#fighting the hate

[daltongraham]

Virtual March for Science

YES, they finally listened and created a virtual march, similar to the one for the women’s march (I hope).

It’s on 22 April 2017. So here’s the dealy bop, if you want to do it. Go here:

https://www.marchforscience.com/rsvp/

Select “D.C.” as your local march...when you get to the registration page, there’s a checkbox for doing the virtual participation.

I hope you will join me!

[daltongraham]

Today’s issue: US Coast Guard funding

(6 March 2017)

If y’all don’t know, the Coast Guard is a critical, little-known part of our military service. Their main mission is to rescue people in peril. Their motto is semper paratus--always ready, because they are always ready to jump at a moment’s notice to save people. They do a lot of other stuff too, including running 2 icebreaker ships that do research and get people in and out of Antarctica. Those ships are over 40 years old. They ram ice and they are 40 years old. This article says that Russia has 40 icebreakers; we have 2.

I could go on and on about how great the Coast Guard is, but the key issue is that while our administration is talking about increasing military funding by a whole bunch, they are not increasing funding to the “5th branch”...they want to decrease it. When the Coast Guard is desperately in need of more funding.

So my call script is below; feel free to use it. I managed to make 2 actual phone calls to congress offices (very very scary but I did it), and I faxed Sen Feinstein who never ever answers phone calls, and I emailed Senate Minority Leader Schumer. 

I am calling to ask [name] to make sure the Coast Guard has increased funds this year. The president's proposed budget decreases funding to an organization whose primary mission is to save lives. The Coast Guard has 2 aging ice breakers and Russia has 40. The Coast Guard's mission is also critical to fishermen. Does [name] have plans to fund the Coast Guard?

[daltongraham]

OMFG I’m actually going to DataRescue SF!!!! I got in and so did my partner, which is key because without him there’s no way I’d get through the commute and 8 hours of work. Not at all sure how I’m going to do it but I’m going to beg borrow and steal spoons because FUCK this is how I can best resist. This is the type of work I’m trained for. This is the type of work I adore. 

(Just send good thoughts, if you will, that I can actually survive it and do something helpful)

[daltongraham]

Today’s letters to congressfolk

Sent a thank-you to Senator Harris for leading a charge against the anti-Muslim EO; sent a thank-you to Senator Feinstein for registering a tough “fuck no” on Senator Sessions as candidate for Attorney General. (To be clear, those were not her words.)

[daltongraham]

Thank you letters

A humble proposal (for IF you have the spoons):

For each angry or critical letter you send or phone call you make, consider doing a thank you as well. A thank you for a vote you agree with, or for something somebody did nice for you, or a slightly nicer tip if you can afford it. Or even a thank you to a store clerk for a job well done (or for pushing through what looks like an awful day?). 

Ima try to do this myself. These are scary times, and people are upset all over. Can’t hurt to try to do a few nice things to help us all get through.

[daltongraham]

Phone calls FTW: staffer says call every day

tl;dr: Senator staffer says calls are more effective than letters, and calls get counted each day.

If you don’t have the spoons to call, you don’t have the spoons. No big. Put on your own oxygen mask. But if you can make yourself call--I’m going to try to--here is a case from Sonya Huber, the organizer of the disabilitymarch, on why calls are key:

(From Ms Huber’s FB)

From a high-level staffer for a Senator:

There are two things that all Democrats should be doing all the time right now, and they're by far the most important things. You should NOT be bothering with online petitions or emailing.

1. The best thing you can do to be heard and get your congressperson to pay attention is to have face-to-face time - if they have town halls, go to them. Go to their local offices. If you're in DC, try to find a way to go to an event of theirs. Go to the "mobile offices" that their staff hold periodically (all these times are located on each congressperson's website). When you go, ask questions. A lot of them. And push for answers. The louder and more vocal and present you can be at those the better.

2. But, those in-person events don't happen every day. So, the absolute most important thing that people should be doing every day is calling. You should make 6 calls a day: 2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative.

The staffer was very clear that any sort of online contact basically gets immediately ignored, and letters pretty much get thrown in the trash (unless you have a particularly strong emotional story - but even then it's not worth the time it took you to craft that letter). Calls are what all the congresspeople pay attention to. Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics. They're also sorted by zip code and area code. She said that Republican callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1, and when it's a particular issue that single-issue-voters pay attention to (like gun control, or planned parenthood funding, etc...), it's often closer to 11-1, and that's recently pushed Republican congressmen on the fence to vote with the Republicans. In the last 8 years, Republicans have called, and Democrats haven't.

So, when you call:

A) When calling the DC office, ask for the Staff member in charge of whatever you're calling about ("Hi, I'd like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please") - local offices won't always have specific ones, but they might. If you get transferred to that person, awesome. If you don't, that's ok - ask for their name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone. Don't leave a message (unless the office doesn't pick up at all - then you can...but it's better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).

B) Give them your zip code. They won't always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.

C) If you can make it personal, make it personal. "I voted for you in the last election and I'm worried/happy/whatever" or "I'm a teacher, and I am appalled by Betsy DeVos," or "as a single mother" or "as a white, middle class woman," or whatever.

D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on. Don't go down a whole list - they're figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists. So, focus on 1-2 per day. Ideally something that will be voted on/taken up in the next few days, but it doesn't really matter - even if there's not a vote coming up in the next week, call anyway. It's important that they just keep getting calls.

E) Be clear on what you want - "I'm disappointed that the Senator..." or "I want to thank the Senator for their vote on..." or "I want the Senator to know that voting in _____ way is the wrong decision for our state because..." Don't leave any ambiguity.

F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you - it doesn't matter. The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway, so even if they're really sick of you, they'll be gone in 6 weeks. From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward (which is a lot of people) don't worry about it - there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible has some, there are lots of others floating around these day). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural. Put the 6 numbers in your phone (all under P – Politician. An example is McCaskill MO, Politician McCaskill DC, Politician Blunt MO, etc...) which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.

[daltongraham]

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