Who are you? Asked the caterpillar. … Alice replied, rather shyly, “I – I hardly know, Sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”
~Lewis Carroll, Alice In Wonderland
Brief words today, friends – because distance learning is no joke and this momma of a second grader just spent 8 hours in Zoom. (Fist bump to anyone else who did the same.)
But there’s something that’s been rattling around in my brain a lot lately, and I wonder if it’s occurred to you, too.
In those mundane moments, like when I’m rinsing dishes or folding laundry, it often strikes me that four years ago I was a very different person.
I had a different job. Different goals. Different schedule. Different vision of the future. Frankly, I had an entirely different life.
And I was pretty content with it. It was peaceful, even if it didn’t feel so at the time.
Then, all of a sudden – honestly, overnight – the entire trajectory of my life changed. Almost as if someone snapped their fingers, or waved a magic wand, and suddenly everything was simultaneously falling apart and falling together.
I could say almost the same thing about the past six months, frankly.
We’ve been constantly evolving over the past four years, haven’t we? Although it’s true that life always evolves, I have enough decades under my belt to say with some authority that the pace of our evolution right now is … ahem … unique.
It’s been exhausting and exhilarating. With massive change comes massive opportunity for growth, and I’m glad to see fellow do-ers like you who are still out mucking around in the mud of democracy, trying to hold everything together with sweat and scotch tape until the dawn of November 4, when we will wake up to yet another completely changed world.
What we do in the next weeks – my God, we’re down to just weeks, now – will determine what that morning of November 4 looks and feels like. And with an army of people like you who have spent the last four years working so hard and evolving as people and as citizens to meet this moment … Well. It’s a good group of people to surround yourself with.
Solidarity, friends. I’m so glad we’ve crossed paths.
Now let’s get to work.
Actions for the Week of September 1, 2020
Tuesday: GOTV Training!
If you’re not familiar with them, the National Democratic Training Committee – NDTC – offers free virtual training on a bunch of topics, ranging from social media to campaign management. Everything is, and always has been, virtual – and their trainings are excellent.
Tonight (yes! tonight! eep!) they’re having a live training: “How to Develop Your GOTV Universe and Script.” Whether you’re running for office, working on a campaign, or building your local party’s or organization’s infrastructure, you need to get out the vote (GOTV)! You’ve worked hard to gather supporters to reach your vote goal, and you need to ensure they go vote. You will learn the following in this training:
- Outline different GOTV universe components
- Distinguish parts of a GOTV conversation
- Practice a vote planning conversation
Register for the training (you need to sign up to access the Zoom link) HERE.
Don’t have time tonight but want more training on GOTV? They’ve got a great course series on GOTV, which you can access here: https://traindemocrats.org/course/gotv/
Also Tuesday: Happy National Poll Worker Recruitment Day!
Yes, it’s really National Poll Worker Recruitment Day! This is the most consequential election in our lifetimes, and it’s going to be harder than ever before to recruit people to work at the polls. You can help out by working the polls yourself, if you are able and comfortable, or by finding other people in your orbit who are willing.
You can share www.HelpAmericaVote.gov, which has a great search tool for how to become a poll worker in all 50 states (and in a state like mine where you sign up to be a poll worker in your local county or city, contact information for each jurisdiction). It’s a great resource to share on, say, Facebook or Twitter where your friends and followers aren’t living in the same general location.
There are other organizations, too, like Poll Hero, which works to recruit college students to work at the polls; and Power the Polls, a poll recruitment collaboration of a diverse group of organizations and companies – from the Fair Elections Center to Comedy Central.
Bottom line? We’re gonna need a lot of poll workers for November, so even if you’re not comfortable volunteering this year, help spread the word to find some people who can.
Thursday: People Against Voter Suppression Night of Action!
Reclaim Our Vote, an organization that works against voter suppression, is hosting weekly Thursday-night virtual phone banking to call young voters of color in six states who are at risk of having their right to vote suppressed.
We will be calling and texting young voters of color who are often living in poverty, rural, face a technological divide, and have been abandoned by traditional political campaigns. Whether we are registering them to sign up to vote by mail in the middle of the pandemic or getting out their vote, we are going where other campaigns don’t, bringing new districts and areas into play.
They’ll provide a quick training and support along the way. You’ll need to set up a Google Voice account for yourself and have access to Zoom. Check it out and learn more HERE.
Friday: Record a Video to Save the USPS!
If you haven’t been to Indivisible’s website in a while, check out their Soapboxx feature, where you can upload a video of yourself supporting (or opposing) various candidates and issues. (https://indivisible.soapboxx.us/all-campaigns) It’s a great way to share your voice with a broader audience from the comfort of your couch. They have a variety of projects/prompts to choose from – so you’re bound to find something that resonates.
One of their projects I’d like to highlight relates to the USPS. As you’ve no doubt heard (and perhaps experienced) Trump and his band of merry millionaires have been tinkering with the postal service to cause problems in November and make it harder for all of us to vote. As Indivisible describes: On August 12, House Oversight and Reform chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced a new bill meant to respond to Trump’s political games. The Delivering for America Act would prohibit the Postal Service from implementing any changes to the operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020, until the COVID-19 pandemic has ended. This legislation would maintain current service standards as well as the integrity of our elections and bedrock democratic principles. You can support that legislation and call on your electeds to support it in your video – or you could simply explain how the USPS is important to you in your community, and why it should be protected. Check the campaign out at https://indivisible.soapboxx.us/campaign/savetheusps/
Even if you don’t upload your video to Indivisible, consider sharing your story/testimonial/call-to-action on your own social media pages.
WHEW! GO, TEAM! SUPER PROUD OF YOU!
P.S.: Why don’t you make someone’s day and send this pep talk to a friend or two? I bet they need it.
If you’d like to sign up to get this pep talk and action list in your in-box each week, you can do that here. Welcome, friend!
P.P.S.: If you want to help support this work you can do so via Patreon at
https://www.patreon.com/smalldeedsdone or via paypal at https://www.paypal.me/smalldeeds
My deepest gratitude in advance.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for writing. I read and respond to every e-mail. (Really! I really do!) We’re in this together. Don’t you forget it.
Small Deeds Done 