Non-Voters Anonymous PSA features Darren Criss, Randall Park and Kumail Nanjiani

SCREEN CAPTURE / NRDC

A scene from the turn-out-the-vote PSA, 

LEADING UP TO THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS,  there's been a lot being written about the Asian American and Pacific Islander vote and how influential it can be in key Congressional districts and states. 

"Voting is the most powerful way to have a voice in the future of your community,” said Rhea Suh, President of the National Resource Defense Council. “We want to show people how easy it is to register to vote and motivate them to exercise their right on November 6th. It’s never too late to be a first-time voter.”

Perhaps it's no coincidence that one of the first PSAs about voter registration included  three Asian Americans: Randall Park, Kumail Nanjiani and Darren Criss, because Asian Americans also have the reputation for not showing up at the polling stations. The AAPI community has the poorest turnout among voters.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is teaming up with Funny Or Die, Park, Nanjiani and Criss along with Mandy Moore and Billy Eichner for the latest iteration of their “Glam Up The Midterms!” campaign. Together, they are releasing a new video dispelling commonly used excuses by nonvoters. The campaign will make it easy to register to vote, find the right polling site and pledge to vote in the upcoming election.

“There's nothing more important right now than encouraging young people to vote in the Midterm Election on Nov 6th,” said Billy Eichner. “This is without a doubt the most important election of our time. That's why I started the Glam Up the Midterms campaign with Funny or Die. I'm so grateful to NRDC for partnering with us and to Mandy Moore, Kumail Nanjiani, Darren Criss and Randall Park for joining me in our latest Glam Up video."

(Watch the PSA vdeo, below.)

To motivate participation in the midterm elections, from now until November, NRDC and Funny Or Die will engage the public through online video and social media. A recently released poll from the Public Religion Research Institute and the Atlanticshowed that at this stage in the 2018 election cycle, half (50%) of Americans report that they are absolutely certain to vote in the upcoming midterm election. 

NRDC was founded in 1970 by a group of law students and attorneys at the forefront of the environmental movement. Today's leadership team and board of trustees makes sure the organization continues to work to ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities.

Learn more about NRDC's efforts to get out the vote here: www.nrdc.org/vote.For more information about Funny Or Die’s ‘Glam Up the Midterms visit: http://glamupthemidterms.com/

To register to vote, go to www.nrdc.org/vote2018
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People's Climate March: Why we are marching

ON THE 100th Day of the Trump Administration, tens of thousands of people will be in the streets of Washington D.C. to show the world and our leaders that we will resist attacks on our people, our communities and our planet.

Organizers announced the People's Climant March will ‘literally’ surround the White House as it winds its way through the streets to the Washington Monument in Washington, DC on Saturday, April 29th

Tens of thousands are expected to converge on Washington, DC from virtually every state in the country. In addition, more than 250 sister marches are also planned across the country and around the world.

“At 2 p.m. on April 29th, tens of thousands of people will encircle the White House in Washington D.C. to directly confront Donald Trump and challenge those who are pursuing a right-wing agenda that destroys our environment while favoring corporations and the 1 percent over workers and communities,” said Paul Getsos, National Coordinator for the Peoples Climate Movement.

“This administration continues waging attacks on immigrants, Muslims, people of color and LGBTQI people everyday. This moment will be the highlight of a day that will begin with a march leading from the Capital to Washington Monument.”

"We will come together from across the United States to strengthen our movement. We will demonstrate our power and resistance at the gates of the White House. We will bring our solutions to the climate crisis, the problems that affect our communities and the threats to peace to our leaders in Congress to demand action", say the organizers in a press release.

Among the goals of the marchers: 

• Advance solutions to the climate crisis rooted in racial, social and economic justice, and committed to protecting front-line communities and workers. 
• Protect our right to clean air, water, land, healthy communities and a world at peace. 
• Immediately stop attacks on immigrants, communities of color, indigenous and tribal people and lands and workers. 
• Ensure public funds and investments create good paying jobs that provide a family-sustaining wage and benefits and preserve workers’ rights, including the right to unionize. 
• Fund investments in our communities, people and environment to transition to a new clean and renewable energy economy that works for all, not an economy that feeds the machinery of war. 
• Protect our basic rights to a free press, protest and free speech. 

The Peoples Climate March will near begin the Capitol, travel up Pennsylvania Avenue, and then surround the entire White House Grounds from 15th Street in the East to 17th Street in the West, and Pennsylvania Avenue in the North to Constitution Avenue in the South. The march will close with a post march rally, concert and gathering at the Washington Monument.

Trump has vowed to undo the progress this country has already made in cutting the pollution that contributes to climate change. In just his first few months, he has take executive action to reverse measures that would cut pollution from cars and power plants. And he has threatened to withdraw from the international Paris Agreement on climate change, sending precisely the wrong signal to the rest of the world—that saving our planet from devastation is somehow optional.

Trump has also made no secret of his wish to roll back or outright eliminate many of the federal protections that are crucial to ensuring public health. After appointing a vocal climate change denier and friend of the fossil fuel industry to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, the president proposed gutting that agency's budget by nearly one third: a one-two punch cynically designed to lessen the EPA's ability to do its job of enforcing our existing environmental laws.
"Trump may be ready to throw in the towel in the fight for our children’s future, but the rest of us are not. And we won’t let him do it," said Rhea Suh, president of the National Resources Defense Council in an article in Self. "On Saturday, we're going to Washington to let our voices be heard. There's absolutely no way that we'll fail to get the president's attention."

• For more details about the march in Washington DC, click here.
• To find the sister marches across the country and the world, click here.

SAVE THE DATE: People's Climate March, April 29

THE PEOPLES' CLIMATE MARCH that is occurring this Saturday, April 29, is not the first time the march has been held.

The first march in 2014 was staged in New York City and attracted 400,000 people. It has grown each year since.

This year, in the context of the Trump Administration’s climate change denying and a Congress controlled by the right-wing and the influence of the oil industry has grown even more than in the past. Trump appointed the CEO of Exxon, Rex Tillerson, as Secretary of State, and Scott Pruitt, a climate denier, heads the Environmental Protection Agency, which he has sued over a dozen times. it is clear we all must both protect the gains made in recent years, even if those have been limited gains, while we articulate and demand initiatives to move our nation to a new, clean energy economy.

RELATED:

• Earth Day more urgent this year 
• AAPI environmentalists taking part in climate march
• List of the threatened 24 national monuments

"We won’t surrender our children’s future to fossil fuel profits without a fight," said Rhea Suh, National Resources Defense Council president.

This is a moment to bring the range of progressive social change movements together, say the organizers. Pushing back against the Trump agenda and at the same time pushing forward on our vision of a clean, safe world where the rights of all people are protected and expanded means we all must work together.

The main march will be in Washington D.C., Click here for details.

Sister marches will be held throughout the United States and the rest of the globe. To find a People's Climate March near you, click here.

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