Photo courtesy of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Feeling anxious or alone and thinking about suicide are some of the signs that a Veteran may be in crisis. No matter what you are experiencing, there is support for getting your life back on track. A trained responder will answer your call, text, or chat and ask you a few questions. You can decide how much you want to share.

Veterans Crisis Line - Call If You Need Help

The Military Crisis Line is staffed by caring, qualified responders from VA. Many are Veterans themselves. They understand what Service members have been through and the challenges that members of the military and their loved ones face.

• In Europe call 00800 1273 8255 or DSN 118 *.  In Europe, toll-free service may not be available through all carriers or in all countries.
• In Korea call 0808 555 118 or DSN 118
• In Afghanistan call 00 1 800 273 8255 or DSN 111

Dial 1-800-273-8255 and press 1 to reach Veterans Crisis Line may work in some areas, dependent on location and phone carrier.

Dialing the local US Embassy and request a transfer to the Veterans Crisis Line

Online: Through Veterans Chat, 24/7. Veterans may chat online with a Veterans Crisis Line Responder; or, if preferring to speak on the phone, he or she may provide a phone number to the Veterans Crisis Line Chat Responder and a Veterans Crisis Line Phone Responder will call him or her directly.

Text (838255) It may work in some overseas areas but depends on the carrier and location.

For more information here: https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/ActiveDuty.aspx 

Primary season is almost at an end and there are 60 days until the midterm elections. There is even less time until the cutoff date for overseas voters to request their ballots. If you have not registered to vote/requested your ballot, now is the time. Go to Votefromabroad.org and do it today! 

If your state's primary has already occurred and you didn’t receive a ballot for that election, you probably not registered. There is still time to request a ballot for the general election in November. Every American can vote in this election so please request your ballot.  Democrats Abroad are the margin of victory in lots of race. Every vote counts!

If you are already registered, it doesn't hurt to check your registration at https://iwillvote.com/. This election is extremely important, don’t be disenfranchised.

Do you need information on the candidates running in your state's elections?  You can use Ballotpedia’s Sample Ballot Lookup Tool. All you need is your voting address and you can find out who’s running in the various elections. There are links to the candidates' website’s, information on ballot measures and more. If your state has not had it’s primary elections yet, you can get information on primary candidates there too.

As activists, we know how crucial the November 6th Mid-term elections are for our futures. Every glance at the news brings new outrage and feelings of despair. We also know that the best way to combat that helpless feeling is to do something to fight back.

But what can we do now? Well, you don’t have to lead the whole parade to be an activist! The most valuable work we can do right now is to reach out to each other! Democrats Abroad is making an extra push to have our members personally call fellow members and remind them to register to vote.

Everyone who signs up to phone bank is automatically entered to win. The top 4 call makers in September will receive a prize. Sign up today, help us win in the midterm election. You will be talking to your fellow Democrats, so most people will be happy to talk you. Phone banking it the most efficient way to get people to request a ballot. It's not cold calls. It's calling like-minded people. Many of them will miss the deadlines because they forget. Calling our members is the best way to ensure they request their ballots and vote.

It is not too late, we still have hundreds of calls to make to reach all DA Germany members! You can choose from the “DA Germany Non-Berlin” or the “DA Germany-Berlin” campaign in the DA CallHub and talk directly to other DA members reminding them, not only to register to vote and request their ballot but to join the local chapter or precinct next meeting and events.

DA uses an online system that lets you make no-cost calls from your computer. There is even an on-screen script for you to use. Please click below for a step-by-step guide on how to get started. Even 5 quick calls from each of us will go a long way in powering the blue wave that will transform Washington in November! Give it a try! Sign up for phone banking.

Note: You will need Google Chrome to use Callhub. Download it here.

If you have any questions please contact the international team at gotv@democratsabroad.org or
Beverly at DAG-GOTV@democratsabroad.org  or Katie at katiesolon@yahoo.com

Thanks for helping!

Happy Democrats Abroad Day!

Mark your calendars and help us celebrate: The first annual Democrats Abroad Day will take place around the world this Saturday, September 8!

Democrats Abroad Day is an annual celebration to show off your Democrats Abroad pride, wherever you are.

If your local chapter is hosting an event, we hope you’ll join. But to celebrate with as many of you as possible, and to tell the world that we represent the 9 million Americans overseas who are engaged and VOTE, we’re asking you to join our virtual party, too.

Want to help make the blue wave happen? Here are four things you can do in your home:

1. Remind your Democratic-leaning friends abroad and in America to vote in the midterm elections.
2. Share the three memes in this post on your social networks. If you belong to any online groups, share the meme with them too. In this election, everyone counts. 
3. Ask your stateside Alma Mater to help study abroad students Vote From Abroad. It’s easy to do and you can find all the information you need to do it here.
4. Sign up for Phone banking and do it. The best way to get people to vote is to call them and remind them to vote. It is not too late, we still have a few hundred calls to make to reach all DA Germany members! You can choose from the “DA Germany Non-Berlin” or the “DA Germany-Berlin” campaign in the DA CallHub and talk directly to other DA members reminding them, not only to register to vote and request their ballot but to join the local chapter or precinct next meeting and events.

• To log in to your Callhub account, go to https://callhub.io and click on "login" in the upper right corner. When you get to the next screen, enter your Username (example: DE-Beverly-Seebach) and your password. Note: You must use Google Chrome to phone bank.
  
• If you don't remember your password, just click on "forgot" in the corner of the password box and we'll email instructions how to set up a new password.

* * * * *

And please be sure to review the Updated Phone banking Training Materials for a full explanation of recent updates to the Phone banking system:

UPDATED GOTV Phone banking Introduction (June 2018).  Please review all, but especially new slides 17, 18 and 21-25

UPDATED 2018 Phone banking Do's and Don'ts (June 2018)

If you have any questions please contact the international team at gotv@democratsabroad.org or Beverly at DAG-GOTV@democratsabroad.org  or Katie at katiesolon@yahoo.com

There are 96 days until the midterm elections but there’s even less time until the cutoff date for overseas voters to request their ballots. If you have not registered to vote/requested your ballot, now is the time. Go to Votefromabroad.org and do it today! If you are already registered, it doesn't hurt to check your registration at https://iwillvote.com/. This election is extremely important, don’t get disenfranchised by Republican tricks. Also, if your state's primary has already occurred and you didn’t receive a ballot for that election, you might not be registered.

Need information on the candidates running in your state's elections?  You can use Ballotpedia’s Sample Ballot Lookup Tool. All you need is your voting address and you can find out who’s running in the various elections. There are links to the candidates' website’s, information on ballot measures and more. If your state has not had it’s primary elections yet, you can get information on primary candidates there too.

Greetings from Münsterland. My name is Matt LeMieux and for the past three years I have been helping Democrats Abroad build a precinct in the Münster/Osnabrück area. We started small back in 2016 during the Global Primary and today we are an active, diverse and engaging group. Our mostly Münster centered group holds monthly meetings (“First Saturday at the Münster Wochenmarkt”), meets regularly to discuss books ranging from “How Democracies Die” to “Hillbilly Elegy,” and celebrates American holidays (our next event is a Labor Day Picnic). Our group is ever expanding and it is rare that our meetings do not feature a new face or two. So if you have not yet joined us for a gathering, please do. All are welcome!

Now a bit about me. I was born and raised in Michigan, studied law at Michigan State University and was the Executive Director for the ACLU affiliate offices in Nebraska (1995-99) and Missouri (1999-2004). I moved to Germany in 2004, and I currently work for the foreign law programs at University of Münster and University of Osnabrück where I give lectures on American law.

For more information about our chapter, please feel free to drop me a line at DAG-muenster@democratsabroad.org.

My name Thorin Engeseth and I am the Hispanic Caucus leader for Germany. I was born on Halloween, 1990 in Michigan (my hometown Ada is the same as Betsy DeVos’s, my nemesis for decades), though I’ve spent time living in South Carolina, Oregon, Albania, Germany, Chile, and Ukraine. Michigan is the place that shaped me, I lived there the longest out of anywhere else, and I plan on returning so that I can help reshape the state’s future.

I currently live in Duisburg, where I’m a member of the Ruhrgebiet chapter. I came here in August and my wife in November of last year, mainly because as a DREAMer she was no longer safe, and we knew that we had to get somewhere where we can hone our strengths and acquire more tools for enacting change.

For the past nine years, I’ve been a full-time translator, working personally with a former President of Germany, two Minister Presidents, numerous governmental agencies, and several mayors. I have also translated for four United States governors, the President of Ghana, and the former Prime Minister of Albania. In addition, I work with Translators without Borders to provide language assistance to the homeless, and with an organization in Berlin that provides immigration and other official documents in the native languages of immigrants and refugees.

Democrats Abroad Germany will have stands and march in many pride events across Germany this year. If you are interested in marching with us in the parades or working at one of the stands contact: dag-lgbt@democratsabroad.org Come join us or just stop by and say hello. We need to stand together now more than ever.

Date and Location

08 July, Cologne (March and Stand)
14 July, Munich (March and Stand)
21 July, Leipzig (Stand)
28 July, Berlin (Stand)
28 July, Braunschweig (Stand)

28 July, Stuttgart (March)
04 August, Hamburg (Stand)
11 August, Mannheim (March and Stand)
25 August, Bremen (Stand)

Looking for great books to read this summer? Feed your brain while you catch some rays this summer with this assortment of great books that will be as provocative as they are entertaining.

1. The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Timothy Snyder

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Tim Duggan Books (April 3, 2018)
ISBN-10: 0525574468
ISBN-13: 978-0525574460

With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy seemed final. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. This faith was misplaced. Authoritarianism returned to Russia, as Putin found fascist ideas that could be used to justify rule by the wealthy. In the 2010s, it has spread from east to west, aided by Russian warfare in Ukraine and cyberwar in Europe and the United States.

Russia found allies among nationalists, oligarchs, and radicals everywhere, and its drive to dissolve Western institutions, states, and values found resonance within the West itself.  The rise of populism, the British vote against the EU, and the election of Donald Trump were all Russian goals, but their achievement reveals the vulnerability of Western societies.

In this forceful and unsparing work of contemporary history, based on vast research as well as personal reporting, Snyder goes beyond the headlines to expose the true nature of the threat to democracy and law. To understand the challenge is to see, and perhaps renew, the fundamental political virtues offered by tradition and demanded by the future. By revealing the stark choices before us--between equality or oligarchy, individuality or totality, truth and falsehood--Snyder restores our understanding of the basis of our way of life, offering a way forward in a time of terrible uncertainty.

Available formats: Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle, Audiobook