Call-to-Action Opportunities

Exigencies are like fruit--you've got to pick them at just the right moment.

Everyday my e-mail inbox fills up with big juicy issues ripe for the picking. It's frustrating, because so often my plate is already full, but I'm thrilled that i've got a class full of hungry rhetors, ready to reap the harvest. Have I exhausted this metaphor? Probably, but just in time to offer you this farmer's market full of seasonal home-grown rhetorical opportunities. Maybe you'll find one that suits your taste! If so, bite right in!

3/10/10 US Post Office Considering Stamp to Honor Harvey Milk
TheNational Gay and Lesbian Task Force is co-sponsoring the Harvey MilkNational Stamp Campaign. "This stamp would serve to further remindAmericans that by honoring Harvey Milk, you honor a true American Heroand Champion of Civil Rights for all people."
http://purpleunions.com/blog/2010/03/us-post-office-considering-stamp-to-honor-harvey-milk.html

3/9/10 www.iLoveMountains.org

Dear Laurie,

This week, more than 200 citizens from Appalachia and across the U.S. are gathering in our nation's capital as part of our 5th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington.

They will be meeting with members of Congress to urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 1310, the Clean Water Protection Act, which would help to end mountaintop removal coal extraction. This issue is extremely urgent and the coal industry is working overtime to block the passage of this bill.

Your Representative is not signed on to the Clean Water Protection Act. But hearing from their constituents is incredibly powerful -- you can help end mountaintop removal with a simple phone call.

Please take a moment to contact your Representative's office and ask them to sign on to save streams.

3/10/10
ASK YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO SIGN A LETTER SAFEGUARDING PIRC FUNDING

Contact Your Members of Congress TODAY!

Members of Congress are making a bi-partisan effort to safeguard Parental Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs). Senators Tom Udall (D-NM) and Christopher Bond (R-MO) and Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Todd Russell Platts (R-PA) are asking their colleagues to sign onto their "Dear Colleague" letters requesting that appropriators safeguard the PIRCs by providing level funding Fiscal Year (FY) 2011.

The Senate and House “Dear Colleague” letters are in response to the President’s FY11 budget proposal that consolidated PIRCs into the Expanding Educational Options budget authority. Consolidation means –elimination of PIRCs by directing funding away from PIRCs.

We need Congress to safeguard this sole federal program dedicated to engaging families in the education of their children.

What you can do:

* Please ask your two Senators to sign onto Senators Tom Udall and Christopher Bond’s “Dear Colleague” letter requesting level funding for PIRCs. The Senate “Dear Colleague” letter will be sent to Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS) of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.

* Please ask your Representative to sign onto Representatives Grijalva and Platts' "Dear Colleague" letter requesting level funding for PIRCs. The House “Dear Colleague” letter will be sent to Chairman David Obey (D-WI) and Ranking Member Todd Tiahrt (R- KS) of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.