Recap July 16th, 2019

DISCLAIMER: The opinions and comments below are those of the speaker and not official positions of Taos United / Taoseños Unidos , a non-partisan, nonprofit community information and education group.

Community Schools concept has come to Taos (Catherine Horsey, Taos School Zone)

One third of Taos County children live in poverty and have high incidence of factors that interfere with learning, including domestic violence and/or parental incarceration. Nonprofits addressing these problems need a more structured way to help children and their families. The Taos School Zone (a special project of the Taos Community Foundation) is a collective impact project that coordinates the efforts of nonprofits, parents, and teachers to produce measurably better outcomes for our kids. TSZ spent two years listening to stakeholders, and creating an asset map of all Taos nonprofits serving school age children (120+!). Many states have created Community School models. Taos chose a “homegrown” model, which will be implemented at Enos Garcia Elementary. Generally, Community schools are hubs where a whole range of services to support the entire family are available before and after school. Taos Municipal Schools authorized the hire of a full time “Site Coordinator” at Enos Garcia. This individual, key to the project, will coordinate services and provide an “entry point” for volunteers. Services could include such things as dental services, family counseling, availability of a washer/dryer, a food pantry, and clean clothes. What about an after school civics class? The possibilities are endless. An Advisory Board is forming.

Kit Carson Park (Bob Silver)

Spoke against of transformation of the Kit Carson Park without input from the Community to a “rock concert curfew violating venue”. The Park is owned by the people. New Mexico has statutes prohibiting public nuisance. Support kcparkfriends.com

Kit Carson Park (Bob Fies)

Town of Taos has been unresponsive to complaints or inquiries about how funds are allocated.
Survey of Taoseños on what they want from the Park: “more bike paths” “permanent bathrooms”
Atty Alan Maestas was hired to help citizens gain access to town councilors, but this seemed to compound the limited communication with the Town
Actions:
- Sign petition to move the big events outside the center of town
- Buy $1 bumpersticker Take Back the Park

Taos Immigrant Allies – TIA (Bea Balsamo)

At the Lights for Liberty Vigil (July 12th in Taos Plaza) attend by 200-250 persons , more than 168 postcards were written, and more than $2000 in donations to support local services to immigrants was collected.

TIA will raffle arts, crafts and gift certificates at Cid’s July 20th 10AM-2PM

Taos Democratic Party (George Brown)

Sin Fronteras is collecting supplies for refugee centers at the border until Friday. Bring items to the Taos Democratic Party HQ during office hours
729-A Paseo del Pueblo Sur, Taos, NM (corner of Cruz Alta, across from Walgreens)
See Sin Fronteras’ Facebook for what items are needed.
Jim Hightower Fundraiser for the Taos County Democratic Party at Old Martina’s Hall. Monday July 22nd 6 PM
Tickets going fast. $20 at taosvotesblue.com
Need help with Fiestas parade July 21st and with the Taos Pride parade in August.
Democratic Debate Watch Parties will continue!

Squads of Kindness (Marcia Cruz-Redding)

Marcia is new to Taos, and wants to organize social meetings to bring people to interact and respect each other. She calls this concept “Squads of Kindness”: explicit actions of kindness to other humans to bring down barriers.

Rivera Sun – Author of Dandelion Insurrection

Rivera is the author of social protest novels and teaches non-violence as a tool for action. Non-violent protest goes back to 1170 BC. Studies show that non-violence is far more effective than violence in bringing about social and political change. “People Power” can be used at any time. Rather than “one-on” events, it’s better if there are a set of actions to achieve your goals. The aim should be to “starve” the problem or injustice of resources. Legislation is pushed by movements. Examples of effective action in the current immigration struggle: block ICE from leaving its building(s), lobby hotel chains that are acting as back-up detention centers, tell Amazon to stop facilitating ICE’s databases.

Resources: Gene Sharp (author), Global Nonviolent Action Database

Q – what is a non-violent action to bring about more transparency about what is happening at our Kit Carson Park?
A – Propose and market an alternative plan that would capture the revenue that the town needs while preserving public access and desires of residents. has

Q – Can we have an impact while in Taos?
A – We should act locally on National issues

ACLU of New Mexico (Mary Ann Maestas & Stephanie Corte)

Mary Ann & Stephanie will be at SOMOS 6:45 Wednesday July 17th at SOMOS. Purpose is to hear from the community and give updates on ACLU actions.
There will also be an ACLU Annual Meeting August 5th (place to be determined).

National litigation. – ACLU has brought suit against the administration’s just announced new asylum policy which requires immigrants to apply for asylum in the first “safe country” that they reach ( i.e. Guatemala or Mexico) rather than the prior requirement that the application for asylum be made on US soil,. Under this new policy those who fail to apply in a “safe country” lose their rights to apply for asylum. This change means that those who have already reached Mexico are now ineligible to apply, stranding these refugees without recourse.
Detention centers –There are no family detention centers in New Mexico or facilities that hold children, although border portrol substations like Clint, often hold children and families temporarily. The ACLU, however, is working with the Cibola County facility which is holding men and trans men and submitted a complaint to the DHS re: conditions in that facility.
“Remain in Mexico” policy is very dangerous to refugees who are often targets of crime and trafficking
Rights for All is an ACLU initiative training communities to “bird-dog” elected officials – obtaining specific answers to policy questions and so putting the candidate on the record.
Though attempts to pass a bill making New Mexico a Sanctuary State failed, another attempt will be made in the 2021 “long” session.
Another action idea is divestiture from private prisons, an initiative of NM Comunidades en Acción y de Fé (CAFé)

Candidate for County Clerk 2020 (Delores Lujan)

Delores will perform the duties of County Clerk with accountability and integrity and provide excellent customer service.
She is emphasizing the importance of youth voter participation.

Retake Our Democracy – 2019 Legislative Report Card (Cristy Holden)

Retake our Democracy’s Legislative Report card for the 2019 Legislative session was released yesterday. Read and study it to learn how good bills died despite Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate.

Global Climate Strike (Karen Monson)

Sept 20-27th Global Climate Strike is being coordinated by Earth Care of Santa Fe.
Support the youth of New Mexico to confront climate change.

Al Kelly

How do we get our media fixed to give the real news? Trump, his Cabinet and Congress are disassembling the U.S. while the media is busy with memos, tweets and nothing but more & more Trumpisms. All that is cover — to do as Grover Norquist announced in 2001 “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” The U.S. government is now small enough to put in the toilet and flush. The tax bill helped do this and the Fascist Corporations align with Trump,ringing their hands–saying “let them follow your tweets, while we dismantle and get richer.” Trump’s racism and tweets are other roadblocks to stop us from thinking about the real problem–The EPA is gone, Health and Human Services is gone, the State Dept., Education Dept. Agriculture and Interior–gone!! The UN, Europe & China think we are nuts. All regulations on the rich and Corporations are gone. Soon the FBI and the Justice Dept. will be gone, plus so many other government functions are neither available nor working. Next it will be Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid–gone. The only thing left will be the military–who will function under Trump and his rich cronies–as does the military trained local law enforcement. So how do we solve this problem?? If any of you wish to use this script on You Tube or Facebook, please do. If the media would stop putting pictures of Trump on TV, he would resign and return to Fox. Peace.

2nd Taos Electric Vehicle Expo (Dan Pritchard)

August 24th Noon-4 PM 2nd Electric Vehicle and Antique Car Expo at the TCA
Learn about electric vehicles (cars, bicycles, motorcycles, etc)
Volunteers needed for registration and traffic control.
Contact dan@renewabletaos.org

Keep fossil fuels in the ground! 6 acres of solar panels in Taos County will provide enough energy to power 500 electric cars for 10K miles/year

Next month’s forum: August 20, 5:30-7:7;00 will host Congresswoman Deb Haaland, one of the first Native American women to be elected to the US House of Representatives. Look forward to other campaign announcements and introduction to a state level Green-New Deal.

Thank you, Kit Carson Electric Co-op for providing space for our monthly meetings on the the 3rd Tuesdays of each month.

Thanks for attending and supporting Taos United.

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The Postcard Posse meets Thursdays 3 PM-5 PM at the Democratic HQ.
All are welcome to drop in and write. For more details, contact Diane dshif@well.com