A Goal to Reach Ten Thousand Voters
I attended the “United Front: Finding the Work You Want to Do Around the U.S. Presidential Election” RC webinar. Listening to what other women have figured out and discharging discouragement were helpful for me. I noticed feelings of being stupid—of being naive to think electoral politics matter or not knowing enough about electoral politics. I’ve decided to take action anyway.
My goal is to reach out to ten thousand voters.
I am a mom of a toddler, working for money, leading in RC, and co-producing a dance concert this fall—so I’m a little busy. However, I decided that the outcome of this election matters enough to me that I will put attention and energy into reaching U.S. voters. I want to make sure they are registered to vote, encourage them to vote, and encourage them to vote for Biden/Harris.
I tried to write postcards to voters who may have been taken off the register and not be able to vote unless they re-register soon, and I was failing to get it done so I enlisted some friends to help. They were grateful to have a way to take action, and I was relieved to get help.
I started thinking about the many people in my life who want change and have much more time than I have but who haven’t figured out how to take action.
I thought about how sometimes people sponsor a runner who is raising money for a social cause. I decided to ask people to “sponsor” me. Instead of giving me money, they will pledge to write a certain number of postcards or call a certain number of people to encourage them to vote. My dance collective has agreed to use our social media platform to host postcard and phone banking activities and to track them, so we know how many people we are reaching.
Doing this has brought up a lot of discouragement to discharge. But it has also brought me closer to people in my life—my family, friends, coworkers, and students and the parents at my child’s school.
I don’t know if I can meet my goal, but I’m going to try.
Los Angeles, California, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of women
(Present Time 201, October 2020)