PNN’s mission is to engage, educate and empower our neighbors to make our City a better place to live. Here’s what’s coming up in each of these areas:
Engage: Rally to Protect Women's Right to Choose, Ranked Choice Voting Workshop
Educate: Incarceration Crisis Town Hall, Prison Documentary
Empower: WFP Endorsement, Collect Petition Signatures, Free Girl Scout Camp
PNN Endorses Working Families Party Candidates
The results are in! Based on the overwhelming vote in the PNN Poll this past week, you voted to endorse WFP candidates Kendra Brooks, Nicolas O’Rourke for Council At-Large and Jarrett Smith for City Commissioner in the upcoming General Election in November. This is an opportunity to get more progressive candidates elected in city government while moving out the Republicans. And the first step is to get them on the ballot.
The WFP is targeting city elected positions where the Philadelphia City Charter guarantees certain positions to a minority party - i.e., 2 of the 7 City Council At Large positions and 1 of the 3 City Commissioner positions are set aside for a minority party. In the past, this has been the Republican Party which always comes in way behind the Democratic Party in the vote count in this predominantly Democratic voting city. But the minority party doesn’t have to be the Republican Party, it can be the progressive candidates who are running on the Working Families Party line and are strongly aligned with our values.
And these are three great candidates - Kendra Books has been a powerful progressive voice on City Council fighting for the city to invest in the human rights of housing, safety, education, a healthy environment, and a fair economy. Nicolas O’Rourke, a community organizer and activist pastor, promises to be another representative fighting to invest in the needs of the people and not the wants of the rich and powerful. Jarrett Smith comes from a union organizing and coalition building background and will protect every person’s right to vote and ensure fair elections.
In the last election, Kendra Brooks won one of those minority party Council At Large positions and Nicolas O’Rourke came in 6,000 votes short of beating Republican David Oh. Now we have a chance to get both of them on City Council and also get Jarrett Smith elected to be the minority party representative in the City Commissioners Office.
THE FIRST STEP IS TO GET THE WORKING FAMILIES PARTY ON THE BALLOT
THE PETITION DRIVE ENDS JULY 31ST --- WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We need to get the WFP candidates on the ballot by getting several thousand signatures on the nomination petitions by July 31st. We can do it if we all pitch in. So please sign up to help by clicking this link, and we will get you petitions and instructions on how to get them signed by voters.
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Rally to Protect Women's Right to Choose
Saturday, June 24th,10AM, Franklin Square, 200 N 6th Street
I want to alert you to an important action coming up this Saturday. We will be joining our allies at Franklin Square for a rally, march, and speak-out on the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision that was handed down by a radicalized Supreme Court. One of our young activists will be speaking, so come out and show your support. This will be a rain or shine action.
We will also be there to counter-protest the pro-forced birth religious radicals who call themselves "Pro Life Union". This innocuous-sounding organization will march past the Philadelphia Women's Center a few blocks away from our rally. We'll be there to greet them.
Click the link to let us know you'll be joining us.
p.s. Wear green or your PNN shirt!
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Incarceration Crisis Virtual Town Hall
Tuesday, June 27th, 7PM, Virtual
Join PNN and our allies for this two-hour virtual town hall as we explore the many problems inmates are facing in Philly prisons - too many deaths, too much violence, too many kids in adult jails, and too many women and gender minorities abused in a system that offers too many excuses.
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Join the Girl Scouts & Get a Free Week of Summer Day Camp!
Saturday, June 24th, 10AM-12PM, 3259 N. Broad Street
Mother African Zoar United Methodist Church is the "campsite" for girls who want to become Girl Scouts this summer. This is an opportunity to get girls and young women involved in wholesome, useful activities, make new friends and create lifetime memories.
This activity is free to all girls from the 5th thru 12th grades, and it includes a free year's membership and a free week of summer day camp that will take place July 31st thru August 4th! Spots are limited, so sign up today!
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Workshop to Get Ranked Choice Voting in PA
Monday, June 26th, 7PM, Virtual
Tired of feeling like your vote doesn't matter? Tired of being forced into voting for the "lesser of two evils"? We have the solution: Ranked Choice Voting!
RCV is a voting method in which voters can rank candidates instead of picking just one, resulting in elections that avoid "lesser of two evils voting,=." It also reduces vote-splitting, and it encourages a pool of more diverse candidates. Other benefits of RCV include reducing the two-party stronghold, decreasing toxic campaigning, increasing representation of women, and increasing representation of people of color.
RCV is used around the world and is gaining momentum across the United States as a common sense, more representative, and more democratic voting system. Learn more about it and how you can help make it a reality in the Keystone State.
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No Way Home - Documentary on Life Without Parole in Pennsylvania
Friday, June 30th, 6:30PM, Central Branch Library,1901 Vine Street
Join our friends from Amistad Law Project and CADBI for a riveting documentary called, "No Way Home - A Documentary on Life Without Parole in Pennsylvania & a Mother's Struggle to Reunite Her Family". This film has been a year and a half in the making and features the story of progressive icon Ms. Dee Dee and her son Phillip Ocampo, as well as commentary from Kris Henderson and Mike Lyons on the history of extreme sentencing in PA. Watch the trailer here.
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This Week in History
June 25, 1876 – Custer's Last Stand. On this day, General Armstrong Custer led his men into Little Big Horn River to remove the Lakota Sioux from land where gold was discovered. It did not end well for the invaders.
June 26, 1948 – Berlin Airlift. U.S. and British pilots begin delivering food and supplies by airplane to Berlin after the city is isolated by a Soviet Union blockade.
June 28, 1969 – Stonewall Riots. Regarded as America's first major protest on behalf of equal rights for LGBTQ people, a police raid of the popular Stonewall Inn was met with staunch resistance from patrons and local sympathizers.
Thanks for your activism!
Tim Brown, Organizing Director