We have such a beautiful state. What better way to focus our activism this summer, aiming toward success in November, than by planning Daily Kos meet-ups around the state?
For many of us, Memorial Day and Labor Day bracket summertime. And if we’re lucky, and not beset with allergies, many of us get outside as much as we can.
So last year. Well, last winter, anyway.I always think I need to store up summertime to keep me warm all winter long. I’d love to have this year’s summer include multiple meetups.
If we all knew each other’s emails, we could do a Doodle poll or something similar to help choose dates and locations.
Failing that, however, we have to rely on comments and Kosmail.
So, let’s have at it.
Several summer weekends for me are already booked. I’m not available to get together until the weekend after the 4th of July, for that matter. And then it’s a bit spotty, working around Netroots Nation till 7/17, the Democratic National Convention the week of the 24th (and there’s no way I could do anything the weekends that bracket it). Thus my poll below.
In the comments, please note WHERE you’d like to see a meet-up take place, along with WHEN. I welcome co-hosts for every location, believe me!
I just finished reading a superb post in Wired: ”Ripple Effect: The Crisis in Flint Isn’t Over. It’s Everywhere,” by Ben Painter. The essay reviews Dr. Marc Edwards’ role in addressing the Flint Water Crisis, providing context to emphasize the role of citizen activism in raising awareness and pushing for solutions and remedies—a key consideration in a time when infrastructure disasters like this are likely to proliferate. Several of the most central local activists and organizations are indeed featured in the article. I recommend it highly. Here’s a sample to pique your interest:
Edwards isn’t working in a vacuum. This kind of citizen-powered, apocalypse-averting science is spreading. As cities struggle with economic, political, or even climatic change, things their planners never predicted challenge their industrial guts. Other teams are trying to look ahead for these threats. This is science in a postjournal world, where researchers are learning that there’s a difference between publishing results and actually, you know, getting them. Steve Wing at the University of North Carolina supplies rural residents with portable blood-pressure monitors to study the potential link between commercial-hog-farm stink and heart issues. The Clean Air Coalition in western New York deployed vacuum pumps attached to plastic-lined 5-gallon buckets to monitor the harmful benzene emissions coming from a coke refinery. “Sometimes numbers speak louder than people,” says Caren Cooper, coeditor of the journal Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. In other words, in the modern age, big data can drive big changes.
I hope to update this post, either here in the body or in comments, with some interesting announcements about events and proposals that may be of interest to Michigan residents, particularly in metro Detroit.
I seem to recall some other interesting developments about water state-wide, too. If I don’t get a chance to add that information—particularly about Line 5—please go ahead and do so yourselves.
Please help us build this weekly Michigan thread so that it includes any information relevant to turning MI Blue again that you would like me to highlight. MI contributors are always welcome! You can reach me through kosmail at peregrine kate. Or say hi through email here: peregrinekate@gmail.com And please follow me on Twitter @peregrinekate
Please feel free to drop in on ANY State Open Thread! So far, we have these regulars:
Colorado: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Mountain
Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern
North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern