4-29-21 – The Rally Was A Success, Kevin Jenkins, and HCM Needs Our Help!

IMPORTANT UPDATES AND ACTION ITEMS

We have a couple of things to cover that need your attention …but FIRST, can we share a little about the rally last night at the capitol? The passion, commitment, and love dedicated to fighting for our freedom are alive and well! We must light a fire within everyone around us to do the same. Let us be brave with our allies. The time is now. We have courageous representatives, lawyers, advocates in many organizations including, Kevin Jenkin of Urban Global Health Alliance, Dr. Naomi Wolfe of Five Freedoms Campaign, Make Americans Free Again, Maine Stands Up, and more.

Please share the live recording of the rally from ourInstagram page. Hearing the speakers and the crowd is sure to fill anyone’s cup that may feel a little empty from time to time in this lengthy battle or ignite a flame in someone who does not yet realize what is at stake and, it is of course for anyone in between to grow awareness of the gravity of the situation.

Our first fundraiser is tonight!

One way to support Maine Stands Up is to purchase a ticket to the Kevin Jenkins Event tonight! If you can’t attend, pass it on to someone else. Kevin will be speaking followed by a free screening of the film Medical Apartheid. To learn more about this film, check out the article and watch the trailer here.

Bills and Amendments

‘Health Choice Maine’ has made us aware of some key health choice bills and amendments that need our support now and they have provided all the resources you need to do so.  

Step One: Review the bills below and write your testimony following the guidelines outlined in the formats below. Save your actual testimony documents - you will attach the file when you submit your testimony -do not put the testimony in the body of an email!

Step Two: Email a copy of your testimony to Health Choice Maine leadership at: 2021testimony@gmail.com

Step Three: Email your representative and senator, include your testimonies, and ask to sit down with them to discuss why these bills are important to you.Reach out in the group if you need support or help to organize these meetings - we want everyone to feel supported and well prepared!

Step Four: Make sure you save your testimonies, so they are ready to email to the committee when hearing dates are announced. Leadership will alert you when to send your testimony to the correct committee. 

Do not send it to the committee in advance!!

Look up your representative here:
http://legislature.maine.gov/house/house/MemberProfiles/ListAlphaTown.

Look up your senator here:
https://legislature.maine.gov/senate-home-page/find-your-state-senator.

Bills and Amendments:

LD 96 - An Act to Create Fairness in the Treatment of Students with Certain Vaccine Exemptions

Bill Text: http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0062&item=1&snum=130).

Talking Points:

1. Fairness and Common Sense 
2. School Funding
3. No Increase in Non-Medical Exemptions
4. Phasing in LD 798

LD 156 - An Act to Promote School Attendance by Exempting Virtual Public School and Private School Students from Immunization Requirements

Bill text: http://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0112&item=1&snum=130).

Talking Points:

1. Communicable Diseases Do Not Transmit Online.
2. Discriminatory Impact of LD 798 Mitigated by Giving Flexibility for Private Schools to Admit Students. 
3. Tipping's “fix it” bill
4. This bill would ensure that public online charter schools cannot require online-only students to submit to vaccine mandates.

LD 867 - An Act to Prohibit Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccinations for 5 Years to Allow for Safety Testing and Investigations into Reproductive Harm  

Bill Text: http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0635&item=1&snum=130

Talking Points:

1. Emergency Use Authorization
2. * Nature of EUA
3. * Federal Statute provides that it must be voluntary (PREP Act)  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/03/17/2020-05484/declaration-under-the-public-readiness-and-emergency-preparedness-act-for-medical-countermeasures
4. Limited safety data
   • No medium or long term data
   • VAERS Reporting to date 
   • No data/limited data on pregnancy
5. mRNA is new technology
6. Truncated Licensure Process for Full Approval
   • in the context of COVID-19 the final approval process by the FDA is likely to be accelerated
   • There is no substitute for longitudinal study — it is impossible to assess medium to long term impact in the short term, regardless of whether a vaccine is approved by the FDA or not
7. Ethics - The Right to Informed Consent and Prohibition Against Involuntary Participation in Medical Experimentation

LD 833 - "An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Vaccines by Reinstating Religious Exemptions"

Bill text: http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/getPDF.asp?paper=HP0601&item=1&snum=130

Talking Points:

1. Discrimination based on religious beliefs.
2. Children and families ostracized from their communities.
3. Separation of church and state is an essential tenet of American values and should be honored.
4. Health care workers will be forced to leave the state or leave their careers, this has a negative financial impact on families and on our state.
5. Allows religious schools to honor the beliefs of the families in their school
6. Allows religious schools to have integrity in the faith they represent
7. Not allowing religious exemptions gives the state too much influence in the way a religious school operates (Bangor Baptist v Maine 1981)

Helpful Tips For Written and Oral Testimony

1. Decide on the main idea you want to express to the committee.
2. Pick no more than three points that you want them to understand.
3. Respectfully describe your point of view without being dramatic or inflammatory.
4. Pull your ideas from your own reality. Avoid hypothetical situations.
5. Express how the bill passing or not passing will influence or effect you.
6. If you are using data, ensure that it is correct and credible. Include a link to the source of your data.
7. Don’t assume the committee understands your context, your experience is unique to you. Use language that is concrete and literal.
8. Maximum one page.
9. Use the correct testimony format.
10. Have at least one person proofread your testimony.
11. Oral: Practice many times with your notes and time yourself. The committee will cut you off when you reach the time limit.
12. Oral: you cannot show graphs, photos, or other props. You can include them with written testimony.
13. Remember that testimonies become public record. Only share what you want to be made public.
14. Remember to close your testimony by asking the committee to vote “ought to pass” or “ought not to pass”.
15. Submit your testimony to the correct committee WHEN HEALTH CHOICE MAINE GIVES DATES OF HEARINGS:
    1. http://legislature.maine.gov/committee/#Committees
    2. Use the drop-down menu to select the appropriate committee
    3. Email your testimony to the clerk of the committee listed on the committee page.

Testimony Email Format

(email address)
To: joeclerk @ maine.gov
From: joancitizen @ gmail.com
RE: Testimony for LDXXX

(body of email)
Please see attached file for testimony.

(testimony document attached to email)

Document Format:
To: (Full committee name)
From: (Your full name)
Date: (Date of the hearing)
RE: Testimony in support of / opposition to LDXXX

(salutation)
Chairperson XXX (majority chair), Chairperson (minority chair) XXX, esteemed members of the (Full committee name) Committee: 

(introduction)

1. Your name & credentials if appropriate
2. What town you live in.
3. State if you are testifying in support or opposition to bill LDXXX , because (your main idea).

(main content)

1. State the points you want the committee to understand - no more than three.
2. Give examples for each of the points, pulling from real-life situations that are important to you. Ex: How the bill affects you, what the impact will be, etc.
3. Give data and supporting information for your examples.

(closing)

1. Thank the committee for listening/opportunity.
2. Request that they vote “ought to pass” or “ought not to pass.

Please take some time in the next couple of days to write your testimony and email it to your legislators. This could be crucial in the coming days.

Things are changing quickly, and the government is seemingly responding to our uprising, the lawsuit, and our requests in indirect ways. Mask mandates for outdoors including Maine Principals Association lifting of masking during outdoor sports just this week. We still have a lot to do, and the battle is not won. Please reach out if you’re willing and able to help us with starting a meeting in your area. Let us rediscover the community and power of we the people.

Thank YOU!!