Hi there! Welcome to Easy A–Your go-to source for quick and easy actions you can take in five minutes or less about the issues you care about.
Are you a busy mom? Or maybe your work is so hectic you can’t think about anything else during the day? A lot of us are also taking care of parents or other loved ones too, leaving little time for anything else.
The good news is that these are things you can do while you’re waiting in the school pick up line, on your lunch break, or even at your kid’s soccer practice – anywhere you happen to be! And you can easily share Easy A with your friends so they can be in the know, too! We’ll send you a new action to take every week–just one, we promise –and it will always be something you can do in five minutes or less. Ready to get started? Let’s go!
Read This: A Seriously Brief Timeline of Women Organizing for Good
Throughout history, women have organized and fought for the greater good. Right now, as we witness great injustices and many of our freedoms are at stake, let’s recognize and celebrate some of the American women who showed us what’s possible through local organizing.
Esther de Berdt Reed
In 1780, Esther de Berdt Reed formed the Ladies Association of Philadelphia to support soldiers in the Revolutionary War. She organized dozens of women to go door-to-door raising more than $300,000 from 1,600 individuals! Working with George and Martha Washington to decide how to use the money, the women purchased linen and made much-needed new shirts for the soldiers in the field. Their efforts became a standard for combining social and political activity for good causes in other states.
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland. In 1849 she escaped and made it to freedom in Philadelphia, but her family stayed behind. She decided to return to help them and became a “conductor” of the Underground Railroad, building a personal network of abolitionist friends and helpers. In 1854, she succeeded in helping her parents, brothers, and others escape to freedom. In total, she made about 13 trips, helping an estimated 70 people reach freedom in the north.
Ella Baker
Ella Baker, the Executive Secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was impressed by the student sit-ins during the Civil Rights movement. In 1960, she organized a conference to bring all the student leaders of the sit-in movement together. There, she encouraged the 126 students in attendance to create the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She connected them with each other and with powerful leaders from the NAACP and SCLC. Many Civil Rights leaders grew out of the SNCC and the organization went on to become an important part of the movement.
Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta grew up in an agricultural community of diverse, working families in California. As a teacher, she was bothered by the economic injustices faced by her students. This led her to become an organizer with the Stockton Community Service Organization and to found the Agricultural Workers Association. She arranged voter registration drives and advocated for workers’ rights. That’s how she met César E. Chávez and together, in 1962, they started the National Farm Workers Association to help farm workers organize, negotiate for better work contracts and insurance, and secure aid and safer working conditions. At 95 years old, Dolores still travels the country helping working families organize and advocate for themselves.
Heather Booth
Heather Booth was already active in civil rights causes in 1965, before Roe v. Wade, when she formed JANE, a secret abortion service. She organized ten women and even more anonymous volunteers to run JANE. For seven years they helped 11,000 patients get the safe healthcare they needed. Heather never stopped organizing and also founded Midwest Academy, which trains grassroots organizers on how to successfully make positive change in their communities.
Ai-jen Poo
Ai-jen Poo is the daughter of immigrants who volunteered in an Asian women’s shelter and saw the struggles faced by domestic care workers — low pay without benefits, overwork, and workplace violence. She started a campaign to organize domestic workers — mostly immigrants — through the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV): Organizing Asian Communities. She did true grassroots work, visiting playgrounds, parks, and churches to connect with workers. Since then, through founding other organizations, Ai-jen has continued to fight for better resident care in nursing homes and for improved working conditions for caregivers and domestic workers.
Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi
In 2013, George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. This sparked the creation of the #BlackLivesMatter movement by Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi. A year later, after Mike Brown was murdered in Ferguson, MO, the movement spread with more than 600 people gathering in St. Louis to protest. From there, these organizers were determined to help any communities fighting violence against Black people. Initially spreading to 18 more cities, #BlackLivesMatter is now a global movement with a network of support for leaders making a difference in their communities.
All of these women saw an issue they cared deeply about and set out to fix it. And this is obviously a non-exhaustive list! There are countless other women – sung and unsung — who have organized in big and small ways to make a positive difference in their communities and in the lives of others. We are so inspired by all these women and hope you are too!
Do This: It’s time to get out the vote!
The scariest thing to us this Halloween isn’t a movie or a costume, it’s the reality we face on November 6 if extremists get elected. So let’s make some time over the next five days to make sure that doesn’t happen!
Take 5 minutes to visit our website and sign up for Rally.
Rally is our organizational tool that helps you have conversations with friends and family about the importance of voting. Signing up only takes a few minutes. Then, you can come back to it and spend a few minutes every day picking from a list of quick actions to help inspire your people to vote.
We’ve proven that relational organizing with Rally works. Red Wine & Blue Ralliers increased voter turnout by more than 10% last election! That’s a big deal, because we know that this election is going to be close and that every vote matters.
If everyone who reads this blog uses Rally to help turn out other voters, we can mobilize tens of thousands of people to help secure big wins on November 5.
Look, we’re all feeling some election anxiety. It’s totally fine if you want to stress-eat Halloween candy for the next five days — we know we will! — but don’t let that be all that you do!
Sign up for Rally today, and take just a few minutes every day through November 5 to take simple actions. We promise it will help you feel better, and together, we’ll defeat extremism!
Watch This: It’s time to get out the vote!
How are you feeling about the upcoming election?
We’re hearing from some Red Wine and Blue members who are filled with joy and hope, and others who are filled with anxiety. Either way, you are not alone!
It’s natural to feel some anxiety, especially if you’re prone to doomscrolling, but there are many reasons to be excited about the importance of this election. Just think of what we can accomplish if we get our common sense candidates elected!
Our favorite piece of advice for how to overcome election anxiety is to take action! You’ve already taken the first step by reading this post, now watch this quick video about how Red Wine & Blue can help you take action and overcome election anxiety between now and November 5.
Feeling inspired? Stay tuned and we’ll talk more next week about how our Rally relational organizing tool can help you channel your anxiety and hope into action!
Read This: It’s time to get out the vote!
We are less than three weeks away from Election Day, and early voting has started in many places. It’s time to get out the vote!
No matter where you live, extremists are on the ballot, from the Presidential race to state houses to judicial races to school boards. It’s not hyperbole when the pundits say that this is the most consequential election of our lifetime. It’s crucial that we all show up and vote for common sense candidates and the preservation of democracy.
As a member of the Red Wine and Blue community, chances are you are a more engaged voter than the average citizen. That’s why your friends and family look to you — and trust you more than any other source — for guidance on elections. So let’s all be prepared, not only to vote ourselves, but to help everyone we know vote confidently too!
Here are some things informed voters are thinking about right now:
- Double checking our voter registration status.
- Learning our county’s early voting schedules and locations.
- Confirming mail-in or absentee voting requirements if we’re voting that way.
- Making note of our state’s voting rules and requirements, like: Do we need an ID to vote? Or, is it illegal to take a picture of our completed ballot? These things vary by state!
- Knowing our Election Day polling location and hours.
- Researching who’s on our ballot.
- Making our voting plan. Studies show that people who have made a plan to vote are more likely to do it!
Suburban women are a powerful part of the electorate. We can — and will — make a difference in this election. It starts by being up to date on all of this information, and then sharing that knowledge with everyone we know.
Start working through this list today, and in the coming weeks, we’ll share even more about how we can get out the vote and defeat extremism everywhere in November.
Do This: The Growing Movement to Ban Books
We know that book bans are on the rise at a shocking pace, and we know how bad that is for our children’s education and well being. Now, do you want some good news? The majority of Americans agree — book banning is bad for all of us.
More than 80% of Americans disagree with banning books about history or race. And a Washington Post study found that in the 2021-2022 school year, only 11 people were responsible for the majority of book bans. Book bans are being driven by a small but vocal minority, so we can stop them. And that’s exactly what we do with Book Ban Busters!
So earn your Easy A today by signing up to receive Book Ban Busters updates. We’ll keep you up to date on book bans and ways to take action. Together, we can reverse this dangerous trend.
Here are a few ways Book Ban Busters take action:
- Raising awareness by sharing information about book bans with friends and family.
- Publicly showing support for authors, educators, and librarians.
- Going to local school board and library board meetings to stay informed and ready to fight book bans if they arise.
- Voting for candidates who support the freedom to read.
- Running for a school or library board or volunteering on a campaign.
- Joining our banned book club.
- Hosting read-ins.
- Writing Letters to the Editor.
- Contacting elected representatives about legislative threats to our freedom to read.
Basically, the way we fight book bans is to organize — and that happens at the local level! Localized efforts are the most effective way to beat book bans. We win when people like you take action with the same boldness and fervor as the small groups bringing the bans in the first place. So let’s do this!
Watch This: The Growing Movement to Ban Books
As instances of book bans continue to skyrocket year over year, it’s important to know that they overwhelmingly target stories about people or characters from marginalized groups.
According to PEN America, from 2021-2023:
- 37% of all book bans targeted books about race, racism, or books with characters of color;
- 36% targeted books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes; 8% featuring transgender characters or stories.
We read last week about how diversity in books is invaluable to students. Now hear more about this from someone who knows firsthand.
Ellen Oh is an author and founding member of We Need Diverse Books, a nonprofit that strives to diversify the publishing industry. Their goal is to create a world where everyone can find themselves in the pages of a book. Ellen tells us why this is so important — even life-saving.
We Need Diverse Books has helped fuel an increase in new children’s books featuring characters of color. Twelve years ago, only 7% of children’s books published were about children of color. Now that figure is 40%. As we celebrate this, we also have to protect these stories from becoming the next targets of book bans. Next week, we’ll tell you how!
Read This: The Growing Movement to Ban Books
It’s Banned Books Week! Since 1982, this annual event supports our freedom to read and brings attention to the growing movement to ban books. So, let’s talk about the increase in book bans and why it’s so important for us to push back.
Book bans have been around for centuries. They started when governments and religious institutions wanted to censor what they saw as threats to their authority or moral standing. We’re now seeing everyday citizens challenge our access to books in schools and public libraries, and those bans are increasing rapidly.
These modern book bans are defined as when, for any period of time, a student’s access to a book is restricted or completely prohibited. PEN America has been tracking the increase in book bans since 2021. Their latest research found that there were more than 10,000 instances of book bans in the 2023-2024 school year, which is almost triple the number in the previous year!
These recent book bans are being driven by extremist groups like Moms for Liberty. They are targeting what they consider to be controversial or objectionable content, which is usually books with LGBTQ+ or non-white characters, histories of minorities, religious or political viewpoints different from their own, or sex education. “Controversial” and “objectionable” to them is really just code for ideas and viewpoints they don’t like or don’t understand, and often involves marginalized communities. When extremists are successful in getting these stories and narratives banned, they are unjustly erasing the voices and representation of entire groups of people. That erasure has very real consequences for all children.
Book bans narrow our children’s worldview by taking away their exposure to stories about other people and places. It keeps them from exploring ideas and perspectives that are different from their own, which hinders their ability to build empathy. Book bans also teach them that it’s ok to hate and censor things you don’t agree with.
For kids in the communities whose stories are being banned, it hurts even more. When kids don’t see themselves represented, they think their stories are not worthy of being told. And when they see them banned, they think their stories are shameful. All kids deserve to see themselves and relatable characters in stories to know that they are valued and are not alone.
There’s also a financial cost to all these book bans. When books are challenged, most school districts and public libraries have a process in place to review the books and rule on the challenges. That takes extra staffing and personnel hours. For example, last year in Texas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, school districts reported spending between $30,000-$100,000 and hundreds of full-time staff hours reviewing book ban attempts! There are better ways for this taxpayer money to be spent and for these professionals to spend their time.
All this harm is being caused by a loud but small group of people. The majority of us — more than 80% — don’t want book bans, so we also have to be loud and push back. Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore how to put a stop to this increasing trend of book bans before it gets any worse.
Do This: Preventing Gun Violence
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been discussing gun violence in America. And in just that short period of time, our country has been rocked by another mass shooting at a high school and a second alleged assassination attempt on a former president. It is clear that gun violence is a nonpartisan issue — and one that threatens us all.
So how do we make our families and communities safer? Experts have shown that there are ways to reduce gun violence: requiring background checks on all gun sales; promoting the secure storage of guns; allowing for Extreme Risk Protection Orders (also known as Red Flag Laws); keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and violent offenders; and supporting programs for mental health and community violence intervention. We just need politicians who are willing to turn these common sense solutions into laws!
And here’s something you can do right now in under five minutes — Tell your Senators and Congressperson to support common sense legislation to reduce gun violence. We’ve made it easy for you. Start by filling out the form directly below — or at this link — and our tool will walk you through the rest. We’ve even written a message you can use or customize to your liking.
Nothing will change until our laws do, so your representatives need to hear from you! Be a part of the solution and send your message today.
Watch This: Preventing Gun Violence
According to research by Everytown For Gun Safety, 59% of adults in America have personally experienced gun violence, or know someone who has.
Gun violence includes mass shootings, homicides, assaults, suicides and suicide attempts, domestic violence, unintentional shootings, intimidation, threats, and more. Anyone who lives through these experiences, either as a victim, witness, or loved one to those involved, is a survivor.
Understanding the lifelong physical, mental, and financial toll of surviving gun violence is an important part of finding solutions to the crisis. We can better understand the toll by listening to survivors’ stories.
Greg Jackson, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, recently shared his survivor story on The Suburban Women Problem podcast. Watch:
Greg succinctly described some of the hard questions we have to face as a country to solve our gun violence crisis. Next week, we’ll have some answers to those questions, and an easy action you can take to be a part of the solution.
Read This: Preventing Gun Violence
Our hearts are breaking with the families of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia today as they grieve in the aftermath of a tragic mass shooting. Every day, more than 120 Americans are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded.1 Yesterday, at least four of those killed and nine of those injured were at Apalachee High School. We can’t stop thinking about them.
Guns are the leading cause of death for American children and teens.2 It’s a shocking statistic and a uniquely American problem. How much of this can our hearts take? Most of us agree, we can’t let this stand.
The term “gun violence” quickly brings to mind the horrors of mass shootings in our communities and schools like Apalachee, but it also includes other violent crime, domestic violence, suicide, and unintentional shootings. Gun violence can impact any of us anywhere at any time.
That’s why the majority of Americans, regardless of political party or whether they own a gun or not, support policies that help reduce gun violence.3 We all want to keep our families and our communities safe.
To do so, we need a wide range of solutions to tackle every cause of gun violence. To that end, the Biden-Harris administration has invested $30 billion in gun violence prevention efforts and have already:
- Passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in 30 years.
- Signed dozens of executive orders that address both the supply of guns and the behavioral causes of gun violence.
- Created the first ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention (OGVP), overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Suburban Women Problem podcast recently spoke with the OGVP’s director, Stefanie Feldman, and deputy director, Greg Jackson, who told us just some of the things these historic efforts are accomplishing so far:
- Promoting and incentivizing secure gun storage. Secure storage is vital to protecting our families because:
- 30 million children live in homes with firearms in the U.S. – nearly 5 million of those in homes where guns are loaded and unlocked.4
- 76% of school shootings are committed with guns from the shooter’s home.5
- 80% of youth suicides by gun are committed using guns from the home.5
- 76% of unintentional shootings of children are committed using unsecured guns found in homes.5
- Providing resources and funding to schools for youth mental health initiatives through the Stop School Violence Act, the American Rescue Plan and the BSCA.
- Expanding the federal definition of who is a gun dealer. Now, previously unlicensed private sellers (online and at gun shows) have to get licensed like traditional gun stores and conduct background checks on gun buyers. This is the largest expansion of the background check system in 30 years and is keeping guns out of the hands of youth, felons, domestic abusers, and other people who may be a risk to themselves or others.
- Creating the Safer States Agenda for state legislatures which outlines 15 different measures individual states can take to reduce gun violence — measures like Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO), also known as “red flag” laws — and providing model legislation for states to use.
This is only the beginning of the bipartisan, common sense work that can be done to reduce gun violence. We obviously need more solutions to help make our kids, families, and communities safer. We owe it to the victims and survivors of yesterday’s horrific mass shooting at Apalachee High School to keep this momentum going to prevent future tragedies.
- Gun Violence in America, Everytown, May 7, 2024.
- Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens, Everytown, May 7, 2024.
- National Survey of Gun Policy, 2023 Results, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Gun Violence Solutions, July 21, 2023.
- Unintentional Firearm Injury Deaths Among Children and Adolescents Aged 0–17 Years — National Violent Death Reporting System, United States, 2003–2021, CDC, December 15, 2023.
- White House Announces New Actions to Promote Safe Storage of Firearms, whitehouse.gov, January 25,2024.
Do This: Momonomics
It’s no surprise to us that, according to a July 2024 KFF survey, half of women voters “worry a lot” about being able to afford food and groceries.
That means many women you know have this issue on their mind — and it’s likely to be a factor when they decide who they are voting for in this election. So now that you know some Momonomics, your friends need to hear from you!
Remember that video we watched last week? We’ve made it — and other Momonomics content — super easy to share with your friends and family right now. Just select the post you want to share from below, and which social media platform you want to use, then follow the prompts to share with your network in just a few clicks!
And remember, Momonomics is for everyone. You can bust myths and counter disinformation by spreading the facts about the economy with everyone you know! Easy, right?