Happy Thursday! Here is your Weekly Update from the League of Women Voters Milwaukee County (LWVMC). | Join The LWVMC for a Screening of Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom
TODAY from 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.
East Library, 2320 N Cramer Street
"Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom" is an unscripted documentary that invites viewers into the story of Juneteenth – the holiday recognizing the end of legalized slavery in Texas – through the eyes of a Black man learning about the holiday from the direct descendants of those liberated. The story serves as a parable that offers hope, and the insight that faith can be the greatest weapon against injustice. Light refreshments. Discussion to follow film.
"Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom" is the inaugural film in the LWVMC’s DEI Film Series.
|  | | On Monday, June 19 join us for the celebration of 2023 Juneteenth Day. The specific location of our table is to be confirmed, but you will be notified in advance of the day where our table will be.
We are looking for Volunteers to help with setting up and closing of the table, registering people to vote, helping answer questions about their voting status, change of name, change of address, and distribution of literature and materials.
Voter Services now uses our website to announce all of our volunteering opportunities. If you are interested in volunteering we encourage you to click on this link: lwvmilwaukee.org to see all of the current volunteer opportunities. Click on the opportunity you are interested in and follow the prompts. |  | Save the date for the Board & Leader Orientation on July 5. The Board & Leader Orientation provides new and returning board members and committee leaders with detailed information about LWVMC and the role you'll serve. This is time for us to get acquainted with each other and learn what's necessary to hit the ground running in our roles with the LWVMC. Please register to account for printed copies of materials and room setup.
A more detailed email and agenda to follow. Questions? Contact Melissa Kelley at m.kelley@lwvmilwaukee.org. |
Seeking Members For Reproductive Rights Program Planning
In 1983, the LWVUS announced the adoption of a position affirming reproductive rights:
The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that public policy in a pluralistic society must affirm the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices.
In May 2022, after a draft majority opinion in Dobbs was leaked revealing that the Supreme Court was prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the LWVUS Board of Directors agreed to support filibuster reform, including elimination of the filibuster, as a targeted strategy to protect reproductive rights. Since then, LWVUS has supported state Leagues’ advocacy efforts to protect and expand reproductive rights.
LWMVC is calling for volunteers who would like to help plan programming related to reproductive health care rights. If you are interested in helping to plan or coordinate the efforts, please contact Program VP Lorna Grade at l.grade@lwvmilwaukee.org. |  |  |
Empower Voters and Defend Democracy!
Consider volunteering with VOTE411. There are different levels of involvement to choose from:
-
As a member of the steering committee who regularly attends Team meetings, assumes responsibility for some of the VOTE411 tasks, and participates in decisions regarding our VOTE411 Spring and Fall Voter Guides. Key aspects include: Tech tasks including data entry; candidate correspondence; creating candidate questions; contacting community volunteers; submitting articles to the Voter and Update; marketing and social media.
- As someone who assists with an aspect of the team’s work, perhaps on a subcommittee creating candidate questions or recruiting community volunteers or assisting with data entry, but who does not regularly attend Team meetings.
- As a community volunteer helping to gather candidate information for our Spring Voter Guide from your municipal clerk and/or school district, primarily between mid-November and the end of the candidate filing period in early January.
Skills needed: As a member of the steering committee, it would be important to have a working knowledge of Google Docs or be willing to learn how to use Google Docs. Depending on your role, we would help you learn relevant parts of the online Vote411 system.
We have consistently welcomed new people to help with Vote411 and we invite your questions.
Please contact Sarajane Kennedy by phone at 414-453-3494 or email voterguide@lwvmilwaukee.org to answer your questions or arrange an in-person or Zoom meeting to talk further about opportunities to help create our LWVMC Vote411 online Voter Guides for the 2024 elections.
Please also see the Volunteer page of the League website. There are two VOTE411 volunteer opportunities we are recruiting for now in the Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities section. |  |  | |
Attention Milwaukee Residents! June 14 & 20:
Advocate for Milwaukee's Climate & Equity Plan
YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED NOW to support the City of Milwaukee Climate and Equity Plan. Contact the City’s Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development members HERE before their June 13 meeting. Contact the Finance & Personnel Committee Members before their June 14 meeting HERE. Urge them to support the Climate and Equity Plan. You may phone 414-286-2221 and ask to be connected to each alderperson.
On June 14 attend the Finance & Personnel Committee meeting and make your own brief statement in support of the Plan. 9AM, Room 301-B City Hall. LWVMC will present our League statement at this meeting. Both Committees must approve the Plan for it to move forward for discussion by the Common Council on June 20th. Your voice is critical. Let it be heard! Help ensure implementation of this well-crafted Plan and Milwaukee’s role in addressing both climate change and longstanding economic inequities in our city.
Join other Milwaukee County League members and support the City of Milwaukee as it begins the official process of approving the City’s implementation of the City-County Milwaukee Climate and Economic Equity Plan.**
The Climate and Equity Plan supports Milwaukee's goals to:
Reduce community greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Improve racial and economic equity by creating green jobs that pay at least $40,000 and are focused on recruiting local people of color.
This is our chance to collectively move forward on addressing the climate crisis and economic inequities in our communities.
Please attend one of these City of Milwaukee Committee Meetings!
- June 14, 9 a.m., Room 301- B, City Hall - Finance and Personnel Committee, where residents may provide individual testimony in support of the Plan
- June 20, 9 a.m. Common Council Meeting, possibly in the Common Council Chambers, no testimony allowed. Gather as LWVMC members and hold signs in support of the Plan
Read the Executive Summary of the Plan Here
**Please let LWVMC Administrative Support Coordinator Emily Porter e.porter@lwvmilwaukee.org know if you are attending the June 14th or 20th meeting. Emily will let attendees know which other members plan to attend.**
|  |  | | Our friends at Disability Rights Wisconsin have asked the League to share the resources they have developed to support people with disabilities who have lost the right to vote to regain this important civil right – and also help those who are considering guardianship to understand how to advocate for retaining the right to vote.
Copies of the guides and brochures are available in the Milwaukee office.
|  | | Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz has now signed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) into law. As a result, 16 states and the District of Columbia (with a total of 205 electoral votes) have now adopted the Compact.
NPVIC has also passed one legislative chamber in 8 additional states with another 78 electoral votes. Nevada passed the NPVIC as a constitutional amendment in 2023. If passed by the 2025 legislature, the proposition will be decided by the voters in 2026.
The National Popular Vote law will take effect when enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes (270 of 538)—that is, when passed by states with an additional 65 electoral votes.
Then, the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC will get all the electoral votes from all of the enacting states guaranteeing that the candidate who wins the most popular votes becomes President. Explanatory video (8 minutes).
Go to this link and click on Wisconsin to learn how you can tell your legislators to support the NPVIC. |
LWVUS 2022-2024 Edition of Impact on Issues
The LWVUS 2022-2024 edition of "Impact on Issues", the League’s cornerstone policy positions document, is now available online and in print.
Throughout its 103 years, the League has served dual purposes of education and advocacy, engaging in studies on representative government, international relations, natural resources, and social policy. Although our history of advocacy goes back to our beginnings, this version of Impact on Issues covers our advocacy efforts beginning in the 1960s.
Impact on Issues provides a clear understanding of LWVUS positions, how they interrelate, and how they can complement and reinforce state, local, and regional Inter-League Organization (ILO) positions, strengthening the League’s impact at all levels of government.
The paperback is $5 and can be ordered on Amazon here. LWVMC also acts in support of The League of Women Voters - Wisconsin positions and The League of Women Voters - US positions. |  | NEXT MEETING: Friday, June 23 - 10:00 a.m.
LOCATION: Community Room of the the East Branch of the Milwaukee Public Library East · MPL, 2320 N. Cramer St.
Our June meeting will be a general discussion meeting. Please, come one, come all! The meeting room is big enough to spread out and feel free to wear a mask.
Please note our July meeting (Jul 21) will be a Book Club Meeting and our book choice is “Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019,” edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain.
| CELEBRATE PRIDE MONTH
Milwaukee Film's Genrequeer program presents Pride Month 2023, four weeks of screenings, conversations and events that celebrate the past, present, and future of Lgbtqia+ cinema. More details HERE.
Check out Pride Month resources at The Library of Congress. |  | Museum of Wisconsin Art on the Lake
St. John’s on the Lake
1840 N Prospect Avenue
Open to the public | June 1 - Aug 27, 2023
As a Black man living in Madison, Jerry Jordan draws inspiration from his personal experience, but also from the Harlem Renaissance, a spectacular flourishing of Black culture from the 1910s through the 1930s in New York. All cultural disciplines were included: theater, music, literature, and the visual arts. Jordan reflects upon this golden era of Black empowerment and self-confidence and seeks to translate it into the age of Black Lives Matter. Influenced by Harlem Renaissance painters such as Aaron Douglas and James Porter, Jordan depicts young people inhabiting expansive, almost limitless, pastoral environments that suggest freedom and unfettered possibilities. The figures wear band uniforms quasi-military in style. Originally painted for purely aesthetic reasons, they became more akin to costumes as musical themes emerged, turning the paintings into one-act plays. Their armor represents the protective mental fortitude they don to deal with the racist slights and insults they face on a daily basis. Jordan’s paintings are personal and biographical. They are about Black people being truly free to live without fear and achieve their greatest potential. | Support Democracy. Support your League.
Your support is critical to help our nonpartisan grassroots organization reach voters play a critical role in democracy. It would not be possible to empower voters and defend democracy without your support.
Thank you!
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