This Week’s Actions: Building Something Better
August 16 2026
Happy Sunday!
Here’s an important thing to keep in mind: You don’t need to fix everything! In fact, attempting to fix everything is a pretty good recipe for burning yourself out.
There is a need for big, bold and direct action now. But so are the little, unglamarous, things we can all do, over and over. The whole idea is to show up, frequently, with other people, and keep doing what you can.
Sometimes “showing up” could be as simple as meeting your neighbour. Greeting others outside. Learning someone’s name. Checking on someone who lives down the street. Allowing kids to play with neighbours’ children.
We can all play our part and take our actions according to our ability, resources and time.
The Actions
📞 Call your Senator and House Rep about the national parks grift (5 min) $323 million in park funds got rerouted to White House “beautification” projects this year, a nearly 5,000% jump from 2024, while Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon are taking real cuts. Script: “I’m a constituent from [zip]. I’m furious that $323 million meant for our national parks is funding vanity projects in DC while Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon get cut. Protect our public lands.” Find your Senator · Find your Rep
📝 Tell your Rep to sign the Dream and Promise discharge petition, HR 1598 (2 min) Why: This forces a House floor vote on a path to citizenship for DACA recipients and TPS holders, a vote that leadership has otherwise refused to schedule. Add it to the same call above.
✉️ Contact Compliant Technologies about ICE’s shock gloves (5 min) DHS is planning to spend up to $20 million on electric shock gloves from this Kentucky company for use in ICE arrests. I couldn’t verify a working contact form URL for them, so search “Compliant Technologies contact” or reach them through their website directly before publishing this. Keep it simple: say you know what the gloves are for and you want them to know it.
📊 Look up your Rep’s actual voting record (5 min) The Accountability Scorecard tracks how your House member voted on key bills and where their campaign money comes from. If you’re focused on Israel/Palestine specifically, A New Policy’s lookup tool does the same for that issue and makes it easy to contact them directly.
The data center fight is a real, working template right now.
After Monterey Park passed the country’s first permanent voter-approved data center ban, 88% of the vote, 10,321 to 1,362, opposition followed a wave of 142 coordinated nationwide data center protests earlier this summer. Southern California opposition has now shifted into targeted municipal action this week.
Virtual Town Hall Mobilizations: digital coordinate-and-protest workshops targeting the Inland Empire and San Gabriel Valley peripheries specifically, using Monterey Park’s 86%-margin win as the organizing template. I couldn’t find a single named organizer or registration link tied to this specific effort, check Mobilize.us or Indivisible’s chapter finder for Inland Empire and San Gabriel Valley chapters currently running these.
Utility Bill Rallies: grassroots environmental groups are combining data center pushback with direct protest against the newly approved Southern California water rate increases hitting LA and Orange County households. The rate increase itself is real and verified, MWD approved 8.5% increases for both 2025 and 2026, plus a property tax assessment hike. I couldn’t find a specific named rally or organizer link for the utility-bill protest angle, same recommendation, check Mobilize.us for current listings.
The playbook: if a data center, warehouse, or similar project is proposed near you, force it onto a ballot rather than settling for a moratorium, and connect it explicitly to utility costs residents are already angry about.
Happening on the ground in LA:
Downtown LA federal buildings: ongoing flash demonstrations outside immigration processing centers. ICE Field Office/Federal Building: 300 N Los Angeles St, LA 90012 (map). Edward R. Roybal Federal Building & Courthouse: 255 E Temple St, LA 90012 (map).
Long Beach: community defense and tracking workshop, Saturday August 22, Trademark Brewing. I could not find a public event page or organizer link for this one.
Burbank: civic demonstration on human rights and social protections, Monday August 17, Abraham Lincoln Park. Same, no public listing I could verify.
Confirm times and details directly with organizers before showing up, and for Long Beach and Burbank specifically, I’d search Eventbrite or the organizing group’s Instagram directly since I genuinely couldn’t find those two anywhere to link.
Extra credit!
🤝 Join a Mutual aid: give people what they need directly, no gatekeeping.
Join a local mutual aid group distributing food, meds, or emergency funds
Check on neighbors who are isolated, elderly, or afraid to leave the house
Share rides, groceries, childcare, or cash directly, no conditions attached
Help coordinate rapid-response support for immigrants, trans people, and queer youth being targeted right now Why: institutions abandon people constantly. This is what actually catches them when that happens.
If you’ve been connecting the dots alone and wondering why nobody else is talking about it, you’re not alone. There’s a whole room of us.
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Thank you for being here. 🔺 Aalia