Keep Your Contacts Close

Happy New Year to All! I hope your holiday season was spent in good health and with lots of family.

I wanted to breifly share my New Year's Resolution which is to keep in touch with my Reps. I often feel compelled to let them know exactly how I feel about new clean energy legislation or foreign aid bills, but I always seem to get side-tracked by making mac and cheese or putting impossibly difficult shoes on a wiggly three-year-old. So, this year I vow to pause and take the time to stand up for my values. It only takes a moment to call a rep and leave a short message including:

1. Your Name and the City you live in (which constituency)
2. The issue/bill (with bill number if you know it) that you are calling about
3. a strong ASK: Tell them exactly what you want them to do to represent YOU (i.e. how you would like them to vote on a specific piece of legislation, which piece of leg. you would like them to sponsor, etc.)



Please share your New Year's resolution with us by posting a reply in this thread.

1Sky and MAU: Partnership in Activist Art and Community Fun!

Exciting stuff has been happening! Obama will head off to Copenhagen tomorrow to participate in a "political agreement" that will set the stage for an international climate treaty sometime in 2010. In order to send a message, MAU and many other volunteer organizations around the country created works of art to express our support for strong climate legislation here in the U.S. and internationally. The Tempe MAU community created a 3-D sculpture project out of all-natural materials. It displays Obama in the center and play-dough renditions of all the individuals in our community who surround him with our hope and support. Others made oversized banners and beautiful drawn art. 1Sky held a presentation ceremony for all of our artwork at Civic Space Park in Phoenix. Check out the photos!

You can also check out the video from the presentation of art projects at the White House.



Thank you to everyone who participated in the creation of the art. Thank you to the Wieses for throwing the art party and letting us use your space for messy art making. Special thanks to Ashley Lauth of 1Sky who invited us to be part of this project, and supported us along the way.

International Day of Climate Action

Josh, Aurora & I are at the bottom of the 3.

If you don't know, 350ppm is the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere (to avoid catastrophic climate change). The amount that is in the earth's atmosphere right now is ~390ppm. Yikes! That's not even counting the amount of other greenhouse gases like methane.

Yesterday, Josh, Aurora & I attended one of over 4,000 events taking place worldwide to bring attention to the issue of climate change. We marched up Tempe Butte and then marched down to the AZ Capitol building to tell our reps that we want policy action on climate change NOW.

If you would like to send a similar message, please visit 1sky.org (to sign the petition) or just sit down today and write a letter to your representatives.

Here are their addresses:

Senator John McCain
4703 South Lakeshore Drive Suite 1
Tempe, AZ 85282

Senator Jon Kyl
2200 East Camelback, Suite 120
Phoenix, Arizona 85016-3455

Congressman Harry Mitchell
7201 East Camelback Road, Suite 335
Scottsdale, Arizona 85251

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500


Thank you all for your support!

warmth,
Alix

Playdate with a Purpose

This is a great video to give everyone an idea of what MAU is all about. This is what our events usually look like: lots of food, laughter, kids running around, and a bit of activism. I like when Juliana Forbes says, "If I have to get a babysitter to do my activism, it's just not going to happen." This is what mother-activism looks like.

The Playdate: Mothers Acting Up and 1 Sky from Kemi Ingram on Vimeo.

Upcoming Events

I am reposting the link to our Fall Calendar of Events as a reminder of our upcoming evetns.

Next...

October 28: Love your Body Day on ASU campus. Hayden Lawn 10-4pm



November 3: Election Night Pizza Party at Leslyn's house 6pm

Keep checking the blog for updates. See you there!

~Alix

Our Stand Up, Take Action Event

Our day of action to eradicate world poverty was a success. We had 11 people stand up as part of the international campaign to support the Millenium Davelopment Goals. The event will reach its goal of 116+ million participants. Thank you to everyone who participated.

We wrote 8 letters to the president, senators, and congressman about children's issues. I had the opportunity to read some of your letters, and the leaders of this country would have to be made of stone to not be touched by your remarkable words. Thank you again!

We finished the event by standing up, literally, against poverty. You can watch the video below to see how well your kids stood in solidarity. It was Awesome! Everyone at the park that day took notice of this group of kids who were writing letters and holding signs about social justice. This community is lucky to have so many smart and amazing kids!

Congratulations to Prakash who won the contest for the most amount of trash picked up in five minutes.

You will need a flash player to watch the video.



A few more thank yous: Thank you to Josh who helped me through every step of this event. Thanks to the Zellos! for being amazingly cool. Thank you to Laxmi and Mia for making the posters so beautiful. Thanks Getemesay and Laxmi for writing those special letters. Thank you to everyone who participated online.

Our Visit to Harry Mitchell's Office

Our meeting with Ardralyn (the District Aide) was a success! Leslyn, Josh, Prakash, Laxmi, Aurora and I delivered a letter to Harry Mitchell asking him to support the Emergency Presidential Initiave for the World's Children and fully fund programs for orphans and vulnerable children. We took in posters that the kids helped me make with the Millenium Development Goals on them. We told stories about being moms/dads/teachers/nurses and how we became advocates for children. Adralyn was very sympathetic to our requests, and she encouraged us to stay in touch with her in the future about any of our campaigns.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this fieldtrip. It was very cool to have the kids with us, soaking up the civic action. This was a great kick off for our weekend event: Stand Up, Take Action, which will focus our energies around the Millenium Development Goals and particularly foreign aid that prioritizes CHILDREN.

Please come on Saturday to be counted with millions of others who will stand up against extreme poverty. If you can't make it, participate online @ http://www.standagainstpoverty.org.

Thank you all again for signing the letter to Mitchell or attending the meeting today.

warmth,
Alix