Being Heard
Sep 24th, 2008 by Laura
I’ll apologize now, I’m going to talk politics for a minute. And I want to say that even if you don’t agree with my politics, I believe you have a right to yours and I should have a right to mine. So you should figure out how to be heard, just like I’m trying to find my way. That said, here goes.
I’ve been struggling lately with how to make an impact. On where to focus when there are so many changes our society needs to make, so many issues that need champions, so many opportunities to try to make a difference. How do I decide where to put my effort, my time, my mind? How do I decide what needs my attention now and what can wait until tomorrow, next week, next month?
Our country is heading for a world of hurt. Our current president and his administration and policies got us here. And it looks like they’re going to dig us in a hell of a lot further before he leaves office. Nice, huh?
So while I’ve been focused on the environment, food, farms and sustainable living for a long while now, I find myself feeling for the first time like I need to find my political voice. I want to stand up and be heard. I want to convince and cajole and scream from the street corner. I want others to know how I feel and what I believe and why.
I want people to understand that how they vote, or if they don’t, has an impact. That it means something. That sometimes we have to look beyond the local to the national, to the global. And we have to find a way to take back control of our destiny as a country, a culture, a community.
And to do that we have to be willing to go outside of our comfort zone and our personal boundaries. We have to stretch and be uncomfortable, we have to take personal risks and put ourselves out there. We have to be the change we want to see in the world. To be silent now is to be complicit. If you believe something you must find a way to be heard, to make our elected officials and leaders hear you, to make them understand that they serve at our will and our behest.
And tonight I did a little bit of that. And this weekend I think I’ll do some more. And maybe again next weekend.
Tonight I worked with other women in the basement of a community building to call more women. To ask them who they’re voting for. To tell them who I’m voting for and why. We said reached out and said hello. We made a connection and answered questions. We laughed and commiserated, we explained and persuaded. We said thank you, have a nice evening.
And yes, it was hard at first. It was uncomfortable and intimidating and most of us were nervous. We were hung up on. We were cursed at. We were told no, I’m voting for the other guy. We were told no, I won’t talk to you at all.
But we were also told thank you for calling. Of course I’m voting for him. Yes, it’s time for change. What can I do to help?
We connected with women from young to old. I was told by an 80 year old woman who has always voted for the “other guy” that she likes Obama, that she listens to what he has to say, that she thinks she might vote for a Democrat for the first time in her entire life. I was asked by men if I wanted to know who they were voting for even though their wives and daughters and mothers weren’t home.
I got involved. I raised my hand and said yes I would help. I opened my mouth and used my voice and made a difference even if it was a small one.
And you know what? It wasn’t that hard and it wasn’t that scary. It was just women talking to other women, exchanging opinions and ideas. It was democracy at work. And it made me proud to be an American, to be a woman, to be someone that believes that not only should we change, but that we can change.
I think I’ll do it again. I think I might canvas my neighborhood, I might help register college students this weekend, I might volunteer to get out the vote and drive people in my neighborhood to their poling place.
I’m going to be the somebody that should be doing something. Are you?
I am so proud of you. Thank you for raising your hand, for being the somebody.
I have had to detach from presidential politics for the time being, for my own sanity. I was waking up screaming in the middle of the night, having all kinds of physical stress-trauma symptoms that are not fit to print on a blog… and I finally decided I had to cut myself off. So I am getting all my input from headlines that I happen to catch, and from posts like yours. Rest assured I will be voting as you are in a little more than a month, but for now I am checked out.
I spent the last 4 years completely divorced from politics after the soul-crushing reality check that was the 2004 elections. I let myself get swept up in the euphoria of Obama capturing the nomination, only to plunge into despair a week later when She Who Must Not Be Named was tapped. I’m avoiding emails from friends, IMs, whole sections of Twitter and other social networks… I can’t spend the next month in a lather. But I am so thankful that you (and so many others!) are coming to this battle from a stronger place.
Thank you for doing what so many of us are too shell-shocked to do.
My eyes welled up with tears of pride when I read your post. My husband and I have asked each other over and over, “How can a working person even think about voting Republican again, after the tragedies of leadership that this administration has gotten us into?” After an election was stolen from us with hardly a blink?
We need someone in the White House who thinks about the people of the United States as a whole. Not just the continuation of big business politics and the “golden parachute” crowd. Yes, we are on the verge of an economic disaster, but if the government is going to step in, don’t just make a hasty bail out decision. Take some time, consider the long term, do it in small increments and monitor carefully what is being done with the money. Don’t let it be another Hurricane Katrina tragedy, where millions of dollars disappeared into the pockets of the “powers that be” instead of into the hands of those who really needed the financial assistance. Help out those who have lost their homes because mortgage companies pressed and pressed them to buy more than they could really afford, refinance, “look, you can only pay the interest!”; you can borrow twice or three times what your home is worth!! Sure, lots of consumers made lots of bad decisions, but it’s the lenders that championed the cause!
I have not been politically vocal much in the past, but you can bet I’m letting my voice be heard now. WE NEED CHANGE!
Laura, well done. I totally commend you for getting involved in the process. I don’t know if you still drop by my blog from time to time or not, I haven’t heard from you in a while (no biggie, I’m not a frequent commenter either), but I’ve been doing a lot of the same only in much more local politics. I’m sorry to say that I’ll not be voting for either of the candidates, I just can’t unless something big comes to light. Too many issues with no real plans to deal with and I am really getting tired of the “lesser of two evils” votes.
I do have two cents to put in on one thing however. While I agree that the current administration exacerbated our problems by taking little or no action to correct the financial practices that lead to our current situation, I don’t agree that they “got us here”. They may have allowed us to get here but general greed, over consumption and the I want it NOW mentality is what got us here. Until we fix the root problem it will continue to keep coming to haunt us.
I hope you enjoy participating in the political process, it is no doubt one of our greatest duties to our nation and you are doing your part.
Be well friend
P~
Good for you, Laura!
I did a bit of ‘vocalizing’ myself yesterday, after reading more about the federal government’s bailout plan & listening to some economic experts on the Lehrer News Hour the night before: I sent emails to the 2 senators & 2 representatives from Idaho (even though I’m no longer in the district of one of them) plus I found out how to contact the Joint Economic Committee (holding the hearings on the plan) and sent emails those members. Sometimes, you/I just can’t do nothing…!
Hurray for you on reaching beyond your comfort zone. I’m not at that point yet, and even if I were, I cannot help either side since I am disgusted and disappointed with politics as a whole. If you read any of the economics blogs, you’ll find that it’s not a single administration tjat got us into this mess… it is POLITICS which is killing us, not simply Republicans or Democrats. Changing parties (and yes, I’m glad we will) will only give us a different mess until we clean house and stop the greed that has infested the entire system.
Whew. Sorry. Not my place to rant at someone else’s house. I never was a good houseguest though.
That sounded snarky. I really am impressed that you’re expanding… I can’t do it. But I did send two emails to my senators. That’s about as “out there” as I can get. And please feel free to delete these two comments.
Peace.
Anita - thanks. I had the same problem after the 2004 election. But I didn’t do anything that time and I’m hoping that doing something now will make me feel like I matter.
Kathy - completely agree.
P~ I’m reading you, just no time for commenting right now. I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t necessarily agree that greed got us all the way here. There are other countries and economies out there with better regulated free markets that don’t have the problems we do. If the administration had taken effective steps towards regulation and corruption in the last 8 years we wouldn’t be here now. But that’s just what I believe. I also have a hard time agreeing that not voting is really an option. By taking yourself out of the process completely I think you make yourself complicit in perpetuating the status quo. You don’t have to pick between O and J, but you should vote for someone!
Carla - good for you!
Meadowlark - no need to apologize or delete. If I didn’t want to hear your opinion I certainly wouldn’t be blogging about politics. I agree with you on the politics part, but perhaps not completely. I think that hope is as good a reason as any to ask for change. When despair sets in, apathy isn’t too far behind and then you don’t get anywhere. At least if people have the hope of change and are inspired to ask and believe in something better there’s a chance they’ll stand up and force it to happen.
I’m glad you’re getting involved! I enjoyed working the phone banks during the primaries and was nervous my first time too. I talked to some downright mean people but I also talked to some people who were earnestly trying to make their best choice. Overall, I found it to be a positive and rewarding experience.
I am envious that you have a candidate and I don’t. I had “she who should have been named” and there’s no one left who’s even close (in my opinion). My plan for this election is to vote down-ticket only. I want change too, but I want to know the plan and I want some confidence that the person can pull it off. I can’t do the lesser of two evils or the evil of two lessers, as the case may be. I have to say, this sucks for me, being a political junkie and not having a dog in the race. On the other hand, it has given me an opportunity to look at both parties objectively and realize that my party is not the party of saints either.
Whoever people vote for and for whatever reasons, I hope they are making a deliberate choice and not simply accepting the default.
I think I’m going to get involved at the state level. It occurred to me that one of the biggest problems with our system is the gerrymandering that state legislatures enact. This creates an environment where only the embedded partisans can win and there is no reaching out and no compromise. Most people are in the middle, but our politicians won’t let us work together!
Hi there, I am new to your blog. I started at the most recent post and just kept reading until I hit this one and felt compelled to comment.
I think your efforts are to be applauded. I am in sort of the same philosophical/political place. I think for our system to work at its best, citizens have to view it and treat it as a participatory system.
Anyway, I love your blog. It’s so inspiring to see what you are doing! Thanks for sharing.