YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
I’m not a big joiner. If I see a crowd of people
heading in one direction, my inclination is to head in the other. On social
media, I’m more of a lurker. If I do post, I lean toward the positive and humorous.
Supporting my author friends is important to me, too. The last thing I ever
want to do is to add to the noise or the fear-mongering. We get enough of that
without my two cents.
This past week something changed. I recall a line in
the movie, NETWORK. You know the one. “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to
take this anymore.” Yeah. I felt kinda like that.
I needed to *do* something. For me, screaming into the
void hardly helps for longer than it takes the post to load and that’s not very
long.
So, I did a couple of things. The first was to find an
easy way to call my representatives. Hunting around for phone numbers or trying
to craft a succinct statement or voicemail was going to take more time than I
had. Plus, what is one measly phone call going to do?
I found a website and app called 5calls.org. It does
the work for you by summarizing the issues, providing talking points, and
listing your reps and phone numbers by zip code. Don’t see your pet issue? It’s
still helpful to find your reps.
It takes a little over five minutes to make my three
calls to my two senators and one rep. I’ve mostly left voicemails but spoke to
staffers a few of times too. Shy? Call after-hours to ensure you’ll get into
voicemail. Your call still counts!
I still needed to do more than phone calls. I live
close to my state’s capital and saw a nationwide call to march to your
statehouse. I had gone to a handful marches in the past and wanted to be a part
of whatever else was happening. The marches were to bring attention to the
opposition to Project 2025. When? On 2/5/25 of course!
The first thing I noticed was that information was
fragmented. There was no clear direction of who was organizing or where and
when to meet. Many posts talked about “false flag” or other misinformation to
discourage going. There are people smarter than I am about these things, so I
won’t comment, but the logic was off. It felt like an organization that didn’t
want a large showing of support was posting for a march that wasn’t going to
happen? Several friends urged me to be careful, but I went anyway.
And I’m glad I did.
First and foremost, democracy is about the support of
the people. (I know, DUH!) And this means visible and quantifiable support. Maya
Miller of the New York Times reported today that the
congressional phone system has been jammed with tens of millions of calls from
outraged constituents contacting their representatives. Alaska Senator Lisa
Murkowsky said the number of calls received by the senate jumped from 40 to
over 1600 per minute! And showing up at your reps office counts, too, as
well as marches at your statehouse. Even holding a sign on your town common can
make support visible.
And when support is visible, it’s harder for politicians
to hide when they try to push through unpopular actions.
Yes, Wednesday’s marches were disorganized. In large
part I believe this was because of the short notice from idea to delivery, but
the two groups – one through 50501 and the other through Indivisible.org –
found each other and the crowd grew to thousands. The mood of the crowd was
decidedly “game on.” It felt to me that the people there were committed to
being heard and knowing that the march was likely to be the first of many.
It was emotional. Some people covered their faces
completely. Perhaps they did so from the cold, but perhaps they did so out of concern
for future reprisals. Expressions of fear and determination creased the faces
of the people I could see. The signs ranged from the typical pithy and funny to
heartbreaking. By far, most were homemade with whatever tape, cardboard, glue,
markers, and whatever else folks could find in the back of their closets or
pilfered from their kids.
I poked my head up from my lurking and posted,
emailed, and chatted about suggested actions. One author said, “We are the
drops in the bucket. That usually implies an action is insignificant, but here
each drop helps fill the void.”
Find what works for you and do it.
Your voice matters.
