The Audacity Newsletter #9: Saturdays of Joy, Outrage in Augusta, Town Halls Coming
The Audacity: Creative Action Together | AudacityCAT.com | Newsletter #9 | 3-27-25
Much activity is coming, and much of our past activity is coming to fruition. Here's the skinny:
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Newsletter Item #1: Saturdays of Joy: Mass Meeting Saturday at 10 AM, Park Demonstration at Noon
-- Diversity of Ideas and Messages and Actions in the Park
-- Call for Demonstration Marshals
Newsletter Item #2: Outrage in Augusta: Testimony on Abortion Criminalization and a Sat. April 5 march
Newsletter Item #3. Update on our 75 Grievances, Congressional Town Halls, & a Maine State Legislative Town Hall (TOMORROW!)
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1. SATURDAYS OF JOY
Mass Meeting on Saturday at 10 AM
WE NEED EVERY ONE OF YOU TURN OUT for a Mass Meeting of The Audacity on Saturday March 29 at 10 AM -- 345 Broadway (Universalist Church of Rockland). Before we meet in the park, please come to our whole-group meeting at 10 AM to welcome new members, connect folks to existing working groups, and mobilize for public action. Meet at 345 Broadway (we are renting out the Universalist Church) in Rockland at 10 AM. Parking at the UU church is limited; please plan to park across Broadway at MacDougal Park or along Gay Street if you are able. From 10-11:30 AM we will organize in the sanctuary space, and at Noon we'll turn out in massive numbers to Rockland's Chapman Park (corner of Park & Main next to the Walgreens).
This meeting may seem optional or ancillary, but it is an essential way for us to set expectations, talk about group safety and conduct in a difficult environment, and also to help you find a place within our existing creative working groups that have projects in the works or to help you to find allies in starting a new group that does something important and impactful and meaningful to you. PLEASE COME.
Come to Chapman Park (Park & Main) in Rockland Every Saturday at Noon: A Diversity of Messages and Actions
Line the streets with signs of resistance, encouraging your friends and neighbors. Meet at the monument for group singing. Grab a free button. Learn about other opportunities to get involved locally and contribute to the movement. It's starting to feel like a celebration of the joy of democracy -- join the street-party atmosphere every Saturday at Noon.
Part of the joy of democracy is that we can have ideas that are different from one another and yet manage to find ways to work together in coalition. You will see ideas on signs and buttons and hear ideas in songs and chants and chats that are not your ideas. A crucial way that The Audacity works is that within the very broad boundaries of a) nonviolence, b) opposition to authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption, and c) support for democracy, diversity, equity, and inclusion, we won't be policing one another's positions. If you see or hear a message that isn't your message, that's fine, it's how art and democracy work. The best immediate solution to any distress you feel might be for you to express your message, not to censor others' messages. It is philosophically, strategically, and practically essential that we don't get bogged down in finding any one pure true message, but instead work across differences for the broader goals we all share.
A Call for Demonstration Marshals
In order to tend and maintain the very positive, affirming, and safe atmosphere of our Saturday at Noon demonstrations, we're putting out a call for volunteer demonstration marshals. In our first call, we are looking for folks with experience leading political demonstrations who are willing to serve as demonstration marshals. Marshals will wear bright yellow vests and will be available to answer attendees' questions, help connect newcomers to different areas of the demonstration, and are available to provide immediate help (and sometimes call for more serious help) when needed. If you are interested and experienced in marshaling demonstrations, please email contact@audacitycat.org to volunteer. We will start to roll out the marshals over the next few weeks during our Saturday Noon demonstrations in the park.
2. OUTRAGE IN AUGUSTA: Testimony on Abortion Criminalization and a Sat. April 5 March at the State House
Testimony on Abortion Criminalization
Last Saturday, March 22 2025, we collected video testimony from 34 people on HP 635/LD 975, a bill to criminalize miscarriage and abortion in the state of Maine. A hearing on the bill is being held on Friday, March 28 at 9:30 AM in the Maine State House before the state legislature's Judiciary Committee. All Mainers are welcome to share their testimony then. We asked each of the 34 people recording testimony in Rockland's Chapman Park to share their name and town and indicate their explicit consent to have the video of their testimony shared publicly and the text of their testimony submitted to the legislature for the record. A video of the testimony is available on YouTube now for you to watch and share: https://youtu.be/B0zMRs3wbUU . The Audacity is submitting the text of this testimony to the Judiciary Committee today, and a delegation from The Audacity's Theater working group will travel to the 9:30 AM hearing in Augusta tomorrow morning, Friday March 28.
On Saturday, April 5, HEAD TO AUGUSTA at NOON to protest if you can
On Saturday, April 5 from Noon to 2 PM, A National Hands Off! Rally holds its largest Maine gathering in Augusta at the Maine State House. The call "Hands off our government, our democratic institutions, our freedoms, our Medicaid, our Medicare, our Social Security, our courts, our immigrant neighbors, our personal data, our reproductive rights, our jobs, our elections, our LGBTQIA+ friends... HANDS OFF! Maine nonviolently resists the descent into authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption with a statewide rally at the Maine State House in Augusta on Saturday, April 5, 2025 from Noon to 2 PM. This demonstration is part of a nationwide set of protests scheduled for April 5. For national information, visit http://handsoff2025.com. For more local information, email MaineResists25@gmail.com ."
For those who aren't able to go all the way to Augusta, Paula Coil will be coordinating a Saturday at Noon presence in Rockland in Chapman Park as usual. Come to our meeting for more information on this!
3. UPDATE ON OUR 75 GRIEVANCES AND TOWN HALLS
UPDATE ON OUR 75 GRIEVANCES. You may recall that on March 1, we visited the Knox County Courthouse and noted 75 instances of actions taken by the Trump Administration since Inauguration Day. A member of The Audacity read each of the 75 grievances for which we'd peaceably assembled, and then the crowd responded: "You Work For Us! What Have You Done About It?"
We published our 75 grievances as of March 1 on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R53r77B4syc and also sent communication of the grievances to the offices of Representative Chellie Pingree, Senator Angus King, and Senator Susan Collins. The following are the responses from our members of Congress:
Rep. Chellie Pingree's Chief of Staff Jesse Connolly promptly communicated to The Audacity's email account, and in communication we agreed verbally that some response on each point would be helpful. We also spoke about the town hall petition, and Mr. Connolly was informed that we'd be surpassing 1000 signatures soon. Informally, he has agreed a town hall would be a reasonable venue for a response and he indicated that his office is looking forward to receiving the petition. Action: a second phone call with Rep. Pingree's office is coming up.
Senator Angus King's office has only responded with a form letter that neither mentions nor responds to the 75 grievances. Action: we will send a second communication to Senator King's on the point of the 75 grievances in the next seven days. The form-letter nature of the response is indicated by the exact same response we received from Senator King (addressed to James Cook of The Audacity) and received by two other individuals in response to entirely different communications. See these at the bottom of this newsletter.
Senator Susan Collins' office has not responded to our communication in any way, shape, or form. Action: we will send a second communication to Senator Collins' office on the point of the 75 grievances in the next seven days.
UPDATE ON THE PETITION FOR A CONGRESSIONAL TOWN HALL IN KNOX COUNTY. Without any advertising, promotion budget, or paid signature gatherers we have quickly surpassed 1000 public signatures from folks in Maine on our petition calling for a public listening town hall in Knox County with our members of the U.S. Congress. Thank you for your efforts in this regard! We'll doublecheck names and addresses, remove duplicates, and then present the list of signatures to the congressional representatives who work for us -- Rep. Chellie Pingree, Senator Angus King, and Senator Susan Collins. A thousand people from our small, rural towns is a lot of people, and we're going to make an offer that's hard to refuse: we will host them for a town hall at any time of day, night, or the wee small hours of the morning (yes, even 3 AM) during the two whole weeks that our members of Congress will be at home in the state, from April 13 - April 26. We'll let you know about the reception we get. Regardless of the response, we will hold a town hall for each of our three congressional representatives.
IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY: KNOX COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY ORGANIZES A TOWN HALL for FRIDAY MARCH 28 from 5-7:30 PM at the Universalist Church of Rockland (345 Broadway) with our local representatives to the Maine State Legislature. This is an opportunity to meet with your Maine State Senator and Maine State Representatives in an informal Town Hall setting. Listen to their work to ensure that Maine continues as a healthy place to live. Ask your questions about statewide initiatives and about how the current national events impact Maine.
The Panel:
Senator Pinny Beebe-Center
Representative Vicki Doudera
Representative Valli Geiger
Representative Ann Matlack
Representative Bill Pluecker
Moderator: Arleigh Kraus
This is an in-person & hybrid-Zoom event; to register for a zoom link email your full name and town of residence to knoxdems@gmail.com . Parking at the UU church is limited; please plan to park across Broadway at MacDougal Park or along Gay Street if you are able. For more information please call 207-319-4556.
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Thank you so much for your active and creative participation. Now's not the time to pause in building our momentum. Be as active as you can be -- and use email, social media, the phone, and real-life conversations to introduce a new friend to our plans. They'll thank you for it!
Best,
James Cook, facilitator, The Audacity
