the dictioncanary.

“Fiona had always been shot as a waif – tendrils of hair blowing (dressed in lingerie), out in some sort of lily field. She told me she wanted to chuck that scene and be a warrior woman in a suit of armor.”

In segment #1, former Congressional staffer Zahir Janmohamed provides the following tips for engaging with your congressperson:

1. Do not prioritize online petitions. Even if a petition has 10,000 signatures, most Congressional offices only count it as 1 piece of correspondence.

2. Snail mail gets noticed.

3. Hand-written notes get read. Reps themselves use handwritten notes to communicate high-priority messages to each other.

4. Calls do help. It is better to call a home office (in the Rep’s state) than their DC office.

5. Follow up on calls and letters. This one was new to me! If you sent a letter or called in, check back a few weeks later and ask if the Congressperson is going to respond.

6. Make the rep afraid of consequences. I’m not talking empty or violent threats - tell the Rep they have lost your vote or donation.

7. Choose specific issues and call or write about them on a regular basis. Start small with one thing that matters to you.

8. Make it personal. If you can, connect the issue to a personal example. Talk about your feelings and concerns from the heart, if you can. Facts or speaking from a script is fine if that’s what you have in you.

Online petitions frequently get thrown out, ignored and unopened, not because the member doesn’t care but because CREDO or MoveOn will send a whole carton of fat little envelopes indiscriminately, and there’s simply not a way to validate all of those signatures as real individual people invested in a cause, let alone as constituents. 

Snail mail gets noticed—but bear in mind that mail to congressional offices has to go through security screenings (thanks, anthrax scares), which add about two weeks onto delivery time. And that’s before you factor in the time it takes for staffers and interns to sort, read, catalog, and respond to the hundreds and hundreds of pieces of mail they receive. So, by all means, follow up on your letters—and you should!—but don’t take it personally or as a bad sign if it takes a while for your letter to be received and read and reacted to.

Calls absolutely help, and it’s totally fine to follow a script! The main point you want to get across is the short version of how you feel about an issue (sometimes offices will literally just keep a yes/no tally!), that you’re engaged with the discourse, and that you’re an actual constituent. Outside of leadership, most representatives are focused on representing their state or district, so if you don’t live/vote there, it’s often not worth calling to opine because they’re not your representative.

When you call, whatever you have to say, say it nicely and like a sane person! This should go without saying, but…well, unfortunately, as you probably already know, people. The person answering the phone is almost definitely a college intern or recently graduated staff assistant who’s getting paid in pocket change—someone who has feelings and good intentions but zero real say in how their member votes. They’re there to take your calls and help relay how you feel, so help them help you, and don’t be the one caller who sends them home crying. (Seriously, everyone who has done those jobs has had at least one of those. It’s awful, and it stays with you for years.)

Make sure you call the front office! I spent most of my time in the Senate covering the press line, and we frequently got constituent-services calls that then had to be relayed cross-country. It’s not faster to call the wrong number. We also frequently got calls from constituents with a blog or cable-access TV show who were members of the “media” but not the press; their messages frequently got lost in the shuffle because they really should’ve talked to the front office but refused to, and the press office isn’t equipped to deal with non-press stuff. 

Likewise, talking to individual legislative staffers can be helpful if you’re establishing yourself as an advocate or a lobbyist on an issue. But if you’re just trying to have your opinion logged, or to ask about a member’s views on an issue, call the front desk. Legislative staffers work on behalf of the member; they’re not generally authorized to develop public policy on the fly or to speak on the record. Be heard! Call the right people!

With Trump’s election and the threat of fascism, Twitter user Raphael Bob-Waksberg reminds us of Martin Niemöller’s words after WWII:

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.

gryffindor. oversized jumpers; roasting marshmallows over a crackling fire; laughing hysterically while pumpkin carving; the smell of cinnamon and baking; playing in puddles with bright gumboots; hair blowing wildly in the wind; cute beanies with pom poms; warm, rosy cheeks; burning your tongue when you sip a hot drink too quickly; early morning runs; worn, flannel shirts; pretending to be a dragon with clouds of warm breath in the cold air

hufflepuff. long, woollen socks; vanilla-scented candles; a warm blanket over your shoulders; jumping into a pile of autumn leaves; fluffy earmuffs; creamy hot chocolate with whipped cream on top; hanging fairylights everywhere; playing with your pet on a warm rug; thick mittens; a warm bath to relax after a long day; the crunching of leaves underfoot; capturing the image of dancing leaves with a vintage camera

ravenclaw. people-watching through foggy windows in cafés; reading a favourite book by candlelight; long, thick scarves; staying up late to play board games; wandering aimlessly under falling leaves; oversized, knitted cardigans; muted sunlight filtered through autumn leaves; late nights binging on netflix; a chilly wind freezing the tip of your nose; scribbling in notebooks under overcast skies; the natural silence of the woods; the dancing tendrils of steam from a mug of hot tea