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Newsletter

Sept 1, 2025 Dear North Country neighbors and friends, As this newsletter goes out, NCNCE is showing up to support local labor unions at the Massena Labor Day Parade! Thanks to those attending! We should have a report and some photos in next week’s issue. Meanwhile: at our August 18 meeting, we did some work on the NCNCE mission statement. The result is now available here. Please let us know if you have any thoughts.

Coming Soon Click here to express interest in this southern St. Lawrence County event. It is deliberately vague, but those who register will receive more details next week!

Looking Ahead

North Country NY Indivisible has a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 7pm. Members of NoCo Neighbors are invited to attend. Register here in advance. A Make Billionaires Pay rally may be in the works for Saturday, September 20. Please let us know if you would be willing to help as a peacekeeper, donation collector, counter, etc. at such an event!

The News

There’s been a great deal to mourn in the news this week. Continuing atrocities in Ukraine and Gaza… the National Guard being abused to occupy DC and threaten Chicago… chaos at the CDC and FEMA… problems at the post office and the grocery store… everywhere we look, we can see the costs of bad governance. But also: last Tuesday, a first-time Democratic candidate won a special election to the Iowa State Senate. She swung the district by 21 points, flipped the seat, and broke a Republican supermajority. And given that this is the third red-to-blue flip in the Iowa state legislature this year, it’s not looking like a fluke. As Jay Kuo muses, Republicans just might regret trying to steal seats in red states. How much can they really afford to weaken their “safe” districts?

Actions

Federal government funding runs out on September 30. Once again, Republicans will need Democrats’ votes to avoid a government shutdown. Last time, Schumer and Gillibrand surrendered and gave Trump what he wanted. We deserve better this time. Call and demand that they fight for us! In New York, redistricting to offset Republican gerrymandering is a lengthy process, so it’s important to begin now. Ask Governor Hochul to commit! Trump has announced that he will try to whitewash U.S. history at our museums. Ask the Smithsonian Board of Regents to stand strong!

Avelo Boycott

Our boycott of the Avelo airline (for profiting from violations of due process) recently appeared as a letter-to-the-editor in North Country This Week! Here is a menu of actions you can take to support this effort: * Ask Avelo itself to drop its contract with ICE. * Take the pledge not to fly Avelo (or any airline that works with ICE). * Ask the NY Attorney General to demand that Avelo protect the safety of deportees in the event of a crash or evacuation. * NEW: ask Rochester and Albany to cancel the Avelo contracts at their airports. * NEW: ask the NY Senate Majority Leader to revive the SAFE AIR act, which would end tax breaks for Avelo.

Self Care Although much of what we read lately is troubling, we found this post unexpectedly heartening. Although the main topic is soft secession, about which we have mixed feelings, it also details how blue states — behind the scenes — are doing quite a lot to fight back and prepare. This lends us hope and energy to continue our own fight. We hope it might do the same for you.

Community Spotlight To continue supporting our local Planned Parenthood, consider signing this petition. It asks Governor Hochul to commit the funding necessary to ensure that all New Yorkers continue to have access to the sexual and reproductive health care they need.

We appreciate you and all that you do. See you next week! Your NoCo Neighbors Team

Contact

Let us know about events or ideas for the newsletter – please submit by Fridays. Contact us at NoCo.Neighbors@gmail.com. Have friends write NoCo.Neighbors@gmail.com to sign up for the newsletter. Members of NCNCE are invited to join North Country NY Indivisible on Facebook.