Bleeding for Democracy

I ordered like a lot of postcards from an organization called Postcards to Swing States for the November election. I'm cringing at the number I put down. I'll be having a busy summer.  And spending time at the post office.

I am also writing letters to people in Florida for Vote Riders.  It's an educational letter about what type of ID you need in order to vote.  I committed myself to write 100 letters and I've done about 60.  I have about 10 for the state of Georgia. 

And finally, there's my year long writing campaign for Vote Forward where I've adopted many voters in various states for the mid term elections.  I can't even say how many.  I'm kind of embarrassed.

Why?  I feel like I have a disorder that's making me want to write all these letters.

I was a volunteer for the John Kerry people in 2004 and for the League of Conservation.  I wanted to make a difference and I wanted George W. Bush out of office badly.  Amazing how he doesn't seem so bad these days. I went door to door each weekend and did one phone bank for 2 plus months leading up to the election.  It was heartbreaking when Kerry lost.  I thought I'm never going to do that again.  It was too emotional and hard after hearing people's stories and feeling like their hopes have been dashed.

I wanted to volunteer in the 2008 election.  And the 2012 election.  After getting called during a baby killer during my one phone bank session, I knew I didn't have it in me to sustain any name calling with an African American candidate.  I just couldn't do it.  I cried more than once going door to door with people yelling at me and threatening me.

I wanted to do something so badly after 2016.  I wasn't horribly shocked by the election of Donald Trump.  I just felt like I can't just sit here and watch this.  How do I do something?  I've donated what little money I've had to candidates for Emily's lists, or local races.  No way in hell would I go door to door when it came to the 2016 election.

And then I found Vote Forward for the 2018 mid terms.  It was an introverted way of participating in elections without having to go door to door or make phone calls.  You write letters to a list of voters about why you're voting and why voting is important.  You write from the heart and you do it a non partisan way.  Writing from the heart is easy.  I'll admit I wanted to use a few names about the president in office during the 2018 mid terms.  I adopted voters from Kansas and Georgia.  It was kind of cool to see Lucy McBath and Sharice Davids win their elections.  It made me feel like I helped a little bit. 

There were other opportunities in 2019 for other elections and then 2020 came around and a pandemic.  While people stayed in their homes, bored from not being able to do anything I wrote letters like crazy.  I felt like a secret mail bandit the day that I mailed them.  Then the election in Georgia came way too quick for me but I had to contribute for that.  I just had to do it.

I don't know what drives me.  It's just letter writing.  I don't know if it makes a differences. When I see people protesting about the death of a man having his neck kneeled on, I want to do something.  When I hear the daily numbers of COVID 19 deaths, I want to do something.  When I see a gunman shot 10 people in a Buffalo grocery store, I got to do something.

I want to do something to make it better.  This is what I do.