Springville Action - 5/26/25 #22

[your content could be here]

Author

Springville Action
May 26, 2025

With each newsletter we get more and more submissions and ideas for content. Keep those emails coming! Whether it’s a link to a timely news item, a call to action, an event or a book review, send it to [email protected].

🦄 Inspiration

🧟‍♂️ Nightmare Fuel

The MAGA Murder Bill. Puts the traditional checks and balances of government at risk [ uncool] and engaged lives of people who rely on basic services like healthcare and food [super uncool]. Are we about to learn that our country is beyond redemption, and most guardrails for democracy are gone? Magic Eight Ball says “Outlook not so good.”

To do ✅ 

📚 Something to learn: Harvard University online courses in government, policy, other topics are available for free. Sign up for one this summer. Grab a friend and learn together. The federal administration has picked several fights with Harvard, which recognizes what history and experience have demonstrated - if you cower in the shadow of a bully, they’re going to hurt you all the same. Also Harvard has some of the world’s foremost constitutional lawyers among their faculty and alumni - making them mad is not the smartest tactic. Harvard has law on their side but don't trust the courts to care about established law.

📚 Something else to read: I’m A Psychologist Who Specializes In Narcissists. Here’s What We Need To Do To Stop Trump. - Huff Post. Print and share widely. We’re all feeling anxiety and dread. Narcissists use uncertainty and a constant changing of the rules of normal interaction to create anxiety and dread with the expectation that most of their victims will shut up and go along to get along.

We can’t just go along to get along. The healthiest responses to narcissist tactics are outlined in that article. Set boundaries. Recognize how you’re being played. React with purpose.

🛑 Something to stop: Using X. It’s a malignant soup of racism, misogyny, disinformation, hate and porn. [Note: until the Christian Nationalists get their way, most pornography is protected speech under our First Amendment. Seeing it sprinkled in among news updates is jarring, though, and X is making money on it.] Delete the app. It takes 5 seconds and doesn’t hurt. If your friends on X are really real they will still be your friends, just in different places. If you are connected with an organization or business, ask them why they’re still on a platform that enriches fascists. Tell them that you prefer to get info about their work from other more credible spaces. Every time you tweet, imagine that you’re handing over a dollar to You Know Who. That’ll help you scale back your use, at least.

🎰 Something to bet on: Who will be the next Cabinet Secretary to leave the administration under a cloud of scandal? Realize the bar is pretty low (or high?) for that to happen, but we can dream. It’s a nice thought experiment.

☎️ Call Langworthy and read Trump's insulting and unhinged Memorial Day message. [ed. note, it's such trash it will not be linked here]. Ask the staffer if they agree with the sentiment. Affirm that their silence is complicity.

News & Media

📚🔥 Real Fahrenheit-451 nonsense in Ken-Ton, where a Moms for Liberty acolyte is targeting 27 books to be banned from school libraries…with more promised. There is a absolutely a need for age appropriate content in school libraries - that's why God made librarians. Speaking of God, the Christian God's most famous book, the Holy Bible, has some very troubling content in this writer's humble opinion, but these M4L types never seem to challenge that text. Parents can make choices for their kids, but not everybody else's kids, ya dig? Ken Ton is doing its best to respond by looking at its policy; may sensible heads and common sense prevail.

I want to commend Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz for speaking out on national issues. We’re all Americans; none of us live in a vacuum. It matters to us in WNY when the administration in Washington is doing everything it can to destroy our democracy, shred the constitution, engage in unprecedented corruption, stab our allies in the back, pardon the January 6 insurrectionists, kidnap people off the streets, including American citizens, and dump them in foreign prisons, and much more.

Poloncarz has served admirably in Erie County’s top office but no matter what any of us do in WNY, we will be affected when the wealthy get another tax break by kicking our friends and neighbors off Medicaid. When federal programs are cut, we get hurt in Erie County just like everywhere else.

The Trump radicals – they are not conservatives – are attempting to destroy the democracy we’ve had for 250 years and create an autocracy with attacks on the media, the judicial branch and anyone that challenges them. The Republicans controlling Congress are no shows.

Silence is complicity.

WNY Republicans have had nothing to say about Trump’s actions. Where are you, Nick Langworthy, Patrick Gallivan, Rob Ortt, and all the Republican county legislators and town officials? Are you OK with the corruption of Trump accepting a jet plane from Qatar? Are you OK with many of your constituents losing their Medicaid? How about pardoning the J6 criminals?

It's on all of us to do something! Thanks, Mark Poloncarz and other Democrats for fighting for the people in our community.

Robert J. McLennan, Getzville

A big 🖕 to: anyone who thinks human rights are negotiable.

Events

🎨🖼️🧑‍🎨Get ready for Art Crawl on June 7! Something for everyone in the village of Springville.

🧶 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.

☮️ 5/27, 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. Peaceful assembly at 4 pm, Niagara Square. This is a day of Juneteenth events too, so stop by those if you’re up in the city.

👊 6/21, 11 am - Buffalo United Rally and March for Freedom and Liberation at Niagara Square - link on Facebook. A great lineup of participating organizations but maybe ask the question of who isn’t on the list?

-Clean Air Coalition
-Coalition for Economic Justice
-Cornell University ILR Co-lab
-CWA District 1
-CWA 1168
-IUPAT
-NALC Branch 3
-New York Immigration Coalition
-Our City Our Action
-Partnership for the Public Good
-Power to the People
-St. Joseph’s University Parish
-Voice Buffalo
-WNY Area Labor Federation
-WNYCOSH
-WNY Environmental Alliance
-WNY Peace Center

[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.

Past Newsletters