Dear Friends,

As like-minded citizens who are concerned about a President Trump, we invite you to join us at a rally at Senator Menedez’s and Senator Booker’s Newark offices on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 11:30 am. Both Senators are located at One Gateway Center in Newark, New Jersey, close to the train station.

Groups all across America are planning similar rallies on February 21. This idea was proposed by the group Indivisible.com.

For our rally on February 21, we will meet up at 11:15 am directly outside the main entrance to the parking garage of One Gateway Center in Newark, New Jersey. This is on Raymond Plaza West across the street from Newark Penn Train Station. We will have a large sign (Menendez / Booker Rally) so you can find us.

The purpose of the February 21 rally is to:

• thank the Senators for what they do
• urge them to be ever vigilant against the Trump agenda
• convey the top issues that concern us
• urge them to continually speak up and speak out about Trump’s corrupt, racist and tyrannical agenda
• ask them to alert us about upcoming concerns in fighting the Trump agenda
• ask how we can support and help them

If you have other agenda items that you want us to include, please let us know by February 10.

A few pointers:

• Be polite and respectful at all times
• If Trump supporters are in the area and attempt to intervene, be calm and do not engage with them

We request that each group do the following:

• Invite your members to attend the rally.
• Ask your members to make and bring signs. Examples:
  • Be Ye Ever Vigilant
  • Not Normal
  • Gum Up Trump’s Plans
  • Stop Trump’s #Swamp Cabinet
  • Trump is Not My President
• Bring sticks of gum for the Senators’ office staff as we plan to ask them to “gum up Trump’s plans.”
• Prior to the rally, call your local press and invite them to attend.
• Record the names, email, phone number, and zip codes of each member who attends (see attached sign-up sheet) and send us a copy after the rally. We will share it with the Senators.
• After the rally, please make sure that the area is clean. Do not leave signs, water bottles, etc.
• After the rally, write a press release and send it your local press.

We are guaranteed to meet with the Senators’ top aide in each office and will know as we get closer if the Senators will be able to meet with us. Our first meeting is at noon and the second is at 1 pm.

We were asked to bring just ten people into the meeting. If your group wishes to appoint a person to join us in the meeting, please let us know. We will make space on a first come, first served basis. Once we know who the ten speakers will be, I will be in touch to arrange a phone meeting to plan for our February 21 meeting. We will share our notes of the meeting with all.

We recognize that some of your working members may not be able to get to the rally at 11:15 am on Tuesday, February 21. Because only ten of us will able to be speakers at the meeting, not everyone who attends the rally will be able to voice their individual concerns. Therefore, we ask that you have all of your members write their personal stories and concerns, bring two copies, and we will share them with the Senators and/or their staff at our meeting. We want to bring the voices of those who will be impacted by the Trump Administration policies to Senators Menendez and Booker.

Some tips:

• Stories should be personal
• Talk about how policies will affect you, your loved ones and community
• Keep it short
• They may be handwritten or typed
• Each story should be signed with the author’s name and address

We also need a few volunteers to bring video cameras to record the meeting with the Senators. Following the meeting, we request that you send us the video to the event organizers, who will send it to Indivisible.com, who will then send it to Rachel Maddow to possibly air on her television show.

Please let us know the number of people from your group who will attend the rally and if you can assist with videotaping by February 15.

Get the word out. Let’s make this big.

Thank you,

The Steering Committee, Coalition of Indivisible New Jersey Activists

Judy Lindenberger
Regina Podhorin
Kelly Ingram
Darren Green