CIVICS CON 2022 will be held June 10-11 in Norman, OK
Join us for CIVICS CON 2022 on June 10-11 at the Sarkeys Energy Center in Norman, OK. The event is free for all attendees, and breakfast and lunch will be provided both days.
The theme of this year's event is "GeoCivics: Designing Stronger Communities" - many sessions will address how geography and maps affect fair representation, where we live, how we vote, and other things. Here are some of the topics that the presenters will cover:
Mapping Greenwood: Using Data to Reveal Untold Stories
Communities and Redistricting
Drawing Your Own District
Migration and Oklahoma
Population: Oklahomans on the Move
Creating Brave Classroom Spaces
Classroom as Deep Democracy
Using the Geo-Inquiry Process to Understand Wildland Urban Interface
Power to the People: The Ins and Outs of Oklahoma's Ballot Initiative Process
Teach Broadly, Engage Locally: Using Project-Based Pedagogy to Encourage Civic Involvement
Using the Oklahoma Giant Map to Understand the Heavy Consequences of Light Pollution
While Civics Con is designed for all people, this year we partnered with several educational organizations to ensure that many sessions are created by educators and for educators. We know that civic engagement starts with civic education, and this is a great opportunity to foster that growth from the beginning.
Five Years Later...the Same Problems Are Back
Five years ago today, a group of strangers gathered in room 412-A of the Oklahoma State Capitol. Many had never been inside the building before and most weren’t sure what to expect. Some wore suits and seemed right at home in the halls of power; others were in jeans and t-shirts, glancing around furtively and wondering if they were in the right place.
The group shared a common purpose: to build relationships with their elected officials and with one another and, hopefully, do their part to nudge the state toward responsible policy decisions that would plug the state’s enormous $1.3 billion budget shortfall and prevent absolutely devastating cuts to core services.
The event was called “Let’s Fix This: A Day at the Capitol For Regular Folks,” and the description went like this:
This is a day for us regular folks who care about our state and our communities to take some time off of work and actually meet face-to-face with our state legislators about the state budget crisis. We've all been complaining about stuff on social media long enough; now let's have the conversations in person. The state may be broke, but we're not broken - there are a lot of totally reasonable, common-sense solutions for increasing revenue available. We just need to encourage our lawmakers toward them.
This isn't a rally...it's more of a group outing. If you've never been to the Capitol before, that's fine. I've never done this kind of thing before either, so we can hold hands or something. Maybe it'll be 50 of us that show up. Maybe it'll be 100 or 200. Or, heck, maybe this crazy idea of having face-to-face conversations with the men and women who are paid to represent us will catch fire and we'll have 1,000 people show up. That would be pretty amazing. (We can still all hold hands if you want.)
Remember: Decisions are made by people who show up. I hope you'll be one of them.
That $1.3 billion budget shortfall that sparked our first event in 2016 was caused, in large part, by the state legislature giving out tax cuts just as our state was starting to recover from the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
Five years later, here we are again—our economy is beginning to rebound from COVID-19, the federal government has pitched in some money to help out, and yet again our state legislators are talking about cutting taxes.
I mean, I get it—everybody likes a tax cut. But we’ve been down this road before and we know how it ends. If you want to know what Oklahoma would look like if we dramatically cut taxes, just look around—this is it, we’re living in it. Adjusted for inflation, the Oklahoma state budget is 25% smaller than it was 20 years ago. That means we spend 25% less on the things that matter most to Oklahomans—education, public health, roads, and public safety. Continuing to reduce our state revenue isn’t how we become a Top Ten State, especially not right now when we’re already in such a precarious position.
We can think of no better or more meaningful way to celebrate our fifth birthday than to ask you do the thing that started all this: Contact your state legislators, introduce yourself, and share with them your thoughts and feelings about the state budget. But don’t stop there—ask them about their thoughts, too. Find out why they hold that position, and even if you disagree, try to find common ground from which to work. Start building a relationship with them about this issue, and then keep it going throughout their term. That is how we fix this—by getting engaged and not giving up.
Besides, most of them—the good eggs, at least—care about this state just as much as you. But they need to hear from voices that aren’t inside the Capitol every day; they need to hear from the regular folks who live in their districts and are normally too busy or tired or jaded to take two minutes to send them an email or make a quick phone call. Doing that one little thing is something that tens of thousands of other people don’t do—and that means your voice is that much louder.
To make it super easy, head over to the Taxpayers for a Better Oklahoma website and they’ve got links to help you easily lookup and contact your state legislators (plus a ton more information about the current state of fiscal business for the state).
Thanks for reading to the end of this post and an even bigger THANK YOU for hanging with for our first five years of Let’s Fix This. I truly don’t have adequate words to express what this journey has been like and how much your support means to all of us.
We’re working on some stuff behind the scenes that I think you’re going to love; more details to come this summer. In the meantime: if you believe in building a better democracy, don’t mind hard work, and are looking for ways to dig in a little deeper in order to build long-term success, this is the place for you.
And, yes, your monetary donations are always appreciated. SO much.
Cheers,
Andy Moore
Executive Director
This is how we fix this
We have huge news.
Today, in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Oklahoma we helped launch People Not Politicians, a new organization that is entirely focused on ending gerrymandering in Oklahoma. [Read the press release here.]
If you’ve been listening to our Gerrymandering Oklahoma podcast series, you know that the term “gerrymandering” refers to the process where politicians draw voting districts for personal gain. And, as we’ve discussed, while the Supreme Court has ruled that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional, the issue of political gerrymandering continues to plague our country. People Not Politicians wants to eliminate gerrymandering of all types.
The problem with gerrymandering is simple: when politicians get to pick their own voters, they pick the ones they know will vote for them no matter what. That means they can pretty much do (or not do) whatever they want while they’re in office. And when you realize that…well, suddenly it makes a lot more sense why our state continues to be at the bottom of the list when it comes to education funding, health outcomes, life expectancy, crumbling bridges, etc. When politicians aren’t held accountable to voters, the darn wheels come off and the state kinda begin to fall apart.
Politicians have been gerrymandering for their personal gain forever. Consequently, they are the only ones who don’t want to change the law. In fact, both parties have attempted to create independent redistricting commissions in the past - but every time they tried, the other party blocked it. It seems clear that the legislature is not going to do the right thing on their own - and that’s why we, the people, have to do it ourselves.
Beat ‘em at the ballot
Today People Not Politicians filed a petition with the Secretary of State to place an initiative on the ballot that would create an independent redistricting commission - comprised of regular citizens, not politicians or their cronies - to be the ones who draw voting district lines. This is the best way to end gerrymandering - by removing politicians from the process altogether.
This commission will be fully open and transparent to public. We’ll have input into the process up front and we will know exactly how and why the lines are being drawn the way they are. This will result in a redistricting process that is not just transparent but more fair and more representative of the people of Oklahoma.
In order to get this issue on the ballot, People Not Politicians is going need your help. You can sign up on their website or simply text PEOPLE to 33339.
What about Let’s Fix This?
We’re not going anywhere. We will continue to do what we do best - keeping you informed on issues facing our state and what’s happening at the State Capitol, creating new and fun ways for you to connect with politics and engage with your elected officials, hosting watch parties for The West Wing, etc. And even more exciting than that - we’re growing! We have more folks coming on board to help us create an online civics education program, build out our events calendar, and more! And to do all those things, we need your support!
People Not Politicians is an entirely separate organization, but our passion is the same - to build a better democracy. Our hope is that this is the first of many ways in which we can be involved in helping do just that.
2019 Legislative Agenda
Let’s Fix This Releases Legislative Agenda
Non-partisan group focused on making change to Oklahoma’s voting laws
OKLAHOMA CITY (Jan. 29, 2019) — Let’s Fix This, a non-partisan nonprofit that educates and equips Oklahomans to actively engage with their government, is releasing its first legislative agenda for the first session of the 57th Oklahoma Legislature.
Executive Director Andy Moore said that after three years of helping folks meet their legislators and navigate the hallways of the capitol, it’s time for the organization to take a much larger stance on specific voter-focused issues.
“We’ve been hearing from Oklahomans from every side of the aisle that there’s a need to help fix the basic fabric of our democracy, starting with elections,’ Moore said. “We’re going to champion issues like automatic voter registration, making elections more accessible & convenient for voters, and even opening up primary elections so that every Oklahoman can vote for whichever candidate they support the most.”
The mission of Let’s Fix This has not changed. In fact, the organization will be more focused than ever – giving Oklahomans more information, helping them get more involved in the political process, and helping them become greater advocates for the causes they support.
“We’re not abandoning our base mission of helping Oklahomans become more involved in and aware of Oklahoma politics. That’s the heart of what we do,” Moore said. “But the need to get more voters to the polls, more folks involved in the election process in our state, is overwhelming. Let’s Fix This can be the catalyst.”
The agenda:
· Automatic voter registration
· Same day voter registration
· Expanded early voting days/times
· Consolidated election days
· Elimination of straight-party voting
· Open primaries
· Independent redistricting
· Subject the legislature to the Open Records Act
A more detailed explanation of each agenda item can be found on the Let’s Fix This website.
Let’s Fix This began three years ago with a simple idea from Moore that if enough people felt encouraged to visit with their legislators, some positive changes could occur. After creating a Facebook event one evening and inviting his friends, Moore witnessed interest in the event skyrocket to nearly 600 people.
“Let’s Fix This will continue to host our Capitol Days events each month during legislative session and provide advocacy information and training for organizations and individuals,” Moore said. “But if we’re going to really effect change in our state, Let’s Fix This must focus our efforts on specific actions to create change. Our 2019 legislative agenda is that action.”
To learn more about Let’s Fix It, check out the website at https://www.letsfixthisok.org/