As an activist working from home, it’s easy to let the day escape you.
Remember:
- Schedule your day. Prioritize spiritual, family, etc.
- Set healthy boundaries.
- Use a timer to avoid over or underachieving.
- Set time aside to take care of yourself.
We are waiting for SB163 to go to the House Health & Insurance Committee Hearing. By uniting, day by day we become stronger and can get more achieved to fight this bill. Let this energy rise and re-direct it toward authority and confidence.
Educating these politicians is only half of the battle.
The rest of the story is…
Advocacy! We must inspire others to advocate for themselves. There are several different ways to create a positive educational encounter with friends, family, or people in a position of authority. We desire to learn and there are specific actions that we can take to propel us in making these specific requests.
Remember, that the most powerful trips we can PACK the House Gallery at Capitol are:
- For the House Hearing
- The second reading
- The third reading. We should PACK the House gallery.
Please make every effort to be at the Capitol for those three events.
Thank YOU all for your commitment to fight for bodily and medical autonomy in Colorado. We need YOU!
Here’s what you can do from home:
Look up your local Catholic Diocese and email and call the Bishop and all of his staff. Give them this white paper, A Voice For Truth white paper. Tell him that SB163 is removing people’s religious right to decline vaccinations based on their pro-life beliefs. Explain the difference between a religious exemption and a non-medical exemption. Explain how the AAP is working to remove all non-medical exemptions. Ask them to get involved by contacting their legislators with their concerns.
*Make sure to cover your area and Sen. Gonzales & Priola’s district. Let them know what their Senators are doing.
Sen. Priola’s 80010, 80011, 80019, 80022, 80045, 80102, 80103, 80105, 80136, 80137, 80221, 80229, 80233, 80260, 80601, 80602, 80603, 80640, 80642, 80643, 80654, 80701
Sen. Gonzales’ 80022, 80202, 80203, 80204, 80205, 80211, 80212, 80214, 80216, 80218, 80219, 80221, 80223, 80226, 80264, 80290, 80293, 80294
On the local Catholic Diocese’s website, find all the parishes that fall under the Diocese. Contact each Priest on the staff of each parish via email and phone. Give them this white paper: A Voice For Truth white paper. Tell him that SB163 is removing people’s religious right to decline vaccinations based on their pro-life beliefs. Explain the difference between a religious exemption and a non-medical exemption. Describe how the AAP is working to remove all non-medical exemptions. Ask them to get involved by contacting their Bishop and their legislators with their concerns. Make sure to cover your area and Sen. Gonzales & Priola’s district. Let them know what their Senators are doing.
Sen. Priola’s 80010, 80011, 80019, 80022, 80045, 80102, 80103, 80105, 80136, 80137, 80221, 80229, 80233, 80260, 80601, 80602, 80603, 80640, 80642, 80643, 80654, 80701
Sen. Gonzales’ 80022, 80202, 80203, 80204, 80205, 80211, 80212, 80214, 80216, 80218, 80219, 80221, 80223, 80226, 80264, 80290, 80293, 80294
Utilize Medical Autonomy Colorado’s email toolkits and email all the legislators multiple times a day. These toolkits will address and write the email for you. Keep sending emails. The point is to flood their emails inevitably shutting down their email accounts. We successfully did this in the Senate. Email multiple times a day.
Call 5 House Reps every day. Ask their aids the Rep’s position on the bill. Request very specific information about the bill. If you are able, call 10-15 per day. The conversation will be short-lived. They track how many calls and emails they get each day for each bill. This is a POWERFUL thing you can do.
Stick to only one question per call.
Here are some questions you can ask:
Why isn’t the current statute isn’t being enforced? Per the CDC and Colorado public engagement report recommendations are based on the 2013 Brighton School District numbers. Colorado has the lowest vaccination rate is attributed to the fact that schools are not enforcing the law. We have a records collection issue that makes us look like we are the lowest.
What efforts have been made to identify barriers that may prevent schools from enforcing the law requiring them to collect missing records?
Why were stakeholders most affected by this law not included in discussions? Followed by, why was there no formal public engagement process?
There were formal stakeholder and public engagement processes on the personal belief exemption in 2013. The scope of this bill goes beyond that engagement’s scope. Why parents being denied their right to weigh in on the issue?
Are FERPA rights not sacred to the Colorado legislature? Is it acceptable to force this shrewd and invasive workaround to data-mine Colorado citizens?
This bill is discriminatory. It creates a second class of citizens and requires 3rd party approval of beliefs.
The CDPHE is not being clear about their intentions with the data.
Contact your pediatrician and ask them if they will be willing to sign a non-medical exemption form for your family should this bill pass. Document what they say. If they say they would not sign it, INFORM your legislators. Email them at one time by copying and pasting this list into the BCC field. Address your email, “Dear Representative,” and tell them what your pediatrician says. Get your pediatrician on record telling you why they do not issue medical exemptions. Send that in a different email.
*If the pediatrician tells you that this bill will never pass, inform them that it has already passed the first hearing in the Senate. You will be able to gauge how aware they are of the legislative process. Be sure to let them know that this is the 5th bill in 6 years that has attacked privacy rights and medical autonomy. Communicate that the legislature and the GSK lobbyist working on these bills are getting more aggressive with each attempt to change CO State law.
Copy & paste list for the BCC field:
jeni.arndt.house@state.co.us, kcbecker.house@state.co.us, adrienne.benavidez.house@state.co.us, shannon.bird.house@state.co.us, janet.buckner.house@state.co.us, bri.buentello.house@state.co.us, yadira.caraveo.house@state.co.us, james.coleman.house@state.co.us, lisa.cutter.house@state.co.us, monica.duran.house@state.co.us, daneya.esgar.house@state.co.us, tony.exum.house@state.co.us, meg.froelich.house@state.co.us, alec.garnett.house@state.co.us, serena.gonzales-gutierrez.house@state.co.us, matt@matthewgray.us, leslie.herod.house@state.co.us, edie.hooton.house@state.co.us, dominique.jackson.house@state.co.us, sonya.jaquez.lewis.house@state.co.us, chris.kennedy.house@state.co.us, cathy.kipp.house@state.co.us, reptracy29@gmail.com, susan.lontine.house@state.co.us, julie.mccluskie.house@state.co.us, barbara.mclachlan.house@state.co.us, jovan.melton.house@state.co.us, dafna.michaelson.jenet.house@state.co.us, kyle.mullica.house@state.co.us, dylan.roberts.house@state.co.us, jonathan.singer.house@state.co.us, emily.sirota.house@state.co.us, marc.snyder.house@state.co.us, tom.sullivan.house@state.co.us, kerry.tipper.house@state.co.us, brianna.titone.house@state.co.us, alex.valdez.house@state.co.us, donald.valdez.house@state.co.us, mike.weissman.house@state.co.us, steven.woodrow.house@state.co.us, mary.young.house@state.co.us, mark.baisley.house@state.co.us, rod.bockenfeld.house@state.co.us, perrybuck49@gmail.com, terri.carver.house@state.co.us, marc.catlin.house@state.co.us, richard.champion.house@state.co.us, tim.geitner.house@state.co.us, richard.holtorf.house@state.co.us, rephumphrey48@yahoo.com, lois.landgraf.house@state.co.us, colin.larson.house@state.co.us, larry.liston.house@state.co.us, hugh.mckean.house@state.co.us, patrick.neville.house@state.co.us, rod.pelton.house@state.co.us, kim.ransom.house@state.co.us, janice.rich.house@state.co.us, lori.saine.house@state.co.us, shane.sandridge.house@state.co.us, matthew.soper.house@state.co.us, kevin.vanwinkle.house@state.co.us, perry.will.house@state.co.us, dave.williams.house@state.co.us, representativewilson@gmail.com
Create your own email. Explain to the legislators what this bill will do to your family and how it has already affected you.
Send one email to all the legislators, per day. You might include a link to one study with a short intro every day.
Some good topics to cover are:
- The truth about herd immunity
- Section 13 of the inserts
- Describe how 163 will encourage discrimination
- Elaborate on how you’ve experienced discrimination
- Explain the current barriers you encounter when you go to get a medical exemption and the impact of the bill on your family.
- Explain your feelings when politicians don’t respond to you or refuse to meet with you if you have changed parties over their response to the issue.
Keep writing legislators! Identify the problems that keep you up at night until they confirm for that they are a NO vote on 163.
Copy & paste list for the BCC field:
jeni.arndt.house@state.co.us, kcbecker.house@state.co.us, adrienne.benavidez.house@state.co.us, shannon.bird.house@state.co.us, janet.buckner.house@state.co.us, bri.buentello.house@state.co.us, yadira.caraveo.house@state.co.us, james.coleman.house@state.co.us, lisa.cutter.house@state.co.us, monica.duran.house@state.co.us, daneya.esgar.house@state.co.us, tony.exum.house@state.co.us, meg.froelich.house@state.co.us, alec.garnett.house@state.co.us, serena.gonzales-gutierrez.house@state.co.us, matt@matthewgray.us, leslie.herod.house@state.co.us, edie.hooton.house@state.co.us, dominique.jackson.house@state.co.us, sonya.jaquez.lewis.house@state.co.us, chris.kennedy.house@state.co.us, cathy.kipp.house@state.co.us, reptracy29@gmail.com, susan.lontine.house@state.co.us, julie.mccluskie.house@state.co.us, barbara.mclachlan.house@state.co.us, jovan.melton.house@state.co.us, dafna.michaelson.jenet.house@state.co.us, kyle.mullica.house@state.co.us, dylan.roberts.house@state.co.us, jonathan.singer.house@state.co.us, emily.sirota.house@state.co.us, marc.snyder.house@state.co.us, tom.sullivan.house@state.co.us, kerry.tipper.house@state.co.us, brianna.titone.house@state.co.us, alex.valdez.house@state.co.us, donald.valdez.house@state.co.us, mike.weissman.house@state.co.us, steven.woodrow.house@state.co.us, mary.young.house@state.co.us, mark.baisley.house@state.co.us, rod.bockenfeld.house@state.co.us, perrybuck49@gmail.com, terri.carver.house@state.co.us, marc.catlin.house@state.co.us, richard.champion.house@state.co.us, tim.geitner.house@state.co.us, richard.holtorf.house@state.co.us, rephumphrey48@yahoo.com, lois.landgraf.house@state.co.us, colin.larson.house@state.co.us, larry.liston.house@state.co.us, hugh.mckean.house@state.co.us, patrick.neville.house@state.co.us, rod.pelton.house@state.co.us, kim.ransom.house@state.co.us, janice.rich.house@state.co.us, lori.saine.house@state.co.us, shane.sandridge.house@state.co.us, matthew.soper.house@state.co.us, kevin.vanwinkle.house@state.co.us, perry.will.house@state.co.us, dave.williams.house@state.co.us, representativewilson@gmail.com
Create a Twitter account. Learn how to use it. Follow all of the legislators. Pay attention to #’s that are used for politics in CO. Comment on their posts and tag them on your posts. Engage with your audience. Encourage others to share your advocacy by re-tweeting. Set a timer to help you be efficient. Work on this a little each day.
Write your testimony for the House Committee hearing for SB163. It should be 2 minutes long. Speak to the bill.
Choose a fellow respectable freedom fighter that you want to get to know better. Send them a note of thanks and encouragement for their contributions to the fight. Remind them that you are fighting alongside them from home. Ask them what they have been working on and how things are going. Build connections within your community. Learn to overcome feelings of shyness by advocating for your family. Educate others about public policy and teach them how to advocate for themselves. We all need encouragement and community!
Prepare some freezer meals for the day that your family will be at the Capitol. The important times to be at the Capitol are the first, second, and third hearings. Prepare to have everything you need to be gone those days lined up. Talk with your friends to prepare tentative plans for carpooling, caravanning, and help with kids.
Stop everything and take a break. Do something fun for yourself and with your family. Remember, that you are NOT alone. Get outside and get some fresh air, and vitamin D. Remember how big the world is and how many people you have in your tribe.
