We’re going to be honest… this week was hard.

When we sat down to write this email, we were ready to write all about recess, poke fun at Republicans, and get you pumped for 7 days of loud, bold action. We’re still going to do (some of) that, but we want to say something else first:

Our country is in a moral, political, democratic crisis.

Indivisible — and the thousands of groups across the country — was founded in reaction to the crisis of the election. And your work last year was in reaction to the crises repeatedly created by Trump and the GOP’s legislative agenda. But as each week passes, these crises compound on one another. At times, they feel insurmountable.

This week was one of the toughest weeks so far in the Trump era. 17 young people lost their lives in a horrific school shooting in Florida. And less than 24 hours later, Senate Republicans tried to use Dreamers as a bargaining chip for a mass deportation agenda written by a white supremacist. This all happened in just two days.

In the Trump era, it sometimes feels like our hearts grow heavier by the day. Trump and his enablers in Congress create real, deep trauma either through inaction or through attempting to advance harmful agendas. They refuse to pass laws to reduce gun violence, no matter how many lives are lost or how popular these bills are. They refuse to pass laws to create a more humane, common sense immigration system that protects Dreamers from deportation and keeps families together. They choose big donors and white supremacy (oftentimes big donors who are white supremacists!) over their constituents each and every day.

Republicans created this crisis. Period. End of story.

This is their strategy: a relentless assault on our values, our sanity, and our people. They’re hoping that we let cynicism take over. That we begin to opt-out. That we stop resisting. This has been their strategy long before Trump became president.

But it’s up to us not to let cynicism creep in and take over. We have to take the anger, the sorrow, the outrage and turn it to action… just like we did in the weeks and months after the election.

Next week is our opportunity to create a crisis for the Republicans.

Last year, the Indivisible movement turned outrage into action during February recess. You showed the world what’s possible when people show up to hold their members of Congress (MoCs) accountable. At town halls. At district offices. At public events. Then, over the course of 12 months, you ground the GOP’s legislative agenda to a halt and won groundbreaking elections from Alabama to Virginia and everywhere in between.

Next week, we can do it again. Recess is our opportunity to take back the narrative, tell our stories, and push our agenda and our people into the mainstream. Here’s what you can do:

1. Visit our all-inclusive recess resource at recess.indivisible.org to get prepared to face your MoCs and ask the hard questions they have avoided for the past year. Both the House and Senate are on recess from February 17 (today) to February 25.
2. Find a town hall near you and show up. Thanks to our friends at the Town Hall Project, we have all of next week’s halls up on our website right now.
3. If your MoC is hiding from you, don’t worry — we have a solution. Hold a (not so) empty chair town hall for them: show them that whether they show up or not, their constituents will always be there to ask the hard questions and hold them accountable. Here’s our toolkit for planning your own event. Once you’ve planned an event, register it on our map here and we’ll help promote it to people in your area!

From DACA to gun violence to their 2017 votes on the tax scam and healthcare, your MoCs need to hear from you this week. We have the opportunity to shine a light on the GOP’s cynicism and their obstructionism with our collective action.

And just like last year, we can breathe new hope into the progressive movement that will carry us through the hard days, weeks, and months of the Trump Administration… all the way through to the blue wave in November.