Pens to Power
next in-person gathering -
Next in-person event:
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posted 6/5/26
Hello again!
Things continue to develop in our country and in Washington County this week, and as always, Pens to Power is on top of it all! Before we dive into our weekly topics, here are some quick announcements: THE MAILER CAMPAIGN IS ALMOST OVER! I am so impressed and proud. This community SHOWED UP to write these "Get Out the Vote" mailers to our fellow Washington County residents. It is too late to have materials mailed to you, but if you still want to write mailers at home, please complete this form and we can arrange to hand-deliver materials between now and Saturday. With a few days left before our final mail date of June 8, we have had volunteers sign up to write over 2,600 letters to WaCo voters! We have another 30 patriots gathering on Sunday to write as many as we can in one day. Together, we can reach thousands of local voters and get them to the polls. BUT!!!! WE NEED STAMPS! We have had so many people volunteer to write so many letters that we are down to the wire on stamps. We have about half of the stamps we need to get through Sunday's event. If you can contribute to our stamp fund, we would be forever grateful. This is by far our organization's largest expense, and we need all the help we can get! Washington County Indivisible Act Blue Donation link: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/indivisiblewcm1349899027 ATTEND OUR EVENT ON SUNDAY! The flyer for Sunday's event is attached to this email. Please join us from 1-4 PM this Sunday, June 7, as we gather to socialize and write as many mailers as we can! We will be collecting donations of non-perishable food and hygiene products for the Eliza's House food pantry and/or Western MD Immigrant Rights Collective. RSVP to [email protected] for the address of the event and to give us your headcount. ________________ FEDERAL: The Office of Management and Budget this week proposed a sweeping rules change that would affect almost every federal grant project in the country. The changes would give Trump-appointed officials direct oversight over grant applications, renewals, and decisions, and give them the authority to cancel any funding, any time, for any reason. This is overreach. Public comment is open now through July 13 on this topic. You can enter your comments here by clicking on the "Open for Comments" button, and then clicking the "Comment" button on the next page. Please make sure your comments are unique and address specific issues or grant projects/areas, because comments that are too alike in nature are bundled together as one, and therefore not as effective as evidence against the rules change. STATE: Throughout the months we've been fighting this warehouse, other states and counties have shown up to help us, and now it's our turn to help them. If you've been following the events at Delaney Hall in New Jersey, you know some of the atrocities that have happened within the walls of the detention center, and some of the horrors protesters have encountered outside. In solidarity, we are going to write to Newark ICE officials and encourage them to conduct increased oversight of Delaney Hall and other ICE detention facilities. Letters can be directed to the ICE Field Office Director at Newark ICE Field Office, which oversees the detention operations at Delaney Hall. Write to: ICE Field Director, Newark ICE Field Office 970 Broad St 2506 Newark, NJ 07102 LOCAL: DHS is still planning on opening the ICE warehouse in Williamsport. This week, they opened up public comment regarding the environmental impact of the warehouse being converted into a detention facility. This comment period is open through July 1. We urge as many people as possible to enter a comment before the deadline as possible, and again, please make these comments as unique as you can so they don't get bundled together as one. Please also point out that the DHS plans currently point to 1,500 detainees, but in April DHS told the court it would only hold about 542 individuals. This would triple the environmental impact. Comment can be submitted by following these instructions by DHS, but PLEASE copy [email protected] so we can keep a record of all the comments entered. This process is not typical, as comments are being directed to a particular email address instead of being posted publicly. We don't trust DHS and want to keep a paper trail if we can. Instructions: "Please direct your correspondence to ICE at [email protected] with a subject “Hagerstown Comments”. DHS will consider all responses identifying substantive issues that meaningfully inform the consideration of environmental effects during the preparation of the EA." I hope to see many of you this Sunday at our writing event, and thanks to everyone who has written mailers the last few weeks! We are making history! Laura 
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Don't stand back and stand by. This is the time to stand up and speak out.
WASHINGTON COUNTY Indivisible / Washington County, Maryland