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Muslim Ban Action Alert February 2017

BFT POLITICAL ACTION ALERT!

BFT Members Protest Muslim Ban at SFO

As everyone is no doubt aware, President Trump signed an unconscionable executive order on Friday banning Syrian refugees, visa-holders, green card holders, and even dual citizens from 7 majority-Muslim countries. Protests immediately erupted at airports across the United States as people were unconstitutionally detained, including San Francisco International Airport. We've heard from numerous BFT members who came out to SFO to protest the Muslim ban and we applaud them! Clearly, all of us are going to get real sharp when it comes to mobilizing on a quick turnaround. 
 

What can we do next?

A few ideas for action:

- Teachers at several sites have started getting together at lunch to make political calls. Great idea! 
- For instance, you may have heard that two Republican Senators, Susan Collins (ME) and Lisa Murkowski (AK), have announced that they're voting AGAINST Betsy DeVos! With every Democrat opposing her, we only need to flip ONE more Republican to end her travesty of a nomination! Some (relatively speaking) moderate Republicans you could call:
   - Rob Portman (OH) (202) 224-3353
   - Deb Fischer (NE) (202) 224-6551
   - Jerry Moran (KS) (202) 224-6521
   - John Hoeven (ND) (202) 224-6521
   - Cory Gardner (CO) (202) 224-5941
All Senators, Republican and Democrat, report that their constituent call volume is through the roof regarding DeVos and that the calls are overwhelmingly against her nomination. Our voices are being heard!

- A coalition of nonprofits and community organizations has arisen since the election called Bay Resistance. This coalition is dedicated to rapid-response protest and action against Trump administration actions--they helped organize the SFO protest and the 1.31 protest against DeVos in downtown Oakland (see below). The BFT Executive Board will discuss whether to join Bay Resistance as an organization, but we encourage all members to sign up for alerts from them at their website.

Please send us your creative ideas for protest, organizing, and mobilizing that are happening at your site! If we're going to survive the Trump administration and protect our students, we'll need to all work together in a bottom-up, grass-roots fashion! Let us know what you're doing!

BFT President Cathy Campbell speaks at the January 31st rally against Betsy DeVos's nomination for Secretary of Education. A crowd of 400-500 people gathered to speak out and remind everyone that bears are not actually the real threat to public education. Our resistance is working!