The Start

Something broke in America on November 9, 2016, whether we knew it then or not. Or rather, it’s been broken for a long time, and more of us, including myself, finally noticed. And if you woke up happy that day, well, this isn't written for you.

Before 2016, I voted and was generally aware of current events. But other than that, politics seemed very far away and was something that got hashed out by wonky speech and debate types in rooms with lots of wood paneling and leather chairs. It wasn’t something for me to participate in, other than voting and reading about. I was a spectator, and I thought that being an informed spectator was enough.

And then Donald Trump was elected President, courtesy of the Electoral College.

In 2017, I protested for the first time. I called my elected representatives and attended town halls for the first time. I started donating politically for the first time.

In 2018, I got my first yard sign. This felt like a huge step for a blue dot in the red state of Arizona. Because it’s intimate. It wasn’t just posting on Facebook where there is a block button and a privacy setting. It was literally telling the world exactly who and what we support and where we lived. People would know where my children and I sleep at night, what cars we drive, and our politics would be there for all who went by to see. I’m ashamed to say I only started really paying attention to state and county politics and issues that year and really understanding that you have to get involved in your community to make it be like what you want. I was privileged enough to be uninvolved and unaware until then.

I also did my first literature drop and wrote my first postcards to voters in 2018. Knocking on doors and talking to voters was a big step for me, and I made myself do it a couple of times. But the amount of mental energy it took to psyche myself up to do it and then calm down afterwards wasn’t sustainable for long. So with inspiration from a local Indivisible Facebook group and some help from my local Dem office, I assembled literature info bags and wrote out handwritten postcards encouraging my neighbors to vote and dropped them off to all the registered Dem voters in my precinct. It was a great way to see viscerally and concretely that I wasn’t the only blue dot in my neighborhood. I wasn’t alone.

In 2019 and 2020, I started reaching out more. Twitter is often the opposite of having a dialogue, but with so many people clamoring to be heard and shouting their thoughts into the void, I found that a lot of the time, ordinary people appreciated getting a comment from awkward, unknown, little old me. Maybe it’s the pandemic quarantine talking, but a like was a connection, however fleeting. A retweet was something like a pat on the back. I did 7 literature drops this election cycle for my state representative candidates and posted on social media about them. I got to know my fellow volunteers, however masked and however briefly. I wrote 150 #postcardstovoters for candidates around the country and set up a couple of friends to write their own postcards. I felt more connected to my community and to my country as a whole because I had invested some effort to be part of it.

I’m not loud by nature. The typical activist is loud. Activism tells you to BE LOUD, MAKE NOISE, TAKE UP SPACE, and while this is true, it also makes the introverted rule-follower in me deeply conflicted about participating and doing it “correctly.” But I still cared. I still wanted to do my part. And activism isn’t just about being loud, although it is often that; it’s about taking an action. It took a long time to figure out and believe that it’s okay that one person can’t (and probably shouldn’t) do all and every lane of activism all the time. It’s a group effort, and you have to find what works for you and what civic actions beyond voting are sustainable long-term for you, and you keep doing what you promised. Commitment, even quiet commitment, is an action too.

It is worth saying something, even if you think nobody is listening. Yes, there’s a lot of content and news out there, especially this year, heck, especially this WEEK, but there’s something you have to say that people will read, just because it came from you personally. A lot of friends reached out to me since Election Day 2020 to check in with me, thanking me for my volunteer work because this year Arizona went for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Mark Kelly. I had no idea some of them were even reading, because the same 11 people like all my social media posts.

So say something anyway. You never know who you might reach or what you might change.

Donald Trump was just voted out of office. But it’s not the end. There’s work to do.

Welcome to my blog. Let’s begin.