Everything’s Impossible Until It’s Not
“[A]s you’ve discovered, so many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.” The Phantom Tollbooth
I’ll bet when you woke up yesterday you didn’t expect to see the news that Tucker Carlson is being booted from Fox News.
I sure didn’t.
In fact, the very thought that Tucker Carlson would not grow old and gray on Fox News never crossed my mind. It’s one of those things that feels so far out of reach that it never even made it to my “dream to dream” list.
But that’s exactly what happened.
And as I was contentedly contemplating the reality that Tucker’s not going to be on Fox News during election 2024 (though he will certainly land somewhere), I thought of one of my very favorite sayings.
That everything’s impossible … until it’s not.
It’s a great nod to the need to plug away for as long as it takes – even when the goal seems beyond reach. Because you’re guaranteeing you don’t reach the goal if you don’t at least try.
After years of advocating, sometimes it can feel like we’ll never get what we want or what we deserve.
But you know what? Sometimes change isn’t visible.
It’s like water eating away at a building’s foundation.
Imagine a massive, hulking, imposing building – maybe hundreds of years old and a stalwart of the town.
Invisibly, day after day, week after week, month after month, going on for years – a trickle of water has been slowly and quietly dissolving the cornerstones. If you were standing on the street corner admiring that old building, you’d not see that the foundation was sagging.
But then suddenly – dramatically – the building would sink, or crumble, or come crashing down, and everyone would wonder at it.
Everyone would stand on the corner and point to the rubble, shake their heads, and say they’d never imagined that it was even possible for that building to fall.
Like with old Tucker, here.
We might find out that Tucker had to leave because of the Dominion litigation. I’d not be surprised.
We might find out that Tucker had to leave because of that litigation and because of people like you (and the advertisers who need you as a customer) had had enough. I’d not be surprised about that one bit, either.
It can be really frustrating to work hard and go for a while without having a big breakthrough or a celebration-worthy win. The news cycle being what it is, we’re bombarded with bad news, so even though we have had quite a few “wins,” it never really feels like we’re making progress.
But I hope the next time you feel that way, you remind yourself that you’re part of a community of tens of thousands of people who – just like that trickle of water – are working away on that foundation.
And that thing that appears impossible at first?
It’s only impossible if you believe it to be.
Okay, friend.
Let’s get to work.
ACTIONS FOR APRIL 25, 2023
It seems like everyone is talking about this great even that Field Team 6 is hosting – it sounds like a fun NPR-style briefing: “Wait, Wait, DO Tell me!” tonight, Tuesday, April 25 at 8pm eastern.
Field Team 6, an organization that registers Democrats to vote, is holding a strategy briefing TOMORROW at 5PM Eastern that looks at the unexpectedly decent results of the 2022 midterms. Hosting the briefing will be Brian Tyler Cohen of the progressive podcast No Lie. Sign up for this virtual event at this link: https://www.mobilize.us/ft6/event/557425/?sp_sn=twitter&spclid=ECBDCDDA-AC65-4057-92EE-5AB3B998A1E5
ASK THE CDC TO SET AIR QUALITY TARGETS (H/T MATTHEW CORTLAND)
Will You Ask The CDC to Set Air Quality Targets for Healthcare Settings?
In case you missed it, the Public Health Emergency is ending in May. (Even though it hasn’t ended. Semantics are fun!)
Matthew Cortland, lawyer and disability rights advocate, has done amazing work around COVID and its implications for the disabled community (including people who are temporarily or permanently immunocompromised). He has an ask of us.
CDC is accepting “feedback and questions” around the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE) declaration. With the expiration of the PHE, CDC will no longer be providing the more reliable COVID-19 transmission data that is supposed to be used by healthcare facilities.
That means healthcare facilities – many of which have now decided to go mask-less – will be flying relatively blind.
We can use this opportunity to ask CDC to issue Indoor Air Quality (ventilation/filtration) targets for healthcare facilities.
Here’s his ask: would you write a “feedback and questions” email that does two things:
1) asks CDC to issue Indoor Air Quality targets for all healthcare facilities (e.g. all healthcare facilities must have ventilation of 12 air changes per hour or an equivalent level of HEPA filtration) and
2) avoids asking CDC to do things CDC does not have the legal authority to do (e.g. a nationwide mask mandate, a travel mask mandate, etc). Per Matt, if you’d also like to ask CDC to require the use of source control (i.e. masks) in healthcare facilities, he has absolutely no objection but there’s a much higher likelihood of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) targets – so he’s asking you to also include the IAQ ask.
Please sign your email with your name and city/state mostly so CDC doesn’t think Matt has faked all of the emails – by sending an email to CDCLetters@mattbc.org, you are consenting to his bundling your email, including your email address, and sending it to CDC (and potentially others within HHS).
If you are immunocompromised, disabled, or chronically ill (or if a family member / loved one / person you are responsible for is) please consider telling that to CDC in your letter – it will help.
If you’re up for it, describe what it’s like trying to get medical care now that hospitals are abandoning the sort of meager protections they had in place – what have you experienced? how have you felt? what would it mean for you, your family, etc., if you knew that healthcare facilities were safer / less likely to give you covid?
Matt will be bundling emails sent to him by 3AM eastern on April 27, 2023 because the email address he was given by the CDC isn’t a public one and he doesn’t believe the CDC intended for the address to be publicly distributed.
In other words, if we can show that there is massive support for a healthcare Air Quality Standard with hundreds of emails we can go a long way!
He’s prepared a short guide to writing a letter to CDC. That link is at his Patreon site here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/will-you-write-81869195
LAWYERS (ANY BAR LICENSE) HELP FOLKS GET THE DOCS THEY NEED FOR VOTER ID:
From We The Action: More states are passing stricter voter ID laws everyday disenfranchising voters and creating confusion. Getting ID to vote is complicated and obtaining a birth certificate is often difficult without ID and that’s where you come in…
Not only do we help get people the ID and underlying documents they need to vote but also to get housing, healthcare, a job, etc.
We The Action is looking for attorneys with active bar admission in our focus states (AZ, FL, GA, MI, NC, OH, PA, TX, VA, WI, as well as IL, NY, NJ, SC and Puerto Rico) to assist clients who need to obtain their birth certificate but lack the requisite ID to complete the order. Counsel is needed to represent the client for the limited purpose of obtaining the birth certificate. We The Action will pay the costs for the birth certificate.
Learn more and sign up to volunteer here: https://wetheaction.org/projects/2011-assist-voters-with-documents-to-get-voter-id
WHEW! GO, YOU!
If you’d like to sign up to get this pep talk and action list in your in-box each week, you can do that here. Welcome, friend!
Thank you for reading. Thank you for writing. I read and respond to every e-mail. (Really! I really do!) We’re in this together. Don’t you forget it.
P.S.: If you want to help support this work you can do so via Patreon at
https://www.patreon.com/smalldeedsdone or via paypal at https://www.paypal.me/smalldeeds
My deepest gratitude in advance.
P.P.S: Why don’t you make someone’s day and send this pep talk to a friend or two? I bet they need it.
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