Got all your plans set for Saturday?
Working on your signs? Make sure you have some rain gear, though the forecast is improving. Keep your figures crossed!
NJ 11th for Change members will be everywhere! We are hearing that 1000+ folks have signed up for each of the “Hands Off!” rallies in Montclair, in Morristown, AND in Bridgewater!
And lots of you will be in NYC! All the details about how to meet up at the end of this newsletter. But first, we must TALK ABOUT CORY.
CORY BOOKER: “DISRUPTING BUSINESS AS USUAL”
After 72 days of enduring the chaos and malice of Trump’s second administration, causing a disruption was New Jersey senator Cory Booker’s plan on Monday evening when he walked onto the Senate floor.
And disrupt it he did. For 25 glorious hours, and 5 minutes.
Senator Booker delivered the longest speech ever on the Senate floor, beating Strom Thurmond’s 1957 record (a filibuster against the Civil Rights Act) by almost a full hour.
Strom, 1957. Booker, 2025.
How did he do it? Unlike Strom (who reportedly spent time reading the phone book aloud) or Ted Cruz (who read “Green Eggs & Ham”), Booker used his time to stay focused on policy, on the people, and on the moral responsibility of our government to do the right thing.
Hard to argue with those priorities.
Reading letters from constituents and diving deep into policy concerns for 25 hours straight wasn’t easy — but Cory Booker pulled it off. How? With the support of his dedicated staff, who spent the prior week helping him prepare. In the end, they compiled 1,164 pages of notes and references and constituent letters, in more than a dozen binders, covering topics from civil rights, Medicaid, and Social Security to public education, immigration, childcare, mental health, accessible healthcare, and protecting the farmers who feed this nation.
Cory Booker is famous for taking great selfies.
Here are a few shared by NJ 11th for Change members!
It was a marvel to watch him go, full of energy, conviction, and inspiration. Booker’s speech wasn’t a series of scripted set-pieces; he doesn’t need them. Periodic questions from his fellow senators would give him starting-points to riff on, and off he went.
What a powerful reminder those 25 hours were: a reminder that the people leading this country OUGHT to be smart, and knowledgeable, and prepared. They OUGHT to be statesmen and stateswomen. Not d*p-sh*ts who are making things up as they go along, counting on shock value, bluster, and a complicit media to cow everyone else into submission.
Cory Booker energy meets NJ 11th for Change energy!
All that effort — not to mention fasting from Friday through Tuesday night, to ensure Booker was good ’n’ dehydrated for the big day — certainly made a splash. The livestream of the senator’s Very Long Speech received over 350 million likes on Booker’s TikTok page — and that was just ONE of many streaming options people could use to cheer (or jeer) him in his herculean task.
Another unidentified streaming option logged over 400 million likes!
But some have asked, to what end?
Some cynics have suggested that Booker’s ambition is the only end, as supporters call for him to replace Chuck Schumer as the Senate Minority Leader, or even run for President in 2028.
Booker himself took a moment to reflect on the “why” of it all: “Maybe my ego got too caught up that if I stood here, maybe, maybe, just maybe, I could break this record of the man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand.”
More positively, we all hope that his actions influence his fellow legislators, emboldening Dem reps to be more courageous and conspicuous in their resistance, and creating pressure upon Republicans to vote against extremist MAGA policy when it really matters.
Republican reps — even in solid-red states — are already facing irate voters. The more, the better!
We do not know how this will all play out.
But what DO we know, right now?
We know that Cory Booker’s feat of JERSEY STRONG endurance was just the shot in the arm the grassroots movement needed. Booker issued a call to action, and we are ready to answer it.
“What is more needed for now is less people sitting on the sidelines, less people being witnesses of American history and more people determined to MAKE it, to make history. To call the the conscience of this nation…. When is it going to be enough? My voice is inadequate…. My efforts today are inadequate to stop what they’re trying to do. But WE THE PEOPLE are powerful. We are strong! We have changed history, we have bent the arc of the moral universe, and now is that moral moment again…. WE NEED YOU NOW…. If you love your neighbor, if you love your country, show your love.”
Listen to Booker’s call-to-action here.
“It’s our turn. What are we going to do?” Booker asked a few hours before breaking Thurmond’s record. “All of us have to answer that question.”
So we at NJ 11th for Change ask YOU: How will YOU use this moment of heightened public attention and energy that Booker has created?
Booker provided a conversation-starter for all of us. Our friends and neighbors have been scared for months; now they are inspired. Let’s use that momentum! Who can you invite to a rally this Saturday? How many friends can you stuff into your car, or treat to a train ticket? The more of us show up to march (and then call our reps, and then canvass!), the more voters we will swing, and the more our representatives in the House and Senate will be forced to HEAR OUR VOICES — and fear our collective voting power.
Statisticians have noted that it can take 3.5% of a population standing up in resistance to topple a dictator. With a population of 340 million people, that’s about 12 million of us. CAN WE DO IT? We can — if we show up. That is the POWER OF US. If we encourage our friends and neighbors — newly inspired by Cory Booker — to turn out, we CAN gather in the kind of crowds we need to reject Trump and Elon and Project 2025 and all the harm they are colluding to do to our country.
Cory Booker has deputized all of us to show up — with even a fraction of his energy! — to fight for our country's future. On Saturday, April 5, there are rallies and marches being held ALL OVER THE COUNTRY to tell Trump’s administration “HANDS OFF!” our country. Please, if you can, SHOW UP – and invite your friends and neighbors!
“Let’s get in good trouble,” Booker said at the end of his marathon speech. “My friend, madam president, I yield the floor.”
But in truth, he wasn’t yielding it to the Senate president. He was yielding it to US.
For locations statewide and nationwide, visit www.handsoff2025.org.
NYC rally-goers!
We’re so glad you will be joining NJ 11th for Change for the NYC Hands Off! Protest on April 5th. We will have two groups traveling together from NJ: one from the Clifton NJ Transit Train Station and one from the Harrison PATH. Our groups will meet up in the small park at the PATH Station on 33rd and 6th (see map below) and will then walk to Bryant Park.
OPTION ONE: CLIFTON TRAIN STATION
We will meet at the Clifton NJ Transit Train Station at 11:48. See timeline below:
11:30 - Meet at Clifton Train Station
11:48 - Train to NY Penn departs
12:36 - Arrive at NY Penn
12:45 - 12:50 - Meet up with NJ114C friends in park at 33rd & 6th (see map below)
12:50 - Walk to Bryant Park at join the protest
Mara will be the contact person for the Clifton train
OPTION TWO: HARRISON PATH TRAIN
We will meet on the platform at the Harrison PATH station at 11:30a to catch the train at 11:37a. We will transfer to the 33rd St. train at Journal Square. See timeline below.
11:30 - Meet up at Harrison PATH platform
11:37 - Train to Journal Square departs
11:48 - Arrive at Journal Square
11:50 OR 12:00 - Train to 33rd St. departs
12:22 OR 12:32 - Arrive at 33rd Street
12:30 - 12:50 - Meet up with NJ114C friends in park at 33rd & 6th (see map below)
12:50 - Walk to Bryant Park at join the protest
Judy will be the contact person for the Harrison train
OPTION THREE: MEET UP IN THE CITY
Meet up with us and we’ll march together. Get there however works best for you and meet NJ114C folks at the 33rd St. PATH train.
12:30 - 12:50 - Meet up with NJ114C friends in park at 33rd & 6th (see map)
12:50 - Walk to Bryant Park at join the protest
Judy will be the contact person
Rain or shine, we’ll see you there! Here are some ideas for posters if you need them. https://brandfolder.com/s/trktmftbhrcpqjrmcjgk5cxm
Events!
Get more information at the links in their titles and register there if an RSVP is needed!
Sundays, into the Future…
Montclair Protest: Standing Up to Trump & Musk!
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Corner of Bloomfield Avenue and Church Street in Montclair
Come from any/all surrounding communities. Come this Sunday, next Sunday, any Sunday, every Sunday for a peaceful protest of this outrageous regime.
Saturday, April 5, 2025
National Day of Action! HANDS OFF!
Check the website to sign up for news and updates on planned events in your area!
******UPDATED ADDRESS********
Bergen Community College Gymnasium
Pitkin Education Center 400 Paramus Road, Paramus, NJ 07652
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM (Doors open at 2:30 PM)
Monday, April 7, 2025
IONJ Statewide All Indivisibles Meeting
7:30 PM
Save the Date…
April 22, 2025: Join us and our friends from BlueWaveNJ at 7:00 pm for the next "Governing New Jersey" Speaker Series, this time a roundtable with the Democratic Candidates For Governor. Sign up here.
Don’t Forget!
