Dear Friends, 

This is not the kind of message you usually find on this listserv, but these are not ordinary times.  Clean, renewable, carbon free energy is also on the ballot.  

Your vote counts!  Here is a link to Plan Your Vote, a very catchy song. Thank you Margo for helping pull this together.  Enjoy the music and pass it on to friends who might need a nudge to get to the polls.

https://youtu.be/z5TX32ECFUk

Here is something else you can do.  Sign the pledge that every vote needs to be counted here

www.ChooseDemocracy.US/

George Lakey, a Quaker and long time advocate for nonviolence wrote the Pledge.  He has come out of retirement because of his concern about our forthcoming election.  Listen to George talk about what we can do on the Choose Democracy site.

He is asking all of us to think about what we might doing there is a coup. It is hard to even think about the possibility of something like this happening in our country. However, many serious people are talking about it now.  It seems wise to be prepared rather than to be caught off guard.  If nothing happens we will be none the worse for wear.

Should something happen, many people who are able will undoubtedly take to the streets to demonstrate nonviolently.  However, that alone will not be sufficient.  Civil servants, police, business people, all of us must understand the importance of not cooperating with an illegitimate government. 

Everything must be slowed down until the courts can settle any dispute.
The only way to prepare for something like this is to reach out to those in your networks and talk with them now and ask them to sign the Pledge. This may be one of the most important things you can do to preserve our democracy.

Here are the four parts to the pledge:

1. We will vote.

2. We will refuse to accept election results until all the votes are counted.

3. We will nonviolently take to the streets if a coup is attempted.

4. If we need to, we will shut down the country to protect the integrity of the democratic process.

Sign the Pledge “Every Vote Needs To Be Counted” at http://ChooseDemocracy.US/

Post it to your social media and encourage others in your network to do the same.

Find out more from the Lakey blog at

https://www.pmpress.org/blog/2020/09/18/what-will-it-take-to-defend-the-election-heres-one-winning-strategy/

In Solidarity,
Marilyn Elie
United 4 Clean Energymargo