Joanne Slotnik discusses power and hope at Action Iron County event
By Jean Bjerke
Joanne Slotnik, cofounder of Salt Lake Indivisible, spoke to fifty people in Cedar City about “Ramping Up the Resistance in 2018” at an evening event March 8 at the Cedar City Library. Action Iron County was the sponsoring organization. Several in the audience wore red in observance of International Women’s Day.
Slotnik said we should be concerned about the future of our democracy because “we should all be treating each other decently,” and she does not see that from the present administration in Washington. Her remarks were received with enthusiasm by people who said they share her concern about “the erosion of democracy through the lack of common decency.” Many said they found her message motivating and inspiring because she spoke about ordinary citizens having power, and she said “that gives us hope.”
Cedar City’s respectful lecture-style presentation was a departure from thousands of protests held around the world on International Women’s Day, but it shared the same goal to “Press for Progress.”
“I think it’s great that there is this pocket of resistance in Cedar City and that it is peaceful and inclusive,” said Briget Eastep, one of the founders of Action Iron County, after the talk.
Slotnik, the speaker, is a highly respected Utah attorney with a background in education. She served as Assistant Attorney General for Utah and has been called “a true trailblazer of the legal community” for her work as executive director of the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission.
She talked about the phenomenal growth of the Indivisible movement, which originated in thoughts shared online through Google Docs that went viral and ultimately led to a grassroots network of thousands of groups with the goal “to enlist every American in imagining the government we need and working to put in place the innovations and reforms that will make that vision a reality.”
She recounted how she became co-founder of Salt Lake Indivisible almost by chance when she realized along with a friend.
“You have power,” Slotnik said. “You have friends. If you can get your friends together, you can do something.” She said the group feels good about making a contribution by keeping important issues in the public eye.
“We’re desperately trying to do something because we can’t be quiet,” she said.
Regarding how to “ramp up the resistance” in 2018, Slotnik emphasized voter registration efforts for the midterm elections, especially targeting so-called “millenials” (18–29 year olds) and women. She said millenials make up a significant percentage of the electorate, but in the last election, their voting rate in Utah was only half the national average. She asked the audience to get out their cell phones and showed them how to register to vote by sending the text message VOTERISE to 788683. She said this is a great way to get young people to register.
“My goal is to get us off this dangerous edge that our country is on and get back to some middle ground,” Slotnik said. She said people in a place like Cedar City have extra power when we speak to our legislators because we are not in the capitol.
“It is really important to empower ‘rural’ voices — in other words, people who don’t live on the Wasatch Front — because they are often ignored,” she said.
Two attendees who recently moved to Cedar City said they were happy to come to the presentation by Slotnik. Christopher Mendoza said it was great “to find a community in a place you didn’t expect to find it.”
“Being new to the community, it is nice to find like-minded people here,” Maria Martinez added.
Prior to introducing the speaker, several members of Action Iron County spoke about upcoming local events and activities planned by the group. Eastep summarized accomplishments of the last year, including several events as well as extensive letter writing, emails, postcards, and phone calls to legislators. Carrie Trenholm of Cedar City talked about the importance of voter registration and announced that voter registration materials were available at the meeting.
Tina Dickinson of Cedar City explained that Action Iron County is a completely nonpartisan group that will support moderate candidates of either party who are like-minded and who share the group’s values. Arlene Braithwaite of Cedar City encouraged attendees to sign a petition for “Better Boundaries” to end gerrymandering of congressional districts in Utah. Dorothy Uherka of Cedar City gave a brief legislative update and emphasized that contacting legislative representatives to voice our opinions makes a difference. Braithwaite also announced that the group is organizing a trip to Bears Ears later this spring “because we don’t want to talk about something we don’t know about.”
Action Iron County, an independent group formerly known as WMW Cedar City, was formed after last year’s Women’s March on Washington. The group has 260 members who “stand for inclusion, diversity, arts, science, public education, environment, democracy, women’s rights, and human rights.” In February 2017, the group organized a town hall meeting in Cedar City and a local March for Science in April in conjunction with the worldwide event, and it participated in the southern Utah rally for national monuments in May. This January, they participated in the Las Vegas “Power to the Polls” rally, also in conjunction with other national and international events.
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