#actionfriday

This Saturday is Earth Day and people across the country will be gathering for the March for Science. Inspired by the Women’s March, the March for Science is an opportunity for everyone concerned about the current administration’s science policy to come together. If you object to budget cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the possible US exit from the Paris Agreement, having Rick Perry as Energy Secretary, or any other anti-science policy, use your Saturday to attend the March for Science.

* Check out the main website for mission, goals, and logistics.

* The main march is in DC (on the Mall) but there are HUNDREDS of satellite marches across the country and world. 

* Organizers are asking people to RSVP in order to get a count of the marchers.

* There is an option to join a “virtual march” - select the DC march or your local march and you will have the option to attend virtually via live stream.

“ Be sure to follow up - post about the march with the hashtag #ScienceMarch and call your reps about the issues you hear about.

Hope to see a great turnout this weekend!

I have a creative practice that I’ve been neglecting this year. I’ve been so busy working to incorporate direct political action into my life that I’ve stopped practicing my craft and putting it into the world. I have some time off of work this coming week and I want to spend it reinvesting in my creative life. Creative people might feel guilty about putting precious time and energy into a practice that seems like it’s just for them. But civilizations need art and music and poetry, as a way to illuminate the present moment and a way to escape it. This week I encourage you to use your creative muscle and make a piece of art.

There are a few ways that creative practice can be a political act:

* Art can be a direct form of political action. From protest signs to personal essays, there are many avenues to channel your creation towards a political purpose.

* If you’re looking for a venue to place political art, check out these politically-oriented literary magazines (some will also take visual art submissions).

* If your work doesn’t have political themes and you are uncomfortable incorporating them, it can still be used to do good. You can sell your work and donate the proceeds to charity. You can donate your work to a charitable organization. If you’re a knitter, for instance, there are lots of organizations who would love your work.

* Art - including visual art, writing, music, etc. - is an important vehicle for the representation of a variety of voices. Stories have an enormous effect on how we see ourselves. Even if your work isn’t specifically political, representing people of diverse backgrounds is in itself a political act.

* Creative practice is often an act of self-care. To keep our spirits up during our fight for change, we need to take care of ourselves and do what we enjoy so we don’t burn our.

* Think about your artistic community - is there a way to make it more inclusive? Can you set up a women’s artist drink and draw night? Can you open your writers group to a new community? Can you make an effort to include diverse voices in your poetry readings or gallery shows? Creative practice is often community practice, and there’s always room for us to enhance that community.

* Here are a few other musings on creative practice in times of social struggle and change - you might find them helpful in reconciling political action and creative practice: Emotion, Activism, and the Creative Arts No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear Learning in War Time Examples of the connection between art and politics

This past week Congress has been on recess, and many representatives have held town halls in their home states. Town halls are public meetings between representatives and their constituents, and are often spaces of open dialogue, debate, and protest. The town halls that took place this week had great turnout - passionate constituents voiced their concerns and there was a lot of press around these events. While the recess is coming to an end, there are still many town hall and office hours events coming up in the next few days. I encourage you to attend a town hall for your representative, or call on them to hold one.

ATTENDING A TOWN HALL

* The first step is to find an event near you. There are lots of tools for this - the most comprehensive one I’ve found is this Google spreadsheet, which lists events across the country, including town halls, office hours, and open conference calls, for the next few months. You can also sign up to get email alerts from your representatives’ websites.

* Prepare your question(s) in advance. Just as when you call your reps, having a script is very helpful. Phrase your questions around actions, e.g. “What will you do legislatively to solve ____?” or around voting decisions, e.g. “Why did you vote against ____ when it would have ____?” Keep questions concise, but include a personal connection or story if you have one and feel comfortable. Personally moving questions are often the ones that make waves in the media. 

* To ask your question at the town hall, raise your hand immediately and keep it up, keeping a friendly expression. If you get a chance to speak. don’t let your rep dodge your question - keep hold of the microphone until they answer.

* Applaud when your fellow constituents ask good questions or make good arguments.

* Record the town hall with your phone. Afterward, share it on social media and tweet at reporters with the best clips. Tag your reps in your posts. The Indivisible guide has more advice on attending town halls.

WHEN YOUR REP IS MIA

With news of tense and confrontational town halls, many Republican representatives have been avoiding meeting with constituents. What should you do if your representative does not have any upcoming public events?

* Have one without them. Many groups are organizing town halls and inviting their representatives. When the reps decline the invitation, the event is held without them. The Town Hall Project lists these “empty chair” town halls, or you can try Googling “empty chair town hall [YOUR CITY].” If you can’t find one, consider organizing your own!

* Call on your representatives to hold town halls. We are getting very good at phone calls, so if your representative won’t come to your district, give them a call. Here’s the script I used:

This weekend I will be hosting one of the Swing Left House Parties to drum up community support for progressive candidates in the midterm elections. This is a first for me, and as I’ve been navigating the process I thought I’d share what I’ve learned with you. I encourage everyone to make a plan this week to host a party or meeting for a cause you care about.

* First, determine the cause you plan on supporting, and the purpose of the meeting. This could be as simple as gathering a few friends at a coffeeshop and calling your reps about an upcoming bill, or hosting some acquaintances for a sign-making party before a protest. The meeting should have a definable purpose - while it’s great for us to vent our feelings with like-minded people, the idea behind this is to organize people into action.

* Determine the scale and location of your event. How many people can you accommodate at home? Would it work better to host it somewhere public? Are you comfortable inviting strangers or having invited guests bring friends?

* See if you can get hooked up with a larger organizing body. I’m connecting my event to Swing Left, but there are lots of options for this. Indivisible is a good option for making a larger connection. This is helpful because larger groups can supply you with an agenda, talking points, and other resources for your meeting (including, in some cases, the attendees). 

* Speaking of an agenda, this is a crucial part of your meeting. A meeting agenda will help you feel organized and confident as you lead the meeting. It will also help keep you on schedule.

* Help people get to know each other. Don’t skip over introductions and personal stories - these help us feel connected and motivated to act. Introduce people you know to one another, break people into pairs to chat, or go round robin and have people explain why they chose to attend the meeting. Building a sense of community is an important part of political organizing.

* Create an inviting atmosphere. Provide food and drinks if possible, or ask people to participate in a pot luck. Play some music, set up chairs, and make it a social event in addition to a political one.

* Use social media tools or organizational tools like Action Network to invite guests or find events.

It’s been a tough week for many of us, who have found our fears about the new administration confirmed. I know that I’ve felt overwhelmed, downtrodden, and discouraged many times in the past week. But tomorrow I’m going to volunteer training for an organization I care a lot about. I’m new to volunteering, as I’m new to a lot of activism. But in this national climate it’s become a necessity to get more involved in my community. It’s also been rewarding and healing for me personally. In addition to helping my community, volunteering helps me by forcing my to shut down my screens, make connections with new people, and see my direct impact on the world around me. So this week I encourage you to do some research, make a commitment, and reach out to an organization to volunteer.

* First, assess your availability. Determine how many hours you can commit in a week or month, and what days and times you have free. Determine the number of months you will be able to volunteer at one location. This information will be handy when you are seeking opportunities and connecting with volunteer coordinators.

* Consider what kind of organization you’d like to volunteer for. What issue concerns you the most? Which excites you the most? Women’s rights, immigration assistance, LGBTQ issues, environmental concerns? Look for organizations that align with your values and passions. Don’t be afraid to pick one thing. I’ve hesitated in the past because it’s been hard to choose one issue as the Most Important to me. That doesn’t help anyone. Choose something that interests you and dive in. If enough of us do that we’ll cover a lot of ground.

* Think about what you can offer. Do you have any special skills? Most of you reading this are social media savvy. How many of you knit? Can you program? Are you good with kids? Can you cook? Are you a good public speaker or good at organizing files or good at writing? Play to your strengths. Most importantly, choose something you enjoy. This will keep you committed.

* Do some research. A fantastic source for finding volunteer opportunities is Volunteer Match. You can filter by location, cause, and date. This is an incredible resource that was written a few years ago but has a lot of sound advice and links to different ongoing volunteer opportunities sorted by cause. I also recommend that you talk with some friends - I found my volunteer position by asking a very involved friend if she had any recommendations.

* Actually apply. It’s easy enough to do research, poke around a bit, and wander off without actually applying to anything. I am guilty of this myself. Once you send in an application or make a call, you are much more likely to follow through. Remember that it doesn’t have to be the perfect fit, the perfect organization, or the perfect cause. It’s volunteering - if you don’t like it you can find something else. Find an application, fill out a form, give your email, and submit it.

* Give it a chance. It takes time to warm up to something new. Volunteering is often a big commitment (although there are drop-in and occasional volunteer opportunities too!) Organizations rely on consistent volunteers. Give it some time to pan out, and if it doesn’t work for you don’t be afraid to try something else.

Quick link roundup of some national organizations that take volunteers (be sure to look at your local organizations too!):

This post is coming a little early because I’m calling on you to act tomorrow. February 17th has been chosen for a general strike.  The linked article gives a little information on the purpose of strikes and some examples of their success. In a nutshell, strikes demonstrate the economic power of a group of protesters. They show what happens to society when a group of people refuse to offer their services. Strikes are a way of drawing attention to causes and displaying power.

Not everyone is able to participate in strikes, for lots of reasons. Hourly workers may not be able to spare the day of income. Teachers may feel it’s more important to go to work and support their students. Health care professionals may feel the same about their patients. But there are lots of ways to support a strike, and I encourage you to do some today:

* Stay home from work or school (if possible). Call in sick or work with your supervisor to take time off. This is the main action of the strike.

* Decline to buy anything. This is another way of demonstrating the economic power of protesters. If you can’t skip work or school it’s a great way to still participate.

* Use your lunch break or off time to call your representatives, post on social media, or otherwise support the strike.

* Attend a rally or demonstration in your home town. This article lists some activities across the country. The general strike website also offers a search tool for events. You can participate in these events even if you’re not skipping work.

This week has shown us the mixed results of activism. On the one hand, the efforts of groups like the ACLU, with help from a massive financial boost and public outcry, have suspended the travel and immigration ban mentioned in last week’s post. Meanwhile, despite dedicated phone call protests, several members of the new cabinet have been confirmed, including the grossly unqualified and hotly contested Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. It can be very discouraging to have our elected officials ignore our voices. It has, in the past week, occasionally made me feel helpless and hopeless. So this week I encourage you to look forward to the 2018 midterm elections, when we will all work to elect representatives who listen to us.

WHY MIDTERMS?

Midterm elections have significant influence on the direction of the country. We are currently working with a GOP-controlled presidency, Senate, and House of Representatives. Flipping control for even one (House of Representatives being the most likely) would help to put the brakes on the current administration. Unfortunately, voter turnout dramatically drops between presidential races and midterm elections. Democrats are notoriously bad at showing up for non-presidential elections. As Obama said in 2014, “Democrats have a congenital defect when it comes to our politics, and that is we like voting during presidential years and during the midterms we don’t vote.” But if we can confront this, we have a shot at flipping some seats. Since 1842, the sitting president’s party has lost seats in 41 out of 44 midterm elections. Let’s make that 42.

WHY NOW?

It may seem early to start thinking about midterms - many of us are still reeling from over a year of election coverage, and November 6, 2018 seems far away. But there are several reasons to get started early:

* Early campaign support gives candidates some cash to start out on the right foot. Campaigns are expensive and it really helps to have some money in hand at the start.

* Focusing on state elections this year will help with issues like redistricting and voter enfranchisement. This will make a big difference in how things go in 2018.

* Starting this conversation now puts the midterms in people’s minds, and could help us boost voter turnout.

WHAT DO WE DO?

* There are two groups I recommend joining to kickstart your midterm involvement:

Flippable. This group is focused on key state races that will pave the way for a more progressive federal government. As mentioned above, Republican trifecta states (which have a Republican Governor, Senate, and House) have enormous control over gerrymandering and voter suppression. Breaking up these trifectas will help curb these undemocratic practices.

Swing Left. Swing Left helps to identify your nearest swing district for the House of Representatives. In these 52 districts, the last election was won by 15% of the vote or less. Their kickoff call is this Sunday, 9:00PM EST. You can RSVP here.

* The 2018 Senate map is not very friendly to Democrats, but there are 9 Republican Senators up for reelection. If you live in one of these states, start thinking about how to get involved in the election:

Alabama: Luther Strange Arizona: Jeff Flake Mississippi: Roger Wicker Nebraska: Deb Fischer Nevada: Dean Heller Tennessee: Bob Corker Texas: Ted Cruz Utah: Orrin Hatch Wyoming: John Barrasso

Unless you have been taking a serious news and social media detox, you’ve heard about the executive order that bans travel from 7 primarily Muslim countries for 90 days, and refugee admission for 120 days. There has been enormous outcry about this executive order, with many people (including myself) perceiving it as a de facto Muslim ban. If you feel as I do that this order is unethical, unconstitutional, and morally reprehensible, here are some resources for you to fight back.

GET EDUCATED

The first step in pushing back on this executive order is to understand it:

* Here is the order itself - it’s dense, but it’s good to look at the actual source * Here is a CNN overview that breaks down the facts of the executive order * This BBC overview explains who is affected by the ban and why people are critical of it

CALL YOUR REPS

Yes, it’s another chance to get cozy with your elected officials’ staff. The Shy Person’s Guide to Calling Representatives is here for you if you need it.

* First determine where your Senator stands on the issue. Here is a google doc that compiles Senators’ statements about the ban. This list from Vox only includes Republicans, but it has House reps in addition to senators.

* If your representative has issued a statement in opposition, give them a call to thank them. Here is a quick script:

Hello, I am a constituent in [CITY] calling to thank Senator/Representative [NAME] for opposing the travel and immigration ban. I appreciate that the senator/representative is is representing the interests of all of their constituents. I hope that going forward they continue to speak out about unconstitutional and unethical presidential actions.

Feel free to add a request for your representative - perhaps asking them to introduce or support legislation in opposition to the ban.

* If your representative has issued a statement in support, call them to express your disapproval. Here is a quick script:

Hello, I am a constituent in [CITY] calling about a concern I have. I was disappointed to see that Senator/Representative [NAME] had issued a statement of support for the travel and immigration ban. I believe that this executive order is unconstitutional and does not represent American values. I urge the senator/representative to reconsider their statement in support of the ban.

* If your representative has not issued a statement, call them to urge them to do so. Here is a quick script:

Hello, I am a constituent in [CITY] calling about a concern I have. I was disappointed to see that Senator/Representative [NAME] had not issued a statement in regard to the travel and immigration ban. I believe that this executive order is unconstitutional and does not represent American values. I urge the senator/representative to issue a statement to that effect and support legislation that opposes the ban.

WHERE TO DONATE

If you have some spare cash, this is a fantastic time to donate. The ACLU has been on the forefront of the legal fight against the executive order, and they are a wonderful place to donate. They have, however, seen a record spike in donations over the past week, and there are other organization that need support. Consider a few options and throw what you can their way:

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees National Immigration Law Center International Rescue Committee Council on American-Islamic Relations International Refugee Assistance Project

Also consider local organizations that are assisting refugees and immigrants in your community. Your money has the potential to go further in smaller organizations that don’t have the resources for nationwide campaigns.

FIND A PROTEST

The national outcry over this executive order has taken the form of dozens of protests across the country. Protests are a great way of rallying support, expressing disapproval, and showing the world at large that we do not support the actions of the president. Here is an extensive list of protests across the country. Many have already happened, but there are some today and over this weekend. I have used Facebook events to find most of the protests I’ve attended. You can also get in touch with your local Indivisible group to find an upcoming protest.

SPECIAL ASSISTANCE

If you are a lawyer or law student, or if you can offer interpretation services in Arabic, Farsi, Somali, or Spanish, consider signing up to volunteer.

STAY AWARE