Some of the comments surrounding my post on Take to the Oars raised good questions (posted online and through email). One friend “had no idea you were such an activist.” I haven’t been, but it’s time. If you look at the long list I gave of important issues that are now in play with this recent election, I think we need to watch and work to influence things when they start to go in a negative direction. So activism becomes important. I’m not normally an activist, so I needed to do some homework. Activism. Thanks, Wikipedia.
Another comment said I sounded like a liberal. Hmm. I don’t wake up thinking I am, and I don’t see that when I look in the mirror (and the thought makes me laugh when I am listening to country music or cleaning guns), but it makes me think: If things are going very hard to the right and you’re a centrist, then pulling on the reins to go left makes sense. So I may sound a bit to the left. That’s okay just now, because there’s some crazy pulling hard to the right in Washington. Don’t worry—I focus mostly on facts and policies, so while it can be fun to laugh at people acting dumb (e.g., Trump tweets) it won’t do to let that distract from the underlying things that matter. Beauty might only be skin deep, but ugly can go to the bone.
So I have a proverbial oar, and I don’t know what to do with it. Or, rather, I don’t know all the things that I might do with it.
First, no matter who won among the candidates on your ballot, the winners are your representatives. (If you didn’t vote, be sure to do so next time—and every time you are able after that. Voting alone can fix shit.) Because I am unaffiliated—face it, there are idiots in every party—it may be easier for me to see my elected representatives as just that, rather than perhaps someone from the other side with whom I disagree. We need to stop treating this as a team sport and figure instead that we all have some knuckle-headed teammates. We’re stuck with each other, all on the same team, and need to get things done.
Second: How to effectively make your voice heard with your representatives? Vox recently ran a column on this, and it had some great advice from Emily Ellsworth, which I had seen zip by on Twitter. Some of her tweets were: “Don’t just write to your representatives. Call them—and go to town halls.” “But, the most effective thing is to actually call them on the phone. At their district (state) office. They have to talk to you there.” “We held town halls consistently that fewer than 50 people showed up for. And it was always the same people. So, shake it up.” Emily has expanded her viral tweetstorm into a short guide that I just bought, downloaded, and look forward to reading. Elsewhere, I read that one woman calls her representative every single day about reproductive rights (and damn me, I can’t find that link again). Oh, and tweets, Facebook posts, and emails may feel good, but they are not likely to prove effective.
That’s government, so third: There are also powerful institutions outside government. There are an increasing number of ways that people are constructively channeling their opposition to what they fear will come with the Trump administration. Barbara Kingsolver has a series of helpful suggestions (and so well written). Josh Barrow does, too. And Luigi Zingales points to parallels with the Berlusconi regime in Italy and how it was successfully opposed. Sarah Kendzior has a much darker view, and suggests ways to deal personally with what may come. One post that I particularly liked is from fellow Alaskan and ornithologist John Piatt, who advocates donating to “large, hard-hitting, 4-star-rated charitable organizations (see www.charitynavigator.org) that specialize in using the judicial system to defend important human-rights and environmental issues on a national scale.”
Finally, we’re powerful. Especially so if we all grab an oar.
Update 29 November: Yale professor Timothy Snyder has another great list of personal behavioral choices to make. And Emily Ellsworth has more here.
30 November: As an amateur, I knew I’d have a lot to learn. Since beginning to follow Emily Ellsworth on Twitter I’ve learned a ton. Here’s just a little:
https://www.flippable.org/about-us/
https://reactletter.com/
And here’s a good piece by a congressman: https://twitter.com/mic/status/809749017701785601
Wooden oars (Wikipedia)
Thanks for the practical suggestions. I’m looking for avenues with which to address the incoming administration. At the same time, I am currently distancing myself from Trump supporters and hardcore republicans. While they have the right to support their party of religious fundamentalists and science deniers, they are not entitled to civil discourse, or even reasonable discourse. They have, in fact, have voted against it.
Activism has become personal for me. One (of many) discords has been Trump mocking a disabled reporter. I have a daughter with special needs. What I see in his followers are people willing to publicly humiliate her. While they may claim they do not support this, they voted for it. And where actions and words diverge, it is the behavior that counts. No amount of rhetoric will reconcile or excuse it.