Show Up
By Jim Hightower in Creators.com
In my travels and conversations this year, I've been encouraged that grassroots people of all progressive stripes (populist, labor, liberal, environmental, women, civil libertarian, et al.) are well aware of the slipperiness of "victory" and want Washington to get it right this time.
So over and over, Question No. 1 that I encounter is some variation of
this: What should we do!?! How do we make Washington govern for all the people?
What specific things can my group or I do now?
Thanks for asking.
The first thing you can do to bring about change is show up. Think of showing up as a sort of civic action, where you get to choose something that fits your temperament, personal level of activism, available time and energy, etc. The point here is that every one of us can do something — and every bit helps.
The first thing you can do to bring about change is show up. Think of showing up as a sort of civic action, where you get to choose something that fits your temperament, personal level of activism, available time and energy, etc. The point here is that every one of us can do something — and every bit helps.
"We've been too quiet, too indulgent with such office holders, and they won't change until we start confronting them publicly."
Simply being there matters. While progressives have shown up for
elections in winning numbers, our movement then tends to fade politely into the
shadows, leaving public officials (even those we put in office) free to ignore
us and capitulate to ever-present, ever-insistent corporate interests. No more.
Grassroots progressives — as individuals and through our groups — must get in
the face of power and stay there.
This doesn't require a trip to Washington, though it can. It can
be done right where you live — in personal meetings, on the phone, via email
and letters, through social media (tweet at the twits!), on petitions, and any
additional ways of communication that you and other creative people can invent.
Hey, we're citizens, voters, constituents — so we should not hesitate to
request in-person appointments to chat with officials back home (these need not
be confrontational), attend forums where they'll be (local hearings, town hall
sessions, speeches, meet & greets, parades, ribbon-cuttings, receptions,
etc).
They generally post their public schedules on their websites. Go to their
meetings, ask questions, or at least say hello, introduce yourself, and try to
achieve this: MAKE THEM LEARN YOUR NAME.
OK, you're too busy to show up at all this stuff, but try one,
then think of going to one every month or two. And you don't have to go alone —
get a family member, a couple of friends, a few members of the groups you're in
to join you.
Make it an excursion, rewarding yourselves with a nice glass of
wine or a beer and some laughs afterward.
Then there are times ("in the course of human events,"
as Jefferson put it) when citizens have to come together in big numbers to
protest, to insist on being heard. Lobbyists are able to meet with officials in
quiet rooms, but when we're shut out, a higher form of patriotism demands that
ordinary folks surround a public official's district office or a high-dollar
fundraising event to deliver a noisy message about the people's needs.
This is especially necessary for officials who get a substantial
or even majority vote from progressive constituencies... but still stiff us on
such major needs as increasing the minimum wage, overturning Citizens United,
endorsing a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street speculators, and prohibiting the
outrage of voter suppression.
We have a right to expect them to respect our
vote, and stand with us on the big issues. We've been too quiet, too indulgent
with such office holders, and they won't change until we start confronting them
publicly.
Both in terms of having your own say and in demonstrating the
strength of the grassroots numbers behind the policy changes we want, you and I
are going to have to get noisier, more demonstrative, more out-front in
demanding that elected officials really pay heed to those who elected them.
Let's make 2016 the year of reintroducing ourselves and our expectations to
policymakers. At their every turn, we should be there, becoming a personal
human presence (even an irritant) they cannot ignore.
© 2015 Creators Syndicate
National
radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With
The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers
That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families,
environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
