Win the Day: Volume 10 (The Day After)

Posted November 7, 2018

When we started Win The Day, we knew we’d need to play some defense.  (See our recent post after the anti-Semitic violence in Pittsburgh.)  But we also knew we’d need to go on the offense.  And while there is much celebrate after last night’s elections, there is even more work to do.  How we do that, who we talk with, who we center, what language we use -- that’s what our narrative work is focused on.

Voting is only one way to be a part of the political process

Posted April 3, 2016

My name is Nicole Riegert. I am a nineteen-year-old student at the University of Minnesota and have recently started as an intern for the political team here at TakeAction MN. As a college student, I spend much of my time evaluating what is important to me and envisioning my future. My opportunities to build a life I find personally meaningful and positively impactful within my community can be limited or enriched by individuals who hold power. It is important to me that the officials making decisions that will influence my life and the lives of others in my community share our bold, progressive values. This November, I want to elect leaders who will challenge the status quo to ensure our voices are represented.

Thus, I ran to be a delegate to the Senate District Convention this April and support the candidates endorsed by TakeAction. At the convention, delegates elected on March 1st present issues, debate, and choose House and Senate candidates for their party. To better understand the process, I sat down with Mary and Quinn. Mary, who has been elected a delegate to the State Convention, tells us why being a delegate matters to her. See her video here.… Continue reading »

Bold & Visionary change in Duluth

Posted September 16, 2015

This year we had the awesome opportunity to talk with thousands of Duluthians about their vision for Duluth’s future. We collaborated with many organizations representing the diverse people of our communities to develop a shared vision for our city – AICHO, CHUM, PAVSA, SOAR Career Solutions, YWCA, Northeast Area Labor Council, Community Action Duluth and Education Minnesota.

What came of this is resounding shared interest in jobs that pay living wages with benefits like earned sick and safe time so people aren’t forced to choose between caring for a loved one and earning a paycheck. Residents wanting resources and consideration of needs to be spread across the city, increased green space, free youth activities & racial justice.

We have the unique ability at TakeAction to talk about these issues and more as we engage with voters in our community.  We want to see bold and visionary change! The kind of change that happens when people – like our endorsed candidates who share our vision and the vision of so many Duluthians – are elected to office.  Our endorsed candidates for November are:  Gary Anderson (District 2); Em Westerlund (District 3); Joel Sipress (District 4); Janet Kennedy (District 5); Elissa Hansen & Noah Hobbs (At-Large); and Emily Larson for Mayor!… Continue reading »

The Power of Women

Posted July 13, 2015

If someone were to ask you what leadership is, I’m sure your responses would be as varied as the responses I have heard when people are asked to define racial justice.  As is true of most things in our lives, our lived experience supersedes dictionary definitions.

Leadership per the Merriam Webster online dictionary is:  1) a position as a leader of a group, organization, etc; 2) the time when a person holds the position of leader; 3) the power or ability to lead other people.  Though I do not argue the definition as it appears, what leadership means to me is more convoluted.

As a child I dreamed of being president.  I wish I had a quarter for how many times I heard I was insane to think this was possible.  It is regrettably not the only situation in my life where I was informed my pursuit of leadership was ambiguously linked and limited due to my gender identity.  So my experience and definition of leadership inevitably became linked to how unattainable I felt it was for me to achieve because I am a woman.

I have been blessed in my life to have incredibly brave, intelligent and resilient women mentor me in my pursuit of leadership. … Continue reading »

We are in this together

Posted May 6, 2015

Being bold and ambitious means not going it alone. In order to bring into existence a more just and compassionate community we need strong, trusted partnerships. In Duluth we work closely with Chum, who not only shares a similar vision for what’s possible but is charting a shared course on how to get there together. It means they’re in the fight with us day in and day out, on good days and bad. Chum and TakeAction have come together on issues that align both organizations, whether it’s restoring the right to vote for 47,000 Minnesotans or ensuring workers in St. Louis County can have access to earned sick and safe time.

But beyond that we are building. We are weaving our people together creating a shared story. A story that says more is possible when we work together. This relationship continues to deepen each time we come to the table as equal partners committed to the same change in the world. What we are doing– a training together, a press conference, meetings with elected officials or making copies for  one another when the printer breaks. Regardless the activity, we are working together to make more possible. Below is a blog post written by Cara Lundberg, an intern at Chum as she finishes her last week with Chum.… Continue reading »

For my Grandma Hickman

Posted February 7, 2014

One of my biggest heroines is a woman I do not remember meeting.

My great grandmother Hickman, born less than 70 years after slavery was “officially abolished,” grew up as a servant but was treated as a slave. I am told she was a wise woman who loved with all her heart. I grew up hearing stories of her doing back breaking work in the plantation fields of Alabama. She died when I was barely walking but I have idolized her all my life.

Hearing those stories, I always have had a sense of pride in my roots; pride that my people have been struggling for a very long time but we have continued to survive and figure out ways to strive. When I am asked “why I do what I do”, it always has been about my family’s history of struggle for dignity. I constantly remind myself that I am not alone, that I stand on the shoulders of warriors in a long battle for justice.

My favorite Grandma Hickman story is of her time breast feeding the babies on the plantation. She told my mom that she would breast feed the babies of the white and black “servants.”… Continue reading »

What’s working in Minnesota?

Posted October 29, 2013

Consider what life is like in our neighboring states in the upper Midwest.

To the south, in Iowa, farm and rural activists are fighting off factory farms at every turn.  Farther away, Illinois is continually facing a looming financial crisis.  To the west, North Dakota continues trying to limit a woman’s freedom to choose by passing the most restrictive anti-choice laws in the country.  And to the east, Wisconsin state government resembles that of Mississippi, restricting the right to vote and sitting idle as its health care costs skyrocket.

Meanwhile, here in Minnesota the list of populist accomplishments in the last 12 months is long and impressive… being the first state to defeat both the Voter Restriction and Anti-Gay Marriage Amendments, turning around six months later to pass Marriage Equality, passing historic Ban the Box legislation, Homeowner’s Bill of Rights, The Dream Act, increased progressive revenue and closed corporate tax loopholes, and expanded and strengthened health care coverage.  The list goes on.

What’s working in Minnesota that we are breaking through the same barriers that are holding other states back?

For one thing, nothing that has happened here in Minnesota has happened overnight.  For years, organizers and activists have laid the groundwork for what just recently emerged as a grassroots movement. … Continue reading »