Phone banking, why I do it, and faith
It's not just cause I think a candidate will win, but it IS important!
Before anything else, this is a link to doing to phone banking if you feel like doing it after reading this. I understand that everyone may not agree with it and some people who do you may not find it effective but this is not because I think my method is best or the miracle work. This is about me and what works for me. You may find something in here, you may not. I think it's cool.
https://www.mobilize.us/
I did phone banking recently and I'll just be straight up, I'm not the greatest at it. Even when I found the script I probably sound very nervous and I'm probably the most chatty both sides type of person. But I do it anyway and I do it for a few reasons:
If I don't do it who will?
Just doing it may inspire others to do it.
Even if you're mediocre at something whether it's phone banking or whatever, being there and trying is better than not being there at all.
If I don't try, I'll be kicking myself that I never tried. If and when the opportunity no longer presents itself, it would suck to me that I never tried.
I know there's a lot going on right now and even with these principles in mind it can be still hard for me to go and phone bank. It can be hard to deal with the doubts and sometimes I think like ‘what does it matter? These things are so small, they don't matter they're not on the news and nobody's going to remember it. Stuff is right in anyway, we're already on the doom train and things are only going to get worse from here. You're wasting your time and even then you're putting yourself out there for people that may not care about you and if they win, they could be hypocrites and even if they get in they’re not gonna do what they say, and if they lose well you just wasted your time’ and so on and so on.
But even if it's me or someone else saying that. Those are just thoughts towards claims. And even though the negative may be right and cynicism helps keep you protected when stuff goes down, it doesn't mean that's true. And doesn't mean that your action is useless. It may not meet the result that you want but as I'm learning in my personal life, I can't do actions based on results I have to do them based on whether or not it's consistent with how I want to live. If it is then it at least it helps me beat back the barrier of cynicism.
I have days where I must stay in bed sometimes. I do phone banking and virtual things because it gives me the opportunity to help someone who may not know what to do and needs to be informed. I do it because I live in a time where I'm able to and I'm not going to say I lost before I even witnessed the bad thing!
So many people think the big stuff is whether or not someone gets prosecuted and in jail or whether or not someone in the passing of a law with every big stake behind it is the end all be all. And those things are really really big and are super important! But if I get to get any point across with this blog it's that the little things the things that are closer to people and the things that are never covered on the news that people check in on for the small amounts per day… that stuff is at least, as important because it's the stuff directly next to you. That stuff is just as important. It's the stuff that goes into how much funding your school gets or whether or not a big law gets enacted or followed in your area or whether or not your right to be who are or do what you love is ignored or not.
You wouldn't believe how many people, really smart people and really wise people, just don't know what's going on with voting and may not have the time or just because they decide to get everything else from it.. they get their news from Facebook or other social media that may not have all the facts. For everyone that may yell at you or everyone that may hang up on you, there's one or two people that really need help and that really want the help. It feels really good to help those people. And to me, I’m acting in a way that coincides with those values up there. Screw the paralyzing future and the nostalgic past. With stuff like this, for me, the present matters most!
And no matter the result of any election that I may phone bank with, making sure everyone is informed, making sure that as many people know about little issues as they come up, making sure that everyone is on equal playing field is something that I like to do and that I'm passionate about. I hope more people are passionate about it too sometime.
I'm not saying that it's a fix for that if you do it everything will be OK. It's not the case and we all have to be able to do we can. I'm just doing what I can and saying don't give up until the bad thing happens. Don't lose faith without trying until you can no longer try.
There are a few people like Teri Kanefield, and Ruth Ben Giat who inspire me with their posts. Their stuff goes far beyond the opinion pieces and Stream of consciousness type rating than I do here. If you like the this post you will probably like them a lot more. They certainly have been some of the people to put things in perspective for me.
Hope you stick around and maybe find some dry info similar to this one! Let’s learn more and encourage others to help democracy grow where we can! Go for boring y’all!
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