Sisters,

Happy Mother’s Day to all the sisters loving on children and youth! Being a mother is a gift, and WE CAN wishes all mothers nothing but the best.

---

Each week’s Mobilize Monday could be thousands of words and only discuss all the rights the current administration and the majority party are trampling on. Any objective examination of what is happening in our country can only conclude that cruelty is the point. Everything that is happening now pains me and makes me very angry. In times like these, we often ask, “How did we get here?” or “Why is this happening?”

I’m done debating the answers to these and related questions. I mean, does it really matter at this point? I’d rather put my energies towards how to stand in the gap and prevent, slow down, or overturn all the harmful acts that are causing so much pain worldwide.

If you had asked me two hundred days ago how we should do our work, I would have said we need to understand how our system of government works to be the most effective activists. This is still critical information, but we don’t have the luxury of a learning curve right now. There are too many fires burning. We need to study and act at the same time. It’s a good thing we are accustomed to juggling multiple very important things!

I will try to make these posts shorter and more direct about what you can do to bridge the gap. The deeper learning will take place in other ways. Watch for announcements of upcoming events in these Mobilize Monday posts.

Powered Up Trainings: WE CAN will continue our 1-hour webinars to provide a peek into programs, services, and issues facing women of color.

Movies to Movements events: We’ll watch documentary film, discuss the issue, and take action related to the issue presented in the film.

Sister Source Podcast: WE CAN will release more episodes of our podcast, in which you can hear from folks on the front lines about what they are doing to disrupt the abuses of power we’re seeing at all levels of government.

In the meantime, you stand in the gap this week by making 5 calls to your elected officials.

1. Use the WE CAN Legislator Look Up Tool to find the contact information for your elected officials.

• Go to www.5calls.org and select at least one (1) thing you want to call your elected officials about to voice your opinion. Sadly, there is so much to choose from: killing the Voting Rights Act piece by piece, funding cuts to public television and radio, protecting Head Start to educate young children, stopping the DOGE machine from killing Social Security as we know it, and a hundred other things. PICK YOUR ISSUE and DIG IN! Don’t try to boil the ocean. Instead, make calls about the thing that is most important to you!

• Join forces with Sisters in an Action Team: Identify 4-5 sister friends and get to work together, fighting local and state issues that will make a big difference in your own backyard! There is work to be done at all levels of government, but we would be smart to act on local and state issues all the time and weigh in on national issues when the time is right. Don’t worry WE CAN will let you know when the time is right!

Mothers will continue to stand for children. WE CAN will continue to stand with each of you. When we stand together. WE CAN win together!

In solidarity,

Stephanie