10 Things We Learned at the March Town Hall, What Can We Do Now

The Town Hall had two purposes:

• Discuss consumer boycotts of companies who have discontinued their DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Programs) as well as review the importance of those programs.
• Build a coalition of organizations seeking to push back against cuts to the federal workforce, cuts to the social safety net and governmental overreach.

Here are the top 10 things by speakers at the What Can We Do Now Town Hall ( In no particular order of importance)

1. Russ Huxtable: Write sympathetic legislators like Russ and Clare Snyder Hall. Legislators need to hear from constituents. Even if you think your legislator is voting the “right way” on bills, still write them.  Don’t let the opposition be the most vocal.   Email is the most effective way to reach your legislators, but calls are also important.
2. Syl Woolford, local historian: The civil rights struggle provides today’s social justice activists a roadmap on how to beat violent, racist anti-democratic governments. The civil rights movement employed many tactics in their fight including boycotts, demonstrations, marches, legislative and legal actions. We should not be discouraged by the onslaught of attacks coming from the federal government. We have seen this before and we have triumphed.
3. Cheryl Siskin, Indivisible: Demonstrate with Indivisible Saturdays 9am -11am between OLD Landing Road and route 24. Over 335 people showed up on 3/22. Lets’ make that number grow.
4. Joe Lawson SDARJ: Boycott Target and other companies who have shut town DEI programs. Go to the web to learn more about which companies are being focused on for boycotts or selective buying campaigns. Support companies that are keeping DEI such as Costco. Go to the web to find which companies support DEI. There is a list of those companies on the SDARJ website in the news section.
5. Marjorie Belmont, SDARJ: We must support DEI. DEI benefits the entire society in a multitude of ways in fighting discrimination against people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, differently abled people and more. DEI deserves all of our support and cannot be allowed to be eliminated.
6. Patty Maloney, SOAH, Get involved with your local school board meetings and school board elections. Patty recently helped win a major victory in the Milford school district. One note:the Cape Henlopen school board election is on May 13, 2025. There is a concerted attempt to elect MAGA candidates to the school boards and institute policies that reflect Maga objectives. Patty also said, that all organizations need to work together. We need a community calendar of all the actions taking place.
7. Helen Salita, ACLU: Support ACLU legal initiatives with donations and volunteer calling. Go to ACLU.org for more information. It is important to know your rights to beat back ICE. We need to encourage Gov. Meyer not to coordinate State efforts with Federal efforts to harm immigrants, LGBTQ+ people or disclose personal information.  Sign ACLU Action Alerts.  ACLU will be starting phone banking soon – watch for that opportunity.  Meyer will be at the Lewes Library on April 4.  Be there and “bird dog” him on the issues.
8. David Mariner, Sussex Pride: Speak out in support of the Trans Refuge bill.  Tell Gov. Meyer that you support trans rights and ask him to reverse his position on trans girls participating in girls’ sports.  Encourage Gov. Meyer to support more funding for HIV prevention.  Let your legislators know that you oppose HB 55 that prevents health care for trans kids.  Be visible and speak out.
9. Heather Rion Starr, Unitarian Universalists: We need to work to insure accepting and loving relationships in our activist community. It is easy to any loosely knit group to fall into silos and criticism if we do not dedicate ourselves to creating a social change community of love and kindness. A strong community is exactly what is needed in this time as we work for change.
10. Audience comments: Local organizations fighting for social change in Southern Delaware need to create a local communications network for sharing information. Even if it is just sharing links to each other’s websites so that everyone can have a way of finding out what is going on, that would be better than the patchwork we have now. Indivisible plans to have a comprehensive list of upcoming events on their site SOAH has also proposed a meeting to work on this idea.
11. New developments: Attend one of the Hands-off Nation-wide demonstrations on Saturday April 5^th. This demonstration is likely to be massive, maybe one of the biggest in American history. Indivisible will sponsor a local (likely in Rehoboth Beach) Hands Off demonstration on April 5^th The time and place will be announced soon. Go to indivisible.org for updates. There will also be Hands Off demonstrations in Ocean city MD, Newark, DE, Salisbury, MD and Philadelphia. For more information or updates go to handsoff2025.com.