Wednesday's one thing

Julia Smith

Julia Smith

— 2 min read
Two protestors hold signs at a recent #TeslaTakedown. One reads HONK IF YOU HEART A TRANS KID. The other says DO NOT FINANCE THE END OF DEMOCRACY!
Honk honk! See third bullet below.

Item 1. Onward!

I never want to spend too much of this space on electoral politics – or at least, I want to balance things out with more focus on mutual aid, the arts, grassroots organizing – but I can't resist this:

Screenshot of a graphic that shows the state of Wisconsin covered in blue arrows that represent "More Dem" votes compared with the 2024 presidential vote. There are no red arrows, which would have illustrated a shift in margin toward Republican candidates.
I assume this is from the NYT; I saw it bc someone shared this Ben Wikler post on Bluesky.

It is good to pause and cackle at the shade toward election-interfering billionaires. It is good to be aware of the tactics that worked and the down-ballot victories.

AND – for the librarians in Ohio, for the dad from Maryland, for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, for the NIH, for Palestine, for pregnant people – want to keep that clear-eyed momentum up? Three ideas:

  • If you thought, "wow, I wish my Senator would pull a Cory Booker" yesterday ➡️ evergreen reminder that the 5Calls app makes it extremely easy to contact your Congressperson. If you're in NJ, you can leave a voice mail for Sen. Booker himself, give his staff kudos for the prep work they must have done, and squish in a demand that he block arms sales to Israel (ahem) all in one 45 second voice mail!
  • If hitting the streets is your style (or you want it to be and are trying to work up the bravery for this weekend) ➡️ Attend an online de-escalation training TONIGHT (8-9pm ET) to prep for April 5 protests.
  • If you're not a "protest IRL" person, but you find crafting cathartic ➡️ highly recommend ripping up some cardboard boxes or grabbing some poster board and spending an hour making protest signs. Post them in your window, or get them in the hands of someone who is going to an April 5 action, or show up early and leave them there for folks to grab. Very cathartic.
Close-up of a protester, face obstructed from view. They have one hand in a coat pocket and the other holds a HONK IF YOU HEART PUBLIC SCHOOLS sign.
You can search online for plenty of creative and funny slogans from recent protests, and even find hilarious "smash the toy Tesla" stations, piñatas, etc...but you can also keep it simple and earnest. At a recent #TeslaTakedown, an assortment of "Honk if You ❤️ ___" (with phrases like "Libraries" "Freedom of Speech" "National Parks"]" posters were a hit.
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