With children being separated from their immigrant parents, with candidates running for office who have ties to white supremacy and with a president who lies daily, many of our News & Guts readers have been asking what they can do to make a difference. Sure you can call your lawmakers (here’s information on how to do that), but is calling enough anymore? One of our followers called her Florida lawmakers (Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Senator Marco Rubio) and she found their voicemails full.  After that she emailed them. Now a week later she hasn’t received any sort of personalized reply. What you all are doing to try to make a difference?  We read of rallies and marches planned.  One of the lines that a fellow reader wrote below summarized it perfectly, “Complacent people create fascists.”

We hope your fellow readers inspire you.  They certainly inspired us.

YOUR RESPONSES

-Lisa Rathbun Romfh: Changed my Party Affiliation from Republican to Democrat, took training to register people to vote, working with Indivisibles in my area, joined LWV FL, call all my Reps at least once a week. Joined all the gun reform groups and have helped register student voters with the Parkland students. FYI, I am 64 yrs. old, registered Republican for 40+ yrs., switched party to Dem this month, I have NEVER had any involvement in politics until this past year. I am disgusted and finished with the whole trump version of the Republican Party. I am planning to vote Democrat down ticket starting with primaries in August.

-Theresa Oliver: Joined Moms Demand Action in Iowa. We joined forces with the March For Our Lives and the Coalition for Non-Violence. We are marching, attending farmers markets, attending “Take Back The Night” evenings, and putting pressure on our legislatures in order to bring common sense gun laws to this nation. TEXT READY to 64433 to join up in your area

-Brianna Prahl: After the Women’s March last year my high school friend Alice reached out to me and a group of women via Facebook. She saw we had similar political interests and wanted to get together to form a plan to become more politically active and make tangible differences in our communities. We started meeting monthly, made plans, and took action. Today, our group of friends has evolved into the campaign team for Dr. Alice Mann who is running for The House of Representatives in her district 56B in Minnesota. I’m so proud of her!

-Sherry Johnston: I went back to school. I was a high school dropout (1997) who got her GED in 2007, and now I am a full-time student pursuing an A.A. at Skagit Valley College, working full-time as a landscaper, looking to get a Bachelors in Management with an Environmental Science emphasis. I sold organic produce and artwork to raise money for tuition before I qualified for financial aid. My ultimate goal is to develop a career in environmental consultation here in Washington State (where we are experiencing exponential growth and old growth tree removal) where I visit people’s homes and use my expertise to teach people why they should not remove trees or change their ecosystem if they want to retain the local rain system. Education is what we need to save our planet, and if people don’t know how important trees are to our existence, they should, because removing something that ensures a steady water supply, that takes 80-100 years in order to grow, is not a decision that should be made lightly.

-Julie Provenson: Honestly, to maintain my sanity, I’ve had to stop reading the news completely. I had turned into a depressed and anxious and angry person. Beyond that, I’ve joined a coastal conservation league in South Carolina where we own a house to help keep the oceans and shoreline from being destroyed. I also live in Seattle and feel that people here have it together. But in SC, I try to do things in my daily life to help the environment (picking up litter) and talking to others about the importance of voting in every single election. I’ve had major discussions in SC at people in Lowe’s. I simply ask them how they think things are going with 45. 9 times out of 10 people are disgusted with him. When I asked them if they voted, 9 times out of 10, they had not. I feel that getting more people to vote is our biggest obstacle and so I am tackling this on a personal level as much as I can—especially in South Carolina, where most people are good with good hearts. It’s just that the mindset there is ingrained, so change is slow. But I’m trying. Please, on your site, give out information for us to share on how to make a difference in each state. We need help!!!!

-Chris Roffey: I’ve been donating to political causes like the ACLU, Emily’s List, and Freedom for All Massachusetts, as much as possible but the biggest thing I’m doing over the last 2 years is becoming more visible as a genderqueer/trans person. With all the anti-trans bills across the country, I want to make sure people are aware their vote has a real-life impact on people they know and love. Walking in the Boston Pride Parade with my group from work was a big part of that personal activism for me.

-Erin Rockhill Brown: I have my legislators programmed into my telephone, and I call them on a regular basis. I attend political events and have helped organize them. I worked for Daniel Biss as a volunteer. I’ll soon be working for Junius Rodriguez as a volunteer. I moderate a page for my own community and help residents who have questions for the city council or concerns about issues in our town. I’m active in helping with the drug epidemic in my area and have Naloxone kits with me at all times. I participate in Race for the Cure, and yes, I know that people have issues with the Foundation, but the Foundation has helped my friends and family members. I support candidates with money when I can afford it, and I attend the events they host. Everything I’ve expressed took place within the past year. I can’t begin to list what I’ve done in previous years, except that I was an organizer of our local Rally for Science just over a year ago.

-Scott Riggle: I volunteered with the local county Democratic party in North Texas and helped start a podcast for them as a way to reach new media. It’s no Pod Save America but hopefully, it helps get the word out to become involved in politics. When we look back at this time period with disgust and shame and my kids ask me, “Well, Dad, what did you do to fight it?”, I want to be able to respond, with confidence, that I did something, anything, even if it wasn’t life/event changing. Complacent people create fascists.

-Jackie Jones: You are very right about voting not being enough! I am not patient enough to sit and wait for midterms. I write, I call, I seek opportunities to help good candidates. I took over my local precinct and helped flip my local town council in Apex, NC last November by leading a huge canvassing effort in my precinct. I am working on building a local community in the precinct, holding monthly happy hours and quarterly update meetings.  And now, I am focused on flipping districts in NC, especially working in congressional district 2, NC Senate district 17, and NC house districts 36 and 37. I am attending and organizing meet and greets and fundraisers, hosting info tables at festivals and rallies, attending county, congressional district, and state conventions, working on resolutions and generally trying to rally the populace. It’s been a ride, getting involved, and I am so glad I have!

-Sara Hawkins: I am an Oklahoma resident who was active in, and galvanized by, our teacher walkout in April. Since the time of the walkout, I am trying to help maintain the momentum ignited by the walkout. I have been financially donating to A LOT of campaigns, I am hosting a meet and greet for a candidate in my state House district, I have been engaging with teachers to try to do Q&A’s and keep them feeling empowered, I am educating myself about the nuts and bolts of my state government through nonpartisan resources available, I am helping to organize a candidate forum for a senior-targeted nonprofit for which I am a board member. I am also utilizing my social media accounts to provide voter education and registration resources. I have become much more vocal about politics than I formerly was, and much more informed (I always have been informed and engaged, but I’m trying to take it to another level). In an unrelated avenue, I am a civil attorney and mother who does no immigration work, but am looking for ways to assist the immigrant children being inhumanly separated from their parents at our border, and believe I have found an organization to which I could lend my legal skills, even absent experience in that field.

-Patricia Boe: I’ve never been politically active before. But so far in 2018, I’ve attended both the LA Women’s March and March for Our Lives in Santa Ana, I’ve become involved with Moms Demand Action, and I’ve attended booths to register voters in Orange County. Once Dana Rohrabacher’s Democratic challenger is known, I also plan to volunteer for that campaign. It’s no longer enough to just vote. We all need to get involved in democracy. This is what democracy looks like.

-Sonia De La Isla: I am leaving to Puerto Rico on Thursday (4th time back since hurricane Maria), I will be meeting with small farmers on the western side of the island and advocating to get them funds. One farm, in particular, needs $90,000 to rebuild. Their entire farm was decimated, the bridge that leads to their farm collapsed during the hurricane and they need to rebuild it so that they can clear trees and plant new ones. I will be documenting my journey on my blog. I will be taking photos and trying to record video of what the farmers have been doing on their own to try to push forward. Afterward, I will draft a comprehensive plan to help them get the help they desperately need.

-Jennifer Skidonenko: Started a Moms Demand Action chapter in Denton County, TX, in February, had a great Wear Orange event on June 2nd! I also volunteered for a campaign, block walked, phone banked, and helped with events. Plan on doing the same for Beto. Democracy requires participation! We are advocates fighting to end gun violence!

-Mary Hewitt: I choose to do acts of kindness for others. One example was to sand the driveway all winter for a neighbor who is disabled so he wouldn’t slip & fall on the ice. Given the winter we had here in the NH this year that meant I was over there every 2-3 days getting sand from local dump & doing his driveway. Buying coffee for a stranger behind me in line, shoveling/salting driveway of a client who had back surgery. Helping elderly people in the grocery store get items they needed, but could not reach. Ultimately I try to do at least one act of kindness a day.

-Amanda Scott Uribe: Currently researching the repercussions of participating in non-violent civil disobedience. Apparently calling, writing, emailing and visiting many of our Congressmen and Congresswomen aren’t working. If anyone has any advice or tips, please feel free to message me.

-Patrick Johnson: For me, I have been doing the following 

1.) Joined a grassroots activist network
2.) Volunteered for a Town Council Campaign and helped flip a Republican district to Democrat
3.) Was appointed to a local town commission by the mayor.
4.) Was elected to the Democratic Town Committee
5.) Monthly meetings with my town’s Republican state Senator
6.) Serving as treasurer for a State Rep campaign
7.) Volunteering for two state senate campaigns
8.) Serve as a delegate at the State Democratic Convention.
9.) Volunteer for a statewide Attorney General exploratory Committee.
10.) Marching in various protests
11.) Many Call’s to my Representative and Senators in Congress about pressing issues

-Barbara Glick van Asselt: I joined a grassroots like-minded woman’s group. We write postcards (every week) sometimes to Repug members of the House, sometimes to the Gov., sometimes urging registered Dems to get out & vote in Special elections in various states, we find & support candidates who support our values, we attend protests, rallies and marches, we invite candidates to our meetings, do phone banking for candidates who support our values, we boycott companies supporting various things we oppose, we are involved in voter registration… I can’t do nothing. (Never thought I’d be doing this AGAIN…I did my marching in the 60s and 70s)!

-Alex Quin: I’m helping everyone I know with whatever I can offer. I’m making friends with people that need love and support and I’m not judging people because of their status or their gender or whatever.  I’m just trying to be the American that I wish America was.  We can’t change anything unless we have a revolution and America isn’t there yet

-Talia Osteen: We formed “resisterhood” group of women activists in LA, Feminists In Action, and among many other actions, have been taking buses to canvas in flippable CA districts, registering voters & getting out the vote! (More actions listed in replies & on the group’s website): https://www.fia-la.com/

-James Pefferman: When Trump came to the Coast Guard Academy graduation I was protesting outside. When Pence came I was protesting outside the gate. I email and phone my representatives regularly and I vote every election, local or national it does not matter I vote. The use of social media is very important in today’s politics and I support and share progressive media and politicians. I was also heavily involved in the successful union drive for my shop and now negotiating a fair contract.

Thanks to everyone who wrote us.If you have a story share please send it to us and it could be published in the future.