Ramping Up My Activism: Calling US Senators and Congressperson

The last week or so I've ramped up my political action. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions journey and has given me some challenges to overcome and to learn from. My actions have included:

• Calling my Senators and Representative in the US government to register my support, my discontent, and my thoughts on some of the legislation and actions taken by the Senate and the House of Representatives
• Started volunteer work for the Ameya Pawar campaign for the Illinois Governorship

Frankly, both activities go against my somewhat shy nature. Maybe it's my empathic nature where, for myself, I prefer certain contexts for being solicited or approached by someone else, and I don't have many contexts where I like being approached by most strangers (even when I'm shopping or something like that). So if I don't like being approached, why would I approach someone else in that context?

Calling the office of a Senator or Representative doesn't necessarily make me so prickly. Their job is to represent me and my fellow citizens in their state and districts, so part of their job is to know what me and my fellow citizens want and need for them to do in our governmental institutions. Plus if they didn't want to make direct contact with someone, they can hire someone to take calls and messages for them. Honestly, I would be fine just leaving them a voicemail if my opinion and feelings reached them.

My challenge comes down to location of where I would make the phone calls. Let's just say TPTB at my 9-5 don't have the same political sympathies as me, so I don't want them hearing my political business. The summer has made things a little easier (especially at this point when the humidity and heat has calmed the hell down, at least had for a few weeks. . .), so I found somewhere outside to get away to. I'll just have to see what happens when the cold weather sets in.

I delayed making the first call because I had to get organized. I wanted to know what I wanted to call about and what I wanted to say. The first part gave me little trouble: [45] deciding to end DACA in six months triggered my rage to ramp up a couple levels. I tried writing a script for myself then said screw it. I didn't want to sound wooden and didn't really think a phone call was the appropriate time/space for some rando citizen to go on a minute long tirade or diatribe. I didn't think of it then, but I also figure that the number of callers play a more important than necessarily the eloquence of an individual caller.

Instead, I looked up the Senator I wanted to call and DACA/DREAM Act and saw that they were involved in the committee that dealt with these topics before bringing it to the rest of the Senate and that he supports the passage of the DREAM Act. I called, reached the person who answers the phone and records the sentiments of the citizen calling, told them how I felt, acknowledged that they recorded how I felt, then we hung up.

I feel like I only made one mistake: referring to the Senator by their first name. The person I spoke with did a favor and politely referred to them as Senator, which helped me realize the mistake. I resolved to keep in mind not to do that again and refer to a Senator as Senator [last name] and Congressperson as Congressperson [last name]. Didn't dwell on it much more than that as I chocked it up to inexperience and nervousness.

That night, I set up a spreadsheet (because that's what I do these days, set up spreadsheets to stay organized, don't we all?). On the left side, I type in the causes/acts/actions, list on the top Senators and Congressperson, then type in N/A for nothing to call them on or write in the date I called them to discuss. At some point, I want to add my state government officials representing me to do the same thing, maybe also my county and city officials, too. Look out, government officials, I'll be calling you.

Something else occurred that night that helped develop the tactics for the next day. I had originally planned to call my other Senator, but looking through my e-mails from the organizations that I have regular donations set up, I learned that in a couple days, the House would be voting on HB3697 The Criminal Alien Gang Member Removal Act and everything about it sounded horrible. I called my Congressperson the next day, told them that I appreciate their support for the DREAM Act and wanted them to vote against HB3697 because it felt cruel, unAmerican, and inhuman since a lot of action in it just required suspicion, not actual evidence or proof.

To build on some type of interaction feedback loop, the person at the Congressperson's office I spoke with notified me that it's offically called the DREAM Act of 2017 since there are DREAM Acts from previous years, too. Using that information, I called the other Senator the next day and made sure to tell them that I supported their stance on the DREAM Act of 2017. In the meantime, though, I had learned the radio that day or the day before that the Far Right in Congress want to attach funding for the Mexican Wall and more Border Security in the DREAM Act of 2017, so I made sure to let them know that I was against all that and that I wanted a good, reasonable and moral/ethical DREAM Act of 2017, not one that will make things worse.

It feels like I'm a node or hub of intercourse for all these matters as I listen to the news, read up on my e-mails that provide news and information on these acts and legislation up for debate and votes, keep up with friends and others affected by the actions of Congress and the President, and even listening to people I'm speaking on the phone at the offices of my Senators and Congressperson. By the last phone call to one of my Senators for the week, I actually felt like I was providing information to the office that they may not have had on hand (unless they just had a really good, personable person on the phone who knows how to make a person feel valued and worth listening to).

I plan to make more phone calls to my representatives as weather and opportunities give me opportunities. I'll probably even rehash one topic with the first Senator's office as I have refined my knowledge and the situation has developed more then move onto some additional topics that have come to my attention over the weekend. I might actually enjoy becoming known and friendly with the people who answer the phones. For the most part, my Senators and Congressperson generally stand for the things that I do, so, if anything, they'll appreciate getting my support not just in the voting booth, but also over the phone. They may even get familiar with my name, as they hear it over the phone and through petitions, faxes, and other forms of communication they receive from me.

We'll see what happens there. For now, though, I'll have to end this blog entry. I had planned to get into volunteering for the Ameya Pawar for IL Governorship campaign, but it got late. I didn't expect to write so much about calling my representatives. You should do it, too. I want to write about volunteering for the campaign sometime later this week, though. That work really gave me the emotional roller coaster and has done more to develop my thinking on electoral politics and citizenship, so the next one will get into some amount of political philosophy wonk. It should be interesting and emotional.

I hope to see you come back!

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