so many reasons to [help others] vote

Greetings, all! I'm coming in heavy today from the throes of planning the local version of a UU Climate Revival event taking place at 350 congregations nationwide on Saturday, Sept. 28th. The aim is to help our folks, who are traditionally very active in all kinds of social justice activism, see that climate justice overarches all the "justices"--both in that if we don't have a livable planet, reproductive rights don't matter much, for example, and also that economic, racial and immigration justice are all deeply connected to climate change.

What applies to every one of us is the hour of advocacy action we'll take as part of Sunday's service: a nonpartisan Get Out the Vote effort. Why does it matter? Because we can support those affected "first and worst" by climate change to raise their voices through their votes.

Wanna hear something surprising? Loads of people who identify as environmentalists don't vote regularly! (I don't know; are they out kayaking on Election Day?) The Environmental Voter Project aims to change that.

"We estimate that over 8 million environmentalists did not vote in the 2020 presidential election and over 13 million skipped the 2022 midterms. We are a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on a simple, high-leverage solution to this problem: with an 8-year track record of success, we are accurately identifying these non-voting environmentalists and efficiently converting them into a critical mass of consistent voters that will soon be too big for politicians to ignore.

13,000,000
Environmentalists who don’t vote in federal elections

1,824,260
Non-voting and seldom-voting environmentalists whom EVP has helped turn into consistent super-voters"

You can help! Look at all these opportunities to contact the kayakers and get them to the polls! (Unfortunately, my favorite way is to write, and those opportunities are already filled.) https://www.environmentalvoter.org/get-involved

And if you need to know which candidates in your area are the ones to vote for, try these resources:

• National Environmental Scorecard by the League of Conservation Voters, 501(c)(4), is a great topline review of members in Congress.
• The National Climate Scorecard by the Climate Cabinet, 501(c)(4), may be the first tool that tracks and scores all state legislators across the U.S. by their votes on climate and environmental justice legislation.
• Do you have a "Climate Mayor?" Check HERE to see if your Mayor is one of the 750 Climate Mayors or Climate County Executives. 
• Do you have a climate Governor who is contributing to a state-wide climate action plan? Check HERE.
• Have your community’s leaders already declared a Climate Emergency? Check HERE to see the more than 190 communities that have.

And now for the poetry...the only poetry book I know on democracy and elections is this one by Janet Wong from 2012--but it does the trick!

Go sow your own seeds, of course, and help others sow theirs. Thanks to Linda Baie at TeacherDance for hosting us today and celebrating maximum tilt!