Weekly Check In January 8

[tassosss]

Congress is back in session and they're getting busy!

This past week the GOP:

Gutted then recinded their gutting of the Office of Congressional Ethics
Started the repeal process for the Obamacare
Started the process of gutting Planned Parenthood. Again.
Revived obscure laws for screwing the civil service

We had seven people report back that they called senators and/or representatives this week which is terrific! I know it's hard, so thank you very much. We have Galaxy Quest badges! And I'm taking suggestions for what fandom to use for the next round of badges.

In addition to responding to these this past week we here at the comm have
Reading list from the American Friends Service Community - info on civil disobedience and resistance by others
Info to share with friends and family baout how the Obamacare repeal will impact families
Brainstorming ideas for how to organize info and strategy for us here on the comm. Definitely a discussion worth having.

This coming week we're going into confirmation hearings which will mean lots of calls to action to call senators again. tanaqui and I (mostly tanaqui) will be posting info about each and the committees in charge, and scripts for each of the appointees. If anyone wants to help with this process, you can PM either of us. Also feel free to add info in the comments as the posts go up
Up this week:
Oppose Jeff Sessions for Attorney General
Secretary of Homeland Security - General John Kelly

Stay tuned for more.

All right. This is a lot to cope with, and I know that calling can take a lot of spoons. My suggestion is to come up with a strategy so that you aren't overwhelmed. This can be done in a variety of ways. You can pick a topic to focus on, or only pick the ones where your senators and representatives have positions on committees, or only calling on Thursday on whatever topic shows up on the comm, or some other way you come up with that works for you. This work is long term so figure out how to pace yourself.

What methods are people using? Are you a daily caller or a weekly caller? Do you need help making that first call? If calls are out of the question, can you email or write a letter? We can make land team type support groups if people think that would help.

Let us know how you're doing and take care of yourselves.

Poll #17858 Calling!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

View Respondents

This week I

View Answers

Called my senator!
5 (55.6%)

Called my other senator!
5 (55.6%)

Called my representative!
6 (66.7%)

Sent an email!
2 (22.2%)

Acted in in some other way!
3 (33.3%)

Comments

i am not kosh.

[sporky_rat]

I spoke to the State Representative for the counties just north of me here in Mississippi (Toby's really honestly a pretty cool dude) and he said that phone calls do make a difference. So keep your numbers or email addresses on speed dial/most recently used addresses. It does all add up.

The arrangement of pebbles, ya'll.

Re: i am not kosh.

[tassosss]

Go you! State reps are still the folks I need to get in touch with.

Good to hear that the phone calls do matter.

[independence1776]

As simple as this sounds to do, I'm having trouble figuring out how to convert phone scripts into effective letters (calling is out of the question for me). Is that something this comm could help with?

[teaotter]

Sure. I know the phone scripts are intended to be short and mostly impersonal. What are you looking for in a letter?

[independence1776]

Pretty much that! It's literally the whole "translate from phone script to letter" that I'm having problems with, though I do want to personalize the letter a little.

[tassosss]

Yes - I'll add a post with tips to our list for this week.

From what I've read, keeping letters short and on a single topic are the way to go, so the transformation doesn't have to be elaborate.

This is what's on my Representative's page, Steny Hoyer

Correspondence has the greatest impact when it is:

In an easy to read format, with a clear purpose stated in the first paragraph
Regarding a single issue, not a group of unrelated issues
Not attempting to begin a dialogue, which is better conducted on the phone or in person
Directed to the appropriate office: committee business to the committee, and constituent business to the Member's personal office
In your own words, not copied from a form letter or Web site
From an individual, not an intermediary organization or Web site

[independence1776]

Thank you!

That list of advice does help a bit.

[teaotter]

I actually re-joined Facebook so I could get involved with the in-person activist community in my city. (Portland, OR)

I followed my local Indivisible group on Facebook, and have made plans to go to the first in-person meeting.

I also found out that my Representative will be having a town hall the week of the 15th, and I intend to go to that, too, once the final date/time is worked out.

[tassosss]

Facebook is a good organizing tool. If you don't mind reporting back what's useful to you, I would find that really interesting.

[redbird]

I was looking at my Representative's website to see if she had any recent press releases, and noticed the contact information. It says that postal mail is the slowest way to reach her, because all physical letters are scanned for security purposes, which adds two weeks to the process.

I'm fairly sure that's for all members of Congress, since the 2001 anthrax attacks, so for urgent issues there's the phone, email, and maybe Twitter or other social media.

[tassosss]

Good to know. Even if it's slightly delayed, for the issues that will be running longer, it's probably still an okay method.

[redbird]

Trying not to stress about the calls I haven't made; this post is helpful because it reminded me that I had called my representative on Monday.

I doubt she needed me to tell her to do the right thing—I'm in the fifth district in Massachusetts, represented by Katherine Clark—but encouraging and thanking people is also useful.

[tassosss]

Yeah, I'm in Maryland, so I have the same issue of being in one of the bluest places in my state already. I figure it's worth calling for encouragement, thanks, and not letting the Democrats fuck this up by caving in.

I'm glad this post was helpful. Making calls is hard. It's mental labor and getting yourself to do it and talking to strangers. I'm a really big believer in finding a system, like once a week calls or something, that works for you so you don't feel perpetually guilty or overwhelmed. This is a long-term project and you have to take care of yourself and pace yourself.

[bridgetmkennitt]

I called today and left voicemails for my two senators and my rep. The script I used was a general healthcare/ACA one. I want to try and call everyday, but sometimes it doesn't happen so at least every other day. It's just a little hectic that there's SO many issues to potentially call on!

[tassosss]

Go you!!! And I'm totally impressed by daily or every other day calling. There are a lot of issues, and they're going to keep coming up, too.

[sathari]

In addition to calling my Senators on a regular basis, I had been calling my rep's local office regularly, and kept getting the same staffer, who eventually gave me his email, so I've been respecting his communication preferences by using it--- and I know in at least once instance he passed it on, because I got a reply from a more-senior staffer, in the DC office, on an issue I'd emailed about! Achievement unlocked!

As for how I'm avoiding burnout:

1) I've realized that even though making those calls stresses me, I'm actually a lot more stressed and upset when I don't/can't (e.g. over the holidays when a lot of offices were closed). Phonecalls are bad--- feeling paralyzed and helpless is TERRIBLE.

2) I keep reminding myself that the fact that there ARE so many terrible things going on is probably part of the strategy: they give us so many bad things to oppose that it's hard to know where to start and it's easy to get paralyzed by it.

2a) This community has been SO AMAZING for my ability to triage and organize my activism--- pointing me at pressing issues as well as giving me scripts! And helping me keep my spirits up and keep "building on hope" and "taking the next chance and the next" (/Rogue One reference)

3) Something else I've done both to organize my thoughts and encourage myself is to keep a call diary of what actions I've taken when, so I don't repeat myself and do try to cover a wider range of issues.

4) Last but not least, once I decide what to call about, if someone else hasn't written a script, I sit down and write one for myself.

Oh, and as far as a fandom for the next round of badges, my vote is definitely Star Wars. (I would especially love and combination of Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Padme Amidala as the badges for calling Senators, since that's what they were, lol.)

[tassosss]

A call diary sounds like a really good idea. I heart this list of yours a lot. It's actually very inspiring.

I can do Star Wars for the next round of badges. :)

[sathari]

Awww, thanks! I am so grateful for all the hard work that's gone into this community from both you and tanaqui so it's good to know that I can inspire you back!

And, ooh, thanks! ("Rebellions are built on hope!" "We'll take the next chance and the next!")

[lynnenne]

I'm not American, so "calling my representatives" doesn't apply to me. I've been donating my time and money to allied groups here in Canada who are working to stop the spread of nationalist demogoguery here at home.

[teaotter]

I've really appreciated all your supporting posts, btw.

[tassosss]

I second teaotter -- your contributed posts have been wonderful. Thank you for them.

Good luck in Canada, and let us know if there are ways we can help. The whole world seems to be facing their own extreme right wings right now.

[lynnenne]

I will, thank you.

[teaotter]

This week, ugh. Too many things scheduled, too many horrible people to read about.

Considering this is being done deliberately in an attempt to overwhelm opposition, I think we might need to think about both how we avoid being overwhelmed, and how we recover from it when it happens anyway.

[tassosss]

Yeah. Pretty much. I've been thinking about the overwhelm problem a lot (mostly because I get overwhelmed on about a two week schedule.) We may want to have a discussion about picking battles. For instance, the cabinet is going to go through more likely than not. The ACA repeal may have more cracks among the Republicans because it involves taking benefits away that people have now. I don't know. I don't have a good answer yet.

[tanaqui]

I agree that the cabinet appointments are likely to go through, but I hope, as per the excellent article by Jonathan Crowe that you linked to, that it's a way to start driving wedges between Trump and the Republican Party - if they send even one nomination to the full senate, or simply question his judgment, he's going to have a twitter meltdown at the committee. And a Trump in constant meltdown and the better Republicans getting annoyed at being constantly lectured for actually doing their jobs has to help, I think?