script and more information go to 5calls.org. So far not a single perpetrator named in these files has been prosecuted.
ICE related ActionsPrepare for the next national day of action on the “Communities Not Cages” training call (Tues 8pm ET/5pm PT). The Trump regime is purchasing and converting warehouses all over the nation to serve as concentration-camps for those disappeared by ICE and Border Patrol — but local communities are already fighting back. Detention Watch Network is leading the planning for a National Day of Action on April 25; on tomorrow’s training call, we’ll learn tactics and strategy.
Call or write Senator King and Collins and ask them to vote against funding ICE and CBP in the appropriations bill that is currently waiting for approval – 60 votes needed. More details on this at 5calls.org. Ask Collins not to support removing the Filibuster on this vote. There is a move afoot to tax corporations who wish to build ICE prison camps in Maine at a higher level than regular corporate tax to offset the demands on local resources. Along with simply disallowing these camps through local zoning action and public outcry, cutting into the profit margin of these businesses is another way to dissuade them from trying to settle in Maine. ICE has 45 billion dollars to build/rent/purchase prison camp facilities – see a full report on this
here from the Brennan Center.
Contact our Congressional Representatives to: Claw back the 175 BILLION dollar slush fund that was approved in the “OBBA”(The Budget Bill Passed this Summer), for Immigration enforcement actions over the next four years. Collins + King both voted in favor of the Sanders Amendment which clawed back 75 Billion from ICE and CBP. Thank them for this, and then ask them to clawback this funding, and defund ICE and CBP until they meet standards of conduct for police professionals. For more information and a script go to 5calls.org for defunding ICE, and here for the 175 Billion Dollar Clawback. Maine’s Attorney General Aaron Frey has started an ICE tip-line Citizens are urged to report intimidating and excessive federal enforcement behavior to CitizenReporting.OAG@maine.gov. “Emailers should be advised that any content sent may be subject to public dissemination under Maine’s Freedom of Access Laws.
”The Maine Immigrant’s Rights Coalition has set up a resource hub on responding to ICE. If you see what you identify as an ICE vehicle in your town call the ICE Watch hotline in Maine:207 544 9989. You can also text them a photo of what you believe to be an ICE vehicle, or any ICE actions in your area.
Activate Maine has an ICE toolkit including links to sign up for ICE verifier and de escalation trainings.If you want to get more involved check out
this training manual for becoming an ICE verifier.
The Maine ACLU has a page on being prepared for ICE actions in Maine: go here.
Other resist ICE resources: Resources from the Democracy Security Project: Printable De-Escalation Pocket Guide Printable Protest Pocket Guide Other DSP Resources Finally, consider volunteering and/or donating to one of the worthy immigrant support organizations listed below:
Capital Area New Mainers Project, Mainers for Humane Immigration, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, (all Maine based), and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, go here to donate to the Capital Area New Mainers Project. Environmental Actions
LD 1870, the climate superfund bill was passed out of committee! It sits on the Appropriations Committee “Special Table”, please continue to contact your legislators and the Appropriations Committee about LD 1870 and urge them to Make Polluters Pay! To learn NRCM’s priority bills for this short session,check their YouTube channel Check out https://www.nrcm.org/events/ (thank you Linda for this info.)
Keep glyphosphate out of our food supply:
Contact Representative Jared Golden and urge him to cosponsor HR 7601 to protect us from glyphosate poisoning by corporations who have no interest in our health or well-being. On February 20th, Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY-4) introduced HR 7601, the “No Immunity for Glyphosate Act.” Co-sponsors so far are Chellie Pingree (D-ME-1), Lauren Boebert (R-CO-4), Nancy Mace (R-SC-1), and Ro Khanna (D-CA-17). This legislation would prohibit federal funds from implementing the Executive Order Trump issued recently expanding the production of Glyphosphate and Phosphorous under the Defense Production act. The Act is currently in Committee and has not been debated yet.
ACA Related Actions
Call/write Senators King and Collins to support extending the ACA tax credits as the House did on January 8th. The House’s version is a “clean” extension with no amendments. The Maine People’s Alliance makes this really easy, go here. If you wish to write your own note or call, our Senator’s contact information is below in the Contact Information part of this email. For more information go to 5calls.org. For a full toolkit on how to support this action go here. This bill passed in the house!!Boycott: Being a consumer is one of the greatest powers we have as members of a capitalist economy. For a complete list of ICE related boycotts go to https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com/ a new website that lists and explains all the corporations that are directly enabling the Trump administration’s nasty policies and/or helping ICE and CBP: (Thanks Shelly for this link) Another resource on Boycotting – Scott Galloway’s podcast – Raging Moderates, discusses boycotting TechBro products at about 14:30 into the podcast, go here. (thank you Wendilee for this)
Mutual Aid
ActivateMaine has created a site, SNAP Into Action: “a statewide effort to help those who are affected by the freezing of benefits due to the Government shut down.” Activate Maine also has a Mutual Aid page with lots of resources.
Heating Assistance: If you have friends, neighbors, or need support for Heating Assistance, Li Heap funds have been authorized for Maine, Click here to learn more about applying for LIHEAP assistance.
Insurance Crisis: The ACA cuts are in the Senate to be voted on. Please contact Esther at the Maine People’s Alliance who is collecting personal testimony to support the passage of the ACA tax cuts.
ICE Related Mutual Aid: Both documented and undocumented immigrants are staying home in Maine, scared to leave the house to go shopping, bring their children to school, go to Dr’s appointments etc. You can help go here to find out how.
Arts and Politics
Another artist I wasn’t aware of – check out Carsie Blanton who is writing highly politically charged songs with accompanying videos. Check out Everything is Great.
From Indivisible: Faya Ora Rose Touré, the civil rights legend who cofounded the Jubilee, shared a song she’d written for No Kings. You can see the lyrics here.Nils Lofgren — guitarist for the E Street band with Bruce Springsteen — sent us his new song: No Kings, No Hate, No Fear..Bruce C. has written and performed a wonderful new resistance song you can access here.Check it out and send it to your friends. Let me know if you would like to be in touch with him.
If you live near Skowhegan check out Kevin James Studios at 127 Water Street for a whole gallery of resistance art! (Let me know if you know of other art galleries showing political art and I will list them here.)
Research!If you use gmail, AI is reading your email unless you change your settings: Here is an explainer on this issue.
Here is an amazing resource for arguments about the First Amendment : https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-1/ But for a simple explanation see https://www.acluaz.org/news/first-amendment-101-the-freedom-of-the-press/ (Thanks Mitchell for this)
Learn more about Chenoweth’s 3.5% rule – go to one or more of these links: Wikipedia: BBCHarvard:
The Resource Alliance . (Thank you Beth for these links!) Get connected to Govtrack.US for daily information on what’s going on in Congress in terms of bills and votes.
GOT MORE TIME? HERE ARE SOME MORE ACTIONS (just pick one!)
State Wide Actions
- See Maine Related Actions Above
- Consider working the elections this year, or if you are a teacher, encouraging your students to do so (must be 16 and pre-registered to vote): Here is the page for election worker recruitment, and here is the page for registering to vote online. Here is the page to sign up for election protection with the League of Women Voters.
- LD 1383, An Act to Require State Divestment from Perpetrators of International Human Rights Violations has been tabled by the Committee on State and Local Government due to claims that it is anti-semitic, despite support from Jewish action groups. Call your state Senator and Representative to support this bill. Go here for more information on this bill. Write a letter here to the State and Local Government Committee to pass this bill out of committee so the whole legislature can vote on it.
- Mid Maine Indivisible has a great weekly newsletter – To sign up: go here. Indivisible Bangor has a great daily newsletter and actions go here to sign up. If you are in the Mid Coast area consider joining Audacity – learn more here. The Bold Coast Civic Alliance has a newsletter as well as the Hancock County Democrat. Cumberland County Indivisible newsletter go here. Greater Portland Indivisible, go here. We are developing a great ecosystem for resistance communications in Maine.
Find Your State Senator: By name:
Here , By district: Here
Find your State Representative: By name: Here , By District:Here
For Maine State Legislative Calendar day by day go here For links to US Legislative Calendars go here
Check complete bill listing here. Find the text of any bill here Instructions for testifying are here
Local Actions:
This Saturday April 18th, at 1 pm, 653 Waterville Rd. Skowhegan, Somerset County Democrats will be hosting a forum with Democratic Gubernatorial hopefuls, Bellows, Pingree, Shah, King and Jackson. Tickets are $10. See poster attached below for more information.If you are interested in supporting Shenna Bellows for Governor, contact me or Karen Heck to join the effort in Mid Maine. We will be working for her in the upcoming primary.
Support Patric Moore who is a Democrat running for State Senate in Maine District 16 by contributing to his clean election fund here and supporting seed money for his election expenses here. Patric will be running against Republican Scott Cyrway who votes party line Republican. (Do the same for Cassie Julia, Flavia DeBrito, and Taylor West (if you are in their District) who are running for representative seats in our area go here to contribute to their clean election fund!)
Join Mid Maine Indivisible (Kennebec and Somerset Counties) Please join us if you are in the Mid Maine area. To sign up: go here. The Capital Area New Mainers Project is collecting furniture and kitchen supplies for families in our area. They are helping a family who lost everything in a house fire – you can contribute
here to this fund.
To donate fill out the form here.
Are you interested in helping New Mainers learn/improve their English? To sign up for English tutoring or any of our other volunteer opportunities, please visit: Capital Area New Mainers Project (CANMP) to fill out a volunteer interest survey. An English Learning option at the Waterville library at 1:00 on Mondays is also an option for volunteers. Contact CANMP for the details. You can also Donate to the Capitol Area New Mainers Project’s rapid response fund. CANMP is actively helping those affected by ICE abductions, both with legal funding and other financial support for family members.
Thursday, April 16th, (And Every Thursday) Fairfield Benton Bridge 4-5 pm:….stop the coup, support Democracy, ICE OUT Before the regular weekly protest in Fairfield. We will begin a half hour early, at 3:30, so we can come together and express our grief and disgust at the trump regime’s use of tens of billions of dollars to fight a war of choice in the Middle East, when that money could be used to feed, house, educate, and otherwise “provide for the general welfare,” as the US Constitution demands. Sign up
here.
First Saturday of Each Month: Somerset Stands Up Rallies 2:30-Margaret Chase Smith Bridge, downtown Skowhegan. Bring your signs, American flags, your voice, your friends, families and neighbors for this peaceful gathering of concerned residents of Somerset County.
Sunday, April 19th : 1:00 (and every Sunday) Bridge on KMD by the CVS Waterville: Stop the Killing, (ICE, Iran, Cuba, USAID closing, ACA extensions dropped, etc.) New: Sunday April 19th – Stop the War Rally at the Universalist Church in Waterville. Sign up to join here. This will happen before our usual rally on the bridge.
Monday April 22nd: Support Group for Activists 7pm – Please email Emanuelif you wish to attend. We discuss the work we have been doing as well as how we are doing to restore and re-energize ourselves.Tuesday, April 21st: 12:00-1:00 (and every Tuesday) Tesla Charging Stations at Elm Plaza, Waterville Stand with us to remind the traffic that we need to WAKE UP and start resisting the authoritarian take over of our Government. We have been at this location since Tuesday, Feb. 4th 2025!
Tuesday, April 21, 1:30-3 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Eustis Pkwy & North St. Poster Making Session for May Day. Please sign up .here
Wednesday, April 22nd: Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights, GRR! demonstrates every Wednesday across from Resolve, the local anti-abortion center. For more info please contact Elayne Richard at mailto:recordconnection@gmail.com
Wednesday, April 22nd 6 – 7:15 pm New Members Zoom Meeting for Indivisible Mid Maine, please sign up here.Start thinking about May 1st, a national economic boycott day – no school, no work, no shopping (as much as you can). Find an event near you here. Right now I see nothing in Maine
on this map.
SOLIDARITY*If you would like to join Maine People’s Alliance Federal Lobby Group, please contact Jim Parakilas at jamesparakilas@gmail.com. We meet Mondays at 2 pm on Zoom. With great appreciation for all the engagement everywhere!
I usually have quotes here but today, keeping with the anti-war theme I would recommend this song by the Rainbow Girls covering Jordan Smart’s : “Who Would Jesus Bomb” It’s wonderfully sung with great lyrics.
