Your Voice and Your Vote are Powerful Tools!
What We Can Do
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Get involved in local School Board activities with Public School Defenders, a local education advocacy group. The link is to their FB page.
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You can stream School Board workshops and meetings here.
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The Duval school district posts a public hearing notice for each book review committee meeting. The link to the notice can be found here.
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More information about the reconsideration, including past and current reconsiderations can be found here.
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Learn about the book banning process by the district here.
Local action requests:
Florida Rising is promoting a tenants' bill of rights; it would require the following:
1) Dedicated office of the tenant advocate
2) Create a publicly searchable landlord registry
3) Non-discriminatory rental application process
4) Notice of changes to lease
5) Fee transparency
6) Right to counsel and language access
7) Right to repair
The newly formed Jax Tenants Union (JTU) is collecting information on the issues facing tenants in Jacksonville. Their goal is to create an organization that can represent the interests of tenants and take collective action against landlord abuse here in Jacksonville. You can find them at
Jax Tenants Union Facebook page
or on their website
Please call or email your city council member and the at-large members. Possible script:
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Please don't prolong this any longer.
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Get rid of all the confederate monuments that are on city property.
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We do not want to send a message that human trafficking/slavery is OK.
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The civil war was fought by the confederacy to keep human trafficking/slavery legal. No monuments glorifying their horrific mission should be honored.
It’s a bigger issue than just the statement that we do NOT condone #HumanTrafficking . We also do not condone or want to perpetuate the #JimCrow era.
Please sign the petition and then tell your friends, family and colleagues to sign. Here’s the LINK
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The Equal Rights Amendment simply says that we can't have less rights because of our sex. An amendment is needed now more than it was before Dobbs when the subversive extremist six Supreme Court justices signed onto the Dobbs opinion which cites Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist who conceived the notion that husbands can’t be prosecuted for raping their wives, who sentenced women to death as “witches,” and whose misogyny stood out even in his time.
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In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA. The 3/4 majority necessary for a constitutional amendment was met. The Senate needs to remove the 1982 deadline. In 2021, the House passed a resolution to remove the deadline, but apparently they have to vote again.
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Unfortunately, only 52 Senators voted yes on April 27, 2023. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will have additional opportunities to vote again in this same session of Congress. Another vote on the ERA could be taken later this session. We still have an opportunity to close the 9 vote gap this year.
Demand Ethics Investigation into Justice Thomas
Write: The Honorable John G. Roberts
Chief Justice of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
One First St. NE
Washington, D.C. 20543
Dear Justice Roberts,
You have a responsibility to the American people to ensure that the highest court in the land does not have the lowest ethical standards. If we can't rely on the powerful justices to follow the letter and the intent of the law, how can we respect your decisions when you make judgements on other people's behavior? How can we be sure that the justices aren't being swayed by lavish gifts? A binding code of conduct for the justices is necessary to maintain our democratic republic. This court has issued decisions that are a severe blow to the “democracy” part of our democratic republic. Please honor our Constitution and make sure your court isn't being swayed by lavish gifts from the wealthy.
Please report fake clinics.
Details:
https://floridareprofreedom.org/fakeclinics/
It's important for two reasons
1. To publicize that they are spreading false information
2. To try to get our governments to quit giving them money
Check out the blog post which includes a link to the debate. Here's a few excerpts:
9:33 Valdez asks about the alleged clinics receiving the $25 million. Valdez asks if they are prohibited from shaming women. Sponsor doesn't answer.
9:45 Gantt asks if the alleged clinics are required to tell the clients that the clinic has no licensed medical professionals if that's the case. The sponsor never answers.
10:20 Gantt asks if the alleged clinics can spend the money on billboards. Sponsor says yes. Did you realize your tax dollars were funding those anti-abortion billboards?
Democracy works best when the electorate is paying attention to what their elected officials are doing.
Let them hear from you!
Here are some helpful hints as to how to contact your representatives:
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At this link, you can find YOUR Florida legislators for both the state and US Congress:
https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/FindYourRepresentative
These are also included in items #2 and #3 but it might be quicker to find them at this link. -
Lists all elected officials for Duval County:
https://www.duvalelections.com/Elected-Officials -
At this link you can find YOUR elected representatives if you're in Duval:
https://www.duvalelections.com/Voter-Information/My-Elected-Officials
After reaching the website type in your address, then it will offer a suggested match. Press enter and it will give you a list of all YOUR elected officials. It will tell you office name, office holder, contact information, and the physical location of the voters who have elected that representative.
Joe Manchin and all the Senate Republicans voted no
on the Women's Health Protection Act on May 11, 2022.
Please remember that when you vote!
We need pro-choice representatives in our government.
Link to the Women's Health Protection Act