Springville Action - 5/14/25 #18

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. - William James, 19th century philosopher

Author

Springville Action
May 14, 2025

Inspiration 🦄

The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.

Barack Obama

We have some guest author content waiting in the wings. Stay tuned!

Nightmare Fuel

From Blue Sky: @newrepublic - “The Trump administration has often claimed it wants to increase the nation’s fertility rate. But the real goal is to reorient American society by driving women out of the workforce and into raising children at home—whilst allowing lax regulations on business and shrinking the federal workforce.”

To do ✅ 

😡 Someplace to be: From the Springville Journal: Erie County Legislator and [insert your own descriptor here] Lindsay Lorigo is planning office hours at Springville Village Hall on June 10 from 6-7:30pm. Sounds like an opportunity to share what’s on your mind about local issues and the need for local leaders to step up, speak out and defend Medicaid, SNAP, Meals on Wheels, freaking libraries, [insert your most precious topic here], and things that Conservative Party members like her claim to champion - constitutional standards, transparency, fiscal responsibility. We have time. Think about potential creative responses. Other dates for neighbors: Holland Town Hall on September 16 and East Aurora on October 28.

🗳️ Something to vote on: School board elections are next week, May 20. You may have contested elections in your district. In others, like SGI this year, everyone’s a winner. Regardless, familiarize yourself with the candidates and budget. All districts have this information available on their web sites. BOE elections are PLAGUED by low turnout. If you have some questionable characters running - and I will spell it out here, people who love the idea of hating children, books and ideas - rally your neighbors and make sure the final result is a good one for students and your community. Read all about SGI here.

👭 Something to do: Just this week, use your 5calls to actually have a conversation with the interns and low-level staffers on the other side of the line in Congressional offices. Things learned from recent calls: they generally do not like to be asked about their personal opinions about the death of democracy and shredding of our Constitution. They do not like their sense of patriotism questioned. They do not like being challenged on the whole “we’re rooting out fraudwasteabuse” malarky. They do not like when the discussion turns personal. Well, the personal is political for you and me and shame on them for checking their human decency at the door of their job. So please ask staffers hard questions that make them reflect on their own role as a cog in this horrible wheel.

News & Media 📺

This was a web site mentioned at a recent get-together: Ground.news. Likely (?) using marginally ethical AI to produce and repackage content, it is offered here as one option for discerning news and information.

And related:

Pink Slime: Automated sites and feeds that publish poor quality articles that purport to be local news. Horrible examples: web pages and facebook accounts that take the names of recently deceased people, insert them into generic obituaries, and blast them out through algorithms targeted to people by location. Sickening. Even worse, some are part of the same media ecosystem that radicalizes people through a steady diet of palatable right-wing content.

Another fun concept to know: astroturfing = often easy to spot in letters to the editor and op eds, but less easy to spot in interviews on background or as experts placed in big national stories. And churnalism = a portmanteau of “churn” (pump out that content) and journalism (a once-revered profession).

Events

🧶 Crafters/Fiber Artists - lots of opportunities to come together! Concord Library, first Sat. of the month, 1-3; Concord Mercantile, second Sat. of the month, 10-1; Art’s Cafe, Wednesdays, 5:30pm. You’ll see your people.

5/17, 2pm - WNY Women’s March, LaFayette Square in Buffalo (near the library).

5/17, 10am-5pm - Candidate Boot Camp with the Erie County Federation of Democratic Women, ECDC, WNY Federation of Democratic Women and Eleanor’s Legacy. 701 Seneca Street, Buffalo.

5/19, 7 pm - Village of East Aurora board meeting. WNYSSB friends in East Aurora are facing a tree-saving-emergency. We need people from the towns along the Scenic Byway to show up to support them in East Aurora. Questions: Holly Maciejewski at [email protected].

5/19, Unheard Voices, the Fight for the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s Way of Life at the Buffalo History Museum

5/24, 10am - Pop Warner Trail Clean Up, meet at the Springville Depot

5/27, 5:30pm - Rally for Democracy in East Aurora at the Library. Bring signs (respectful, but creative) and noisemakers if you wish.

5/28, 6-9pm: Nonpartisan Community Conversation. What federal policies do we want to talk about? Meet up at the Ellicottville Town Center (near arboretum) to discuss federal policy impacts and potential action plans to present to congressional representatives.

5/31, 10 am - NYS Citizens Preparedness Corps, Concord Senior Center. Free. Register.

6/1, 11am start - Buffalo Gay Pride Parade, starts at Elmwood and Forest Avenue and ends at Elmwood and Allen Street

6/7, 11am - 2 pm - Gay/Straight Alliance Event at East Aurora Town Hall. Email [email protected] to be connected to this event's volunteers.

6/7, afternoon and evening - Springville Art Crawl. The place to be for an unofficial start to Springville’s summer.

6/10, 6-7:30 pm: Legislator Lorigo office hours, Springville Village Hall

6/14 - No Kings action. Details about a Buffalo event will be included here when known.

[remainder of content repeats (mostly) from last email]

To Do ✅

😷 Medical checkups. Get a printout of your vaccination record and check with your doctor about recommended vaccines, including MMR, based on your age and other risk factors.

🐝 Citizen Scientists, Unite! Download the Inaturalist app on your phone; upload pictures of nature (animals, plants, trees) for identification and help out the environmental community.

📰 Letter to the Editor. Pick a topic, drill down to 1 key message and write your heart out. There are local people who will help zazz up your letter and get it ready for publication. Email [email protected].

📱 5 Calls - Download the app to your phone; enter your ZIP code; follow the prompts to call U.S. Senators and your local Congressional rep. EXTRA CREDIT - ask your local elected officials what the impact of general federal nonsense will have on local projects, and what they are doing to protect your community.

📮 Postcards - Explore the Postcards for Democrats web site and support Democratic candidates in swing states. Organize for Action is local, find them on Facebook.

😊 Meet a Neighbor: How well do you know your neighbors? Start small but make a point to find one new acquaintance in your area this week!

🗳️ Go to a government meeting. These are open to the public and people rarely attend. See your government at work and pay attention to the decisions they’re making.

At a loss for what to do?

Are you sick of hearing “there’s nothing I can do about everything that’s happening”? There’s plenty you can do - big or small, just try to do SOMETHING each day.

  • Public Displays of Connection

    • Guerilla Gardening and Yarn Bombs! There is a slightly subversive and very fun tactic of guerilla gardening and placing handmade knit pieces in public places. Be creative.

    • Plant a garden or support a local CSA

    • Plant a homemade lawn sign - it doesn’t have to be political - paint a one word message like “Hope", ”Love,” “Peace.”

    • Maintain little free libraries or start your own

  • Basic Needs

    • Donate blood

    • Learn first aid and basic medical skills

    • Participate in local Buy Nothing groups

    • Donate to Little Free Pantries or your local food pantry

    • Participate in a seed exchange, like the one at Hulbert Library in the Town of Concord

  • Organized Volunteering

  • Neighbor Support

    • Help people with phone calls and forms - like Social Security, health appointments and insurance paperwork

    • Give neighbors rides, assist with basic needs

    • Provide a meal to a struggling family or neighbor - see lasagnalove

    • Offer babysitting or respite care - especially during meetings

    • Teach a skill or coordinate a training - sewing, gardening, cooking, car repair, how to fix a toilet or bike.

Misc.

Content welcome: Initially this newsletter was going to be sent weekly. Now it's sending as soon as it feels like there is enough content to let it fly - probably 2x/week. Your contributions are welcome. Email [email protected].

This newsletter will always be free, but if you like what you're reading and can find it in your budget, kick a few bucks to support your local food pantry, an abortion fund, or an elected official who has demonstrated common sense and decency.

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