A few months ago, I launched the first few pages of my latest website, The Democracy Habit. In the midst of a constant flood of terrible news about the country and the new administration, I wanted to share info and encouragement with folks who might not have developed a habit of contacting their representatives or speaking up in our democracy.
I grew up learning - mostly in social studies classes - that we should participate in our democracy.
I registered to vote as soon as I could, and over the years I've become a super voter (as I learned from a candidate for mayor who was campaigning door-to-door). But aside from very occasional letters to my legislators, plus very occasional participation in protests, regular voting was pretty much the extent of my civic participation.
I did campaign for Jimmy Carter in 1980, making phone calls to strangers urging them to vote for Carter. But that was a long time ago. I did also do a little bit of canvassing for local candidates.
Things changed in 2016, when I volunteered for Hillary Clinton's campaign. I started out rather lukewarm; I thought she was vastly better than her opponent, but I had absorbed a lot of the negative narrative about her. The more I learned about her policies and her accomplishments, the more enthusiastic I became.
And then her opponent won, and the worst president in American history began his first term.
Like a lot of people, I learned about Indivisible and other groups organizing to resist the attacks on our rights and our country, and I began contacting my representatives regularly to urge them to vote against the terrible cabinet nominations, to write laws to curb the abuses, to establish hearings to expose the lawbreaking and corruption.
But I know there are a lot of people who haven't been making those calls and finding their way into the civic process. I wanted to make it easier to take those first steps, and to get more familiar with all the ways we can be more involved in our democracy.
Most recently, I've written quick blog posts about how 20 states are suing FEMA for shutting down the BRIC resilience program; I've also written about ordinary actions like attending town halls or even just donating.
It feels good to have a little home on the internet for the things I want to share with my friends, and my friends' kids and parents and coworkers, about all the ways people are resisting, all the ways we're speaking out, all the ways we're working to protect each other and preserve the best of our democracy.
It's nice to have ways to speak out.