Friday, August 28, 2020
Feel Good Friday - Black Lives Matter
Friday, August 21, 2020
Feel Good Friday - 5 Calls
After watching the Democratic National Convention this week, I'm all fired up to spend Feel Good Friday sharing an easy way to participate in our government. Make 5 Calls!
Founded by a husband and wife team in San Francisco, 5 Calls is an open source project to make advocacy accessible. A team of volunteers researches issues and determines which representatives are most influential on which topic. Next, they collect phone numbers for those offices and write a script that articulates a progressive position on the topic. All you have to do is spend 5 minutes to make 5 calls.Calling members of Congress is more effective than emailing or ranting on social media because staffers tally the calls and give the count to your representatives. You can learn more about it by reading the articles linked on the 5 Calls website.
If you want to get started but aren't sure who to call or what to say, fill in your location to get a list of active issues. When I input Oakland, the top issues were related to the USPS, mail-in voting and demanding an extension to collect census data.
If you're not interested in what shows up, you can view the list of all 74 active issues. Topics include: appointments, civil rights, consumer protection, criminal justice, digital rights, environment, foreign affairs, government oversight, gun reform, healthcare, immigration, LGBTQ, police reform, voter rights, women's rights, and workers' rights.
Clicking on a specific issue brings up a summary of the situation, the name and number of the politician to call and a script to follow, or use as inspiration. You can see the script for calling your Governor to demand ballot drop boxes at this link. Your call will be answered by a staffer (or voicemail) and should only take a minute. I'm writing this on Thursday night and am excited to make some calls tomorrow and report back in the comments.
You can support the work of 5 Calls with a donation and if you want reminders to participate, you can sign up for the 5 Calls Weekly Newsletter. Other ways to stay involved? Connect with their social media by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @make5calls. And for goodness sake, make 5 calls!
Friday, August 14, 2020
Feel Good Friday - Swing Left
With this week's historic pick of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's running mate and less than 3 months to go until the presidential election, Feel Good Friday is getting political with Swing Left.
Started by friends after the 2016 elections, the mission of Swing Left is to "transform our government in 2020 by winning all the Houses - including the White House, the Senate, and the state houses key to rolling back Republican gerrymandering."Swing Left does this by engaging voters and fundraising for campaigns in the 12 "Super States" that will help flip seats in Congress and the White House from Republican to Democrat. Taking control of the House in 2018 was one step, but there is more work to be done.
If you're interested in flipping the Senate, defending the House, winning state-level races to prevent gerrymandering and getting Trump out of office, you can join a group of Swing Left volunteers that numbers in the hundreds of thousands.
Sign up with Swing Left and you'll be guided to the most impactful things you can do to help Democrats win elections. That may mean organizing in a Super State, donating to a strategic fund, writing letters to likely Democratic voters or attending a virtual volunteer event.
If you want to provide general support for Swing Left and the work they're doing, you can make a donation and spread the word by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @swingleft.
Let's do this!