democracy

A Postcard Primer

/ nagneberg48 / 6 Comments

June 11, 2024

Stephen Carter in his book, Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy offers a list of rules of civility. For example:

Civility has two parts: generosity, even when it is costly, and trust, even when there is risk.
Civility requires a commitment to live a common moral life.
Civility requires that we express ourselves in ways that demonstrate our respect for others.
Teaching civility by work and example is an obligation of the family.
Religions do their greatest service to civility when they preach not only love of neighbor but resistance to wrong.

As I prepare to work on another postcard campaign to encourage voting, I think about the simple ways we can promote civility–and how much that is needed. Making sure that every eligible voter is able to vote, feels comfortable voting, knows how and when to vote without impediment, and does not take this right for granted seems to me to be signs of a civil society.

In my April 9, 2024 post https://wordpress.com/post/livingonlifeslabyrinth.com/3340 I shared my practice of working on postcard campaigns. That is certainly not the only way to become involved during this crucial campaign year, but it is one thing I can do. Yes, it does take time, and there is a financial cost, for postcard stamps are not cheap (.53 each) and you need to buy postcards as well. I like to buy my postcards on Etsy, for not only are they attractive and colorful, but I also support working artists that way. A double win. https://www.etsy.com/search?q=etsy+postcards+for+voters&ref=search_bar

I have signed up to write postcards for the following organizations and invite you to check out their websites.

  1. Postcards to Voters: https://postcardstovoters.org
  2. Activate America: https://www.activateamerica.vote/postcard

You can choose campaigns that fit your time frame and also the campaigns that specifically interest you. And you can decide how many addresses you want to receive. I usually sign-up for 50 names/addresses, but sometimes a last-minute request comes to send a smaller amount, 5 or 10, and I try to do those, too. That means having supplies on hand–postcards and stamps; both can be ordered online, of course.

Both organizations give you specific instructions that include the deadline for mailing, the specific script to write on each postcard, along with the name and address of the recipient. You sign the postcard with only your first name.

I work on postcards while watching a movie or waiting for the pasta water to boil or sometimes after my morning meditation, which includes a prayer for our country, I write a few postcards. It all adds up.

I also recommend Jessica Craven’s website, Chop Wood, Carry Water, https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/p/chop-wood-carry-water-67-eef and encourage you to subscribe to it, for at the end of each post she gives very specific actions, including scripts for phone calls and letter writing and postcard campaigns.

The newsletters written by Robert Hubbell and Heather Cox Richardson comment on current issues, along with judicial and historical references, giving you motivation as well as factual back-up for working to save our democracy.https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/november-5th-will-be-our-d-day https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-7-2024-36d

Here’s a thought: gather friends for a postcard party. You can supply the postcards and stamps. Request the names and addresses ahead of time and give each guest a script and a certain number of names/addresses. Drinks and snacks are, of course, a must! Voila–you’ve got a stack of postcards to mail, and you’ve made a difference.

I am getting ready to work on two campaigns. One is for voters in Milwaukee, WI, encouraging them to vote. The other is for Sherrod Brown, running for re-election as senator from Ohio. This is a tight and critical race, but the words of Martin Luther King, Jr inspire me. “I have a dream…” and “Let Freedom ring.”

An Invitation

Feel free to share this post and/or the links included in the post with others who might be wondering what they can do during this scary and stressful time. We each can make a difference.

Action VS Indifference

/ nagneberg48 / 6 Comments

April 9, 2024

We do not have the luxury of indifference.

Robert Hubbell

Since the beginning of this year I have participated in several postcard campaigns to encourage people to register to vote and to actually vote in a primary. I have sent postcards to support specific candidates, including Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, Ruben Gallego in Arizona, and Tom Suozzi in New York. My total postcards: 300. So far.

I say this not to elicit praise or to pat myself on the back. Instead, I urge you to do what you can to save democracy. Fundraisers often say, “No gift is too small,” and I hasten to add “No action is too small.”

Doing What I Can

I am a terrible phone person. I don’t enjoy talking on the phone. I even dislike making phone calls and am so grateful for the ability to do much of what I need to do via email or text. I am grateful for all the people who participate in phone-calling events in support of candidates and campaigns, but that is not something I will be doing in the next seven months. (EEEK–only seven months before election day in November.)

I also won’t be walking door to door, passing out leaflets, engaging people in conversations. I did that decades ago, but that method no longer fits who I am now and what I am able to do.

What I can do, however, is participate in postcard campaigns. I can order postcards with a voting theme from Etsy. I can buy rolls of postcard stamps. In fact, the last time I did so, the mail clerk subtly asked me why I needed so many postcard stamps. Our conversation was brief and careful, but I could tell he was intrigued and you never know…

I can watch a movie on Netflix as I address and handprint the message provided by the sponsoring organization or I can sit at the dining room table and work on a few more postcards while dinner is baking in the oven. Soon I will be able sit at the bistro table in my secret “Paris” garden or on the patio and write postcards while I enjoy fresh air and birdsong and the glories of my husband’s gardening efforts.

I can drop the postcards in the mailbox a couple blocks away when I go on an afternoon walk.

I must do something because this is not a time for indifference.

Reasons for Doing What I Can

I receive several daily or weekly newsletters that keep me informed and motivated and help me focus. If I feel myself holding my breath as I read them, I know it is time to sign-up for another postcard campaign.

#1 From Robert Hubbell’s Today’s Edition Newsletter, April 2, 2024 https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/we-dont-have-the-luxury-of-indifference

We live in a world where the only US president ever to attempt a coup has a too-close-for-comfort chance of being re-elected on a platform of overt fascism. That changes everything. We do not have the luxury of indifference.

We do not have the luxury of being “just” journalists, lawyers, elected officials, educators, students, co-workers, entertainers, parents, family members, or citizens. At this moment, we must be defenders of democracy in everything we do. If not, we betray and abandon the Constitution. There is no in-between. The question has been called.

Indifference is a choice. Cynicism is a choice. “Just doing my job” is a choice.

Democracy is a choice.

Defending democracy is a duty that appears unbidden when Americans least expect it. Every generation before ours has discharged that duty honorably. Ours cannot be the one to falter.

#2 From Diana Butler’s Newsletter, The Cottage, April 3, 2024. https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/donald-trumps-political-idolatry

The media is not misrepresenting evangelical views. It comes from evangelicals themselves — they embrace the theology of Trump the Savior, a new political Jesus. They believe it. They believe that Trump is being sacrificed for them.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8iKaBf7lSqM?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

The most telling part in this video is the opening interview with two evangelical voters. They clearly understand the Bible and evangelical views of salvation — you could hear these verses quoted and this theology expressed on any given Sunday (or Wednesday night Bible study) in any evangelical church in the United States. They don’t get the theology wrong. 

And then they apply it to Trump:

Man: “THE BIBLE SAYS HE WAS WOUNDED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS. HE DID IT FOR US. WHEN TRUMP IS FACING ALL THESE THINGS IS HE DOING IT FOR US IN OUR PLACE.”

Woman: “JESUS DIED FOR MY SINS. JESUS DIED FOR ME AND SO I — IT CONNECTS IN MY BRAIN THAT WAY. LIKE, HE IS DOING THIS FOR US AS A COUNTRY TO MAKE THE CHANGES WE NEED TO MAKE AND HE IS THE TARGET WHERE WE DON’T HAVE TO BE.”

Acting Instead of Feeling Overwhelmed

I choose the amount of time I spend listening to, watching, or reading about current events and the resulting commentary. I choose to spend part of my morning devotion time praying for the existence and renewal of democracy in this country and all those who are attempting to save it. However, I still feel overwhelmed and discouraged at times.

Yup, that’s when it’s time to sign-up for another postcard campaign.

Karen Hering in her remarkable book, Trusting Change, Finding Our Way Through Personal and Global Transformation advises:

Describe a practice you use to calm or settle yourself when experiencing strong reflexive responses of fear or anger. What do you experience when you do this?

p. 155

Writing in my journal always calms me and clarifies what I am feeling and often reveals a next step. I’ve discovered writing postcards also calms me and is a step I can take.

Name one global threshold you are concerned about, whether or not you have been actively engaged in addressing it. Share some of your skills or knowledge that might be helpful in that issue…

p. 155

I have the time. I print legibly. I can afford to buy postcards and stamps.

Simple.

One More Quote and a Companion Book

The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up–ever–trusting our fellow citizens to join with us in our determined pursuit of a living democracy?

One of the voices of wisdom who sits on my shelf is Parker J. Palmer. Right now I think I need to re-read his 2011 book, Healing the Heart of Democracy, The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit.

An Invitation

What is it you can do to resist indifference? I would love to know.

Resources for Action

Americans of Conscience https://americansofconscience.com

Activate America https://www.activateamerica.vote

Postcards to Voters https://postcardstovoters.org

Chop Woods, Carry Water https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com

I buy postcards from various artists on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com

Feeling Hopeful

/ nagneberg48 / 6 Comments

August 8, 2023

On our way to pick-up grandson Peter from Camp Widjiwagan in Ely, MN, our daughter Kate suggested stopping at the Paul Wellstone Memorial. Wellstone was Minnesota’s senator from 1991-2002. Just days before the election the plane he was in, along with his wife and daughter, campaign workers and pilots, crashed near Eveleth, MN. Wellstone was a beloved senator known for his progressive politics and his belief that individuals can and must make a difference. In fact, it is not unusual to still see cars with Paul Wellstone bumper stickers. He was and remains a hero to many.

We need a new kind of citizenship so that people earn the rank of the patriot because of involvement in their community affairs. We as a society need to encourage people to focus not just on individual wants, but on serving the the larger community.

Paul Wellstone

Standing before each of the ancient boulders commemorating the lives of each who died in that crash, I couldn’t help but wonder what Wellstone would say today about the precariousness of our democracy. I have no doubt, whether he would still be Minnesota’s senator or not, that he would remain devoted to public service and would be inspiring others to improve the lives of all those in need and experiencing injustice.

I admit, however, it is hard to be hopeful these days and far too easy to fall into fear and discouragement. As I walked this memorial trail, I felt sad and sober as I thought about these inspirational lives of action that had ended far too soon and worried about the morass we seem to find ourselves in today. Is it possible to build on Paul Wellstone’s optimism and energy? And his legacy.

At the beginning of the trail a poem by LeAnn Littlewolf is carved on a large boulder, along with the image of an eagle. Apparently, eagles were seen soaring over the crash site as rescuers arrived.

I took the message of the eagles so beautifully expressed in the poem with me as we continued on our way to Widji.

Peter had been on a ten day hiking trip in the Rockies, along with four other campers and a counselor. During that time there had been no communication home, and we were all eager to hear about their adventures and to know that the time away from screens and conveniences had been positive. We were full of questions, but first, we just needed to give that big guy a squeeze. The reunion was sweet, indeed.

Peter had an incredible time and is even talking about going on a longer trip next year.

SONY DSC
SONY DSC

Many other groups had returned from their adventures that same day and during the closing campfire, we were treated to stories and memories and accomplishments. Much had been learned. Much had been gained–confidence, compassion and respect for others, care and love for all of creation. The bonds that had been formed were tangible, and I felt the eagle spirit within me and around me soar.

We must not be complacent. Nor can we elders simply turn the mess we are in over to our young people, but it is in this kind of preparation and intention that our hope becomes alive.

On the way home, as Peter talked nonstop, describing each meal, each peak they climbed and the beauties of what they saw, along with the personalities of each of his new brothers, I thought about Paul Wellstone’s earnest encouragement.

We all do better when we all do better.

There is good reason to hope.

An Invitation

Where have you experienced a reason to hope. I would love to know.

Special Request:

I am writing an article for BookWomen about keeping a book journal and TBR (To Be Read) lists. I would love to hear from you about the ways you keep track of what you read or want to read. OR if you don’t record your reading life, why not? Do you use Good Reads or another online method? Do you have a physical book dedicated to book lists? What else do you keep track of in your reading life? Number of pages read? A summary of each book read? Do you give books stars to evaluate what you’ve read? I would love to learn it all. Send me an email at nagneberg48@gmail.com and do it soon, please. I have an August 20th deadline, so I am working on this now. Thanks–and I hope to hear from you.

Thanks to all of you who have responded. I intend to respond to each of you personally, but before I can do that, please know I am grateful.