The following was featured in the January 6 issue of dcDIGEST. If you are a subscriber, check your email box for January 6 at 10am. If you aren’t a subscriber, use the link at the end of this article to receive monthly updates on local events and more.
SAYING GOODBYE TO 2025I want to congratulate everyone for making it through a very hard year and sticking together. It was rough and we could not have gotten through it without each other’s support. And I want to thank every one of you for every single thing you did in the resistance to tyranny and standing up for democracy. It is you all, defenders of justice and democracy, all of you, caring and daring to show up in whatever way you can, that always pulls each of us through the inevitable moments of fatigue and despair. We did a LOT in 2025! We trained local candidates, door knocked for them, raised money for their campaigns, mailed postcards and letters. We improved our voter turnout. We won elections! We maintained our Democratic seats and added some more. We protested! protested a lot –– regularly, peacefully and effectively –– making front page news several times! Our letters to the editor made regular appearances in local papers. We established DC Resisters, a bi-weekly zoom meetup of democracy defenders. We added Hancock and Kortright to our active town committees list. We grew our supporters list. We added BlueSky and TikTok to our social media outreach. We staffed open office hours two days a week at 98 Main Street, Delhi. We supported allied groups –– 50501 Movement, Open Catskills, Delaware County Pride, SURJ, and Western Catskills Indivisible. We stood proud as Democrats and patriots. AND WELCOME TO 2026… … where there’s so much more to do! The 2026 elections are crucial for our nation. Democrats absolutely must win control of Congress if we are to save our democracy. New York State offices are the pipeline to progress, and in order to be heard by our County Board of Supervisors, we must elect more Democrats willing to listen to that Board and to our Town Councils. In short, we need to win at every level. So let’s do it all again, even bigger and better this year! We double down on what worked well for us and improve what didn’t. We recruit, train and support more candidates, at every level –– local, state, and federal. We wisely navigate our way through some exciting primary elections. We build our team by reaching out to our neighbors and forming stronger relationships with our volunteers. We raise more funds for bigger, more visible actions. We stand up and speak out. We fight every attempt to weaken or break our Constitution. And again, we each do our singular part, adding our own particular skills, our “special sauce” (as Lisa Tait, our Communications Co-chair, dubs it) to a winning team effort. It is my hope we all have been able to rest and restore ourselves over the holidays. We’ll need vigor and resolve anew this year and I have faith in all of us to get done what needs to get done! Let’s do this! Together. — Kathleen Hayek, DCDC Chair |