Voting can change the world

[swan_tower]

My apologies to those of you who read this blog on Dreamwidth; I didn't realize for some time that the plugin which crossposts from my site to DW had broken, so last month's tikkun olam post didn't appear there. But I haven't given up on these: far from it, in fact.

Every month I invite you all to share news of what you've been doing to repair the world, to help other people and make yourself a better part of it. That's true this month, too, but to the usual call I'll add a specific recommendation:

Vote.

If you live in the United States and you're registered to vote, please do so. Don't dismiss it as an "off year," as if the presidential election is the only one that matters. There are local offices to fill, local measures to approve or reject. Maybe you live in a state that always goes blue or red, so you feel like your vote doesn't matter -- well, the more local you get, the more effect you can have. Take just a few minutes to research what's going on in your state, your city, your school district. Download the EveryElection app. Make your voice heard. The presidency is important, but it's the keystone of an arch built from many different stones, and right now we can go to work on the foundations.

Of course, also keep working at the things that aren't overtly political. Volunteer your time, donate money or goods, be there for a friend in need. No effort too small to be worth mentioning here. Share what you've been doing and what you hope to do, so we can all take heart from one another.

And if you can: vote.

Comments

[swan_tower]

My recent focus has been on writing emails to my senators and representative, company CEOs, etc. Instead of just sending in the form letter provided by the various campaigns I follow, I'm taking a few minutes to edit them. Personalized messages tend to have more impact than the 924th iteration of a form, and hey -- I make my living with words, don't I? I'm particularly pleased with the one I sent asking my senators to reject the nomination of the climate change denier Sam Clovis -- I pointed out that the extinction of North American's large animals at the end of the Pleistocene era is generally thought by archaeologists to have been caused by a combination of two factors, those being 1) climate change and 2) overhunting by the Clovis settlers. (I have no idea if that's still the case, given the mounting piles of data challenging the "Clovis first" theory of how the New World was settled. But it's what I was taught in my archaeology classes back in college, and I doubt anybody on Capitol Hill knows any better than I do.)

We're also about to install a safety feature on the gas valve for our house so that, in the event of an earthquake, it's less likely to spark a fire. Which benefits us, obviously, but also our neighbors -- fire tends not to stick to property lines, and the wine country devastation has put this very much on our minds.

[yhlee]

I've been hesitant to respond to these because I feel embarrassed about how little I do, but here goes.

There was a local election a couple weeks ago. I voted Democrat where possible (in one case there weren't any Democrat candidates--Louisiana has a wacky system where ALL THE PEOPLE can run and if there's no clear winner, then the top two even if from the same party advance to the runoff, or something, it's complicated and weird) but none of the candidates I favored won. There was one in particular running for Treasurer that I really liked, a disabled Democrat who had a degree in accounting (apparently the only candidate with an accounting background) and was a lawyer advocating for disability rights, but...he didn't make it, sigh.

We donate $25/month to the ACLU, so that's an ongoing thing.

I used resistbot to fax my senators about rachelmanija's Pull the Football campaign but only did so once. I stopped participating because the night after that, I dreamt that

ROT13 for really triggery
V QERNZG (abg va ernyvgl!) Cerfvqrag Gehzc uryq zr qbja naq encrq zr

and at that point I went, Nope, I CANNOT DO THIS ANY MORE, I'm not up for more dreams like that. :]

On the bright side, now that I know how to use resistbot (I found it confusing at first--I rarely text people ever), I can use it in the future if something comes up. So that might be a win.

[swan_tower]

I've been hesitant to respond to these because I feel embarrassed about how little I do

Don't be! I mean it when I say people should share anything they want, however small it might be.

As for the bad dream -- oh, god. Yes, absolutely take care of your own mental health first; a few texts or faxes are not worth wrecking yourself over.

[marycatelli]

Mailed off two checks, one to a charity with a place in Texas that got hit by the hurriciane, and one to a charity that does work in the areas hit by the monsoon floods.

Donated food both at the church's monthly and a special one at work.

[swan_tower]

I'm planning to donate to a local food drive, yeah.

[sovay]

I didn't realize for some time that the plugin which crossposts from my site to DW had broken

I thought you had just disappeared! I'm glad you have not.

I wrote some letters and made some calls, but otherwise I do not think I did much in the last month to make the world better except write about movies, and I am not sure that counts.

[swan_tower]

It does count! Stories matter, and so does how we think about them.

[dr_whom]

I convinced the steering committee of the principal conference in my field to adopt an anti-harassment policy. Also I made donations for Puerto Rico relief and some other stuff.

[swan_tower]

Oh, well done!