"Don't arrive at election day without knowing you've done literally everything you can do to help her win."
I've been hearing that in my mind these past couple of weeks after it was mentioned in multiple speeches...and wanted to find something other than phone banking (which I don't believe to be particularly effective in reaching those who are apathetic or otherwise disengaged or disempowered).
First, in my small town I did three initial things:
1) I bought multiple pieces of Harris/Walz apparel, and have been wearing them in some way, shape or form every day out in public, from the grocery store to my morning walks and everywhere else. A Childless Dog Ladies for Harris tank top for working out this summer. Several Harris/Walz t-shirts to wear over long sleeve shirts in early fall. And an evergreen hoodie that simply speaks her name. Why is this important? To not only show MY support, but to let others know who quietly support her in this more dangerous present that they are not alone. That I see them, that I will fight for them, that I will put it all out there for them - even if they are not confident enough in their own safety to do the same.
NOTE: Because the Harris site got so backlogged from demand, I bought these all from small businesses who made them in the USA and donate a portion of their profits to the campaign. Not an ounce of money will ever go through those shitbirds at Amazon.
2) I put up a Harris/Walz sign. Why is this a big deal? Well when you no longer live in a deep blue area of the state, putting your beliefs out there is not as common when there are more aggressive types who, whether via their hate messaging on their cars or in the media, have caused so many of my elderly neighbors in particular to fear for their own safety just for having a sign out front. It breaks my heart - but not my spirit, and so for them, I put this up for them and all the others, as a beacon of hope...a lighthouse in the storm letting them know that we are a safe space, a welcoming spot, and that, again, they are not alone.
3) I am supporting our Elections team for a few weeks. After three years of retirement, I've sought to find something of meaning to give my time to as I healed from the most devastating chapter of my life, and found the world after a decade of self-employment to be particularly indifferent, inflexible, and even more clueless in business acumen than it was when I still W-2'd my way through the world. From nonprofits who cared little for ethical hiring to for-profits known for union-busting retaliatory practices, to seeing first-hand the pigeonholing that my former coaching clients over a certain age shared with me, I had little faith in the system - particularly after a local agency who was supposed to help us decided to instead blow us off and behave with unbelievable levels of unethical behaviors and practices when I stood up to them and refused to provide them with both irrelevant and wildly invasive financial transaction details that their cohorts in other counties - not to mention the state program policy - do not require (in their environment with no written privacy policy to secure our data not to mention no justification to review). After medical doctors have repeatedly misdiagnosed my health struggles, insurance companies have repeatedly erroneously processed claims (taking months to fix their mistakes), and local assistance officials demand to see where I'm shopping for groceries and doing on the weekend (for an energy efficiency program where they already have the required salary data and paystubs to prove our small income) as they insinuate I am LYING about our frugal lifestyle? I am sickened at the world, to be honest. Sickened at the condescension and utter disinterest of so many people who bullshit the community with claims of helping them when they only care about one thing - themselves (and their paychecks). So while my depression has destroyed so much of me since we lost our babies, their sick mistreatment spurred me to do one thing and one thing alone - support a system that, while imperfect, needs people WITH ethics running it. It's only for a couple weeks and it's on-call, bringing in a few hundred bucks after taxes, but it helps me see how things work at a micro level, and helps others breathe a bit easier in a world of misinformation that has pissed on the most vulnerable. And for our planet and its inhabitants? Supporting democracy kinda rocks...even if my emotional exhaustion from it all has made sleep nearly impossible and my throat parched from anxiety.
Then, I went two steps further.
I heard about the ad that Julia Roberts narrated encouraging women to vote their conscience and reminding them that their vote is PRIVATE, and remembered a conversation with a neighbor about another one of our neighbors who she believes might be more on the fence than she lets us believe due to her highly aggressive spouse. and with that I learned in these final days before the election, that there are ways to quietly let women know they do not have to vote with their conservative spouses. I joined the guerilla post-it campaign. And we even found a way to get my gung-ho husband involved, with messages for men who might need 'permission' to vote Harris. While the old saying reminds us that women's biggest fear is that they'll be killed, it also spoke of how men's biggest fear is of being laughed at. So instead of mocking that, we ran with it...and while I posted notes of empowerment in one way for women in bathrooms and on grocery store feminine products, he put them in men's bathrooms and on boxes of condoms. Will it do anything? I don't know. But could it help sway the ones who might stay home because they're afraid of someone finding out? Perhaps.
And our planet - and the women in it, both who stand to lose the most if Harris doesn't succeed? They are so fucking worth the effort, y'all.
Oh yes, and this Saturday? We marched, baby...
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