mercuriosity, posts by tag: activism - LiveJournal (original) (raw)
Today I read this post, I watched this video, and then I struggled for half an hour to scrape enough words together for a very short letter, which I then sent with minor modifications to my Senators and my Representative.
As part of my resolution this year to do more for the causes I believe in, I'm trying to take that oft-heard but rarely followed advice: "Contact your representatives." There's a point at which ranting in safe spaces online and putting my electronic signature on various petitions starts to feel really inadequate--especially when they start autofilling in my address for me; I feel like the guilty housewife who must add an egg to the cake mix. Not to say that these aren't great things to do! I am a firm believer in the philosophy of teaspooning. But I'd been doing them for long enough that I felt ready to take the next step.
In so doing, I've started to realize just how little I know about how our political system works, elementary school civics lessons and Schoolhouse Rock aside. Which is both an extra layer of intimidation and an incentive. How can I not know these important things? And how much more could I do if I learned?
It isn't easy, finding words. But the only thing that convinced me I could do it was hearing from other people--regular people, my fellow online ranters--that they had done it. Hearing other people say, "I called x" or "I wrote y" transformed contact your representatives from a theoretical idea to a thing people actually did. If they could do it, I reasoned, so could I.
And hey, if I can do it...
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Whew! That was heavy stuff. Now, as a reward for writing those letters, I shall unwind by watching White Collar goofiness. Don't forget the rewards!