After much ruminating, I decided to join the challenge at Reduce Footprints, a great blog that hosts something called Change the World Wednesday each week. Each week presents a new challenge that anyone can join, promoting healthy habits in sustainable living. Tweet about your challenge using the #CTWW hashtag, and of course, feel free to Up the Ante by taking the challenge even further.
This past week, the challenge was to Become An Activist, and I was hooked. Activism is something that I’ve wanted to engage in further, but never felt super confident about. I have signed many online petitions, but it has always felt like armchair activism. Am I really accomplishing something? It’s tough to tell. I asked my question to Reduce Footprints, and they said it really does, especially if you follow up on the cause.
Why Activism?
In a more harmonious and sustainable world, community decisions are made by its people, the residents. An active political life among everyday citizens is crucial to keeping power out of minority, special interests. For me, activism is about engaging in political life and trying to make my voice heard.
I was inspired by the challenge to revisit signing online petitions. Petition signatures do get tallied by staff members, and calls do get answered. So there is some weight to an online petition, and it’s not pure fluff.
My Challenge
I signed an online petition organized by the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA). Recently, the Agriculture Appropriations Bill was passed by the House. Briefly, an overview of what was included in the bill:
- Cut $650 million from the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program
- Significant cuts to food safety in the midst of rising E. Coli outbreaks
- Farm subsidies were untouched, no cuts there.
- The USDA’s school lunch nutrition standards were sent back to the drawing boards, essentially getting rid of nutritional standards for schools that wanted to comply.
- Thankfully, a ban on genetically engineered salmon designed to grow twice as fast as wild salmon.
- Cut $1 billion from conservation funding
- Drop the USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food program
As you might have guessed, PANNA was upset about the last two points and sent out an action alert encouraging its e-mail list to write and call their Senators in opposition to this situation.
So I wrote my Senators. It was easy, since PANNA has already written the e-mail for me. But I wanted to up the ante. So today, minutes before publishing this post, I called my California Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. It wasn’t too bad. I asked to speak to a staff member responsible for agriculture, and left my comments. That was that. I recorded my calls, you can listen to them at the bottom of the page.
I combined PANNA’s tips and talking points with my own arguments:
1. Conservation programs were already cut by $500 million in 2011 and the House is proposing an additional cut of $1 billion for 2012. In a time when loss of biodiversity, environmental pollution, and dwindling resource reserves are at an all-time high, conservation programs are in dire need right now. Farmers committed to conservation practices improve the fertility of soil, create healthy environments for communities, and actually restore natural resources for future generations to enjoy. If we want our children’s children to live healthy lives, we absolutely need effective conservation programs in place. The responsible, adult choice is to support conservation.
2. Conservation programs are good for the economy – they create good jobs and are an investment in future fertility.
3. Cuts to conservation programs are disproportionate to other spending cuts, revealing strong special interest in funded programs.
4. The Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative (KYF, KYF) provides crucial coordination and public outreach to build new income opportunities for farmers producing for the local and regional markets. These markets are essential to rural economic recovery and cutting KYF, KYF is shortsighted and extreme.
5. Development of local and regional food systems and markets is a job creator and good policy.
Overall, not a bad experience! I want to do it again now!
//Update// I figured out the audio! Here it is:
Dianne Feinstein:
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Barbara Boxer:
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Wowee … you are a Rock Star!! And I love that you bounced off of a petition site to take further action. Your comments were so well thought out and logical! I can hardly wait until next Wednesday to include this post in my “recap”. Congrats … your actions are truly inspiring!
Thank you!! It’s something I always wanted to do, but never had the guts. So thank you for the kick in the pants
Well done! That took guts to call our senators. I’m listening to your comments now and wondering if I could ever work myself up to doing that. It’s good to know that even online petitions make a difference — maybe we sell ourselves short sometimes in the face of these seemingly huge problems. Change begins with small steps and individual voices.
Thanks, Jennifer! I was certainly scared out of my wits beforehand, not knowing what to expect, thinking they might try and explain me away. I researched the bill briefly to get an idea of what it was about and that helped a lot. But once I finished my first call, it felt super smooth and easy! They say a phone call is worth dozens of e-mails. So, I’m going to try and stick with phone calls whenever I want to send a message to my Senators. That makes it more intentional and mindful and has greater effect in the end. E-mails and online petitions feel too much like armchair activism.
You are totally right! “Change begins with small steps and individual voices.”
Great job! I signed a bunch of online petitions this Spring when Planned Parenthood was on the cutting-board from federal funding. PP said that all of the online support was very helpful, so since then, I’ve been trying to sign other online petitions as well. Thanks for spreading the word about PANNA. Let us know of other important organizations to support and petitions to sign. Informing your blog readers is a great way to be an activist.
Thanks, Emily! That’s really great to know PP benefited from online support. Looks like armchair activism works after all! I’ll be sure to post other important petitions to sign and letters to write.
Awesome, Lynn! Good job. It’s funny how scary things become nothing at all once we push ourselves to go through with them. Thanks for uploading the recordings! Please let us know what kind of response you get.
Thanks, Andrea! I know, it was totally nothing after it was done! I received an e-mail response from them, acknowledging receipt of my message and stating that Dianne Feinstein is actively working to fight these cuts.
I think I like this calling thing. Do you just get to talk to staff or is there ever a chance you get to talk to a real senator? I want to make some calls, but always feel like I need to be super prepared about it, so I never do it. There are a handful of issues I would like to call about. I am inspired, so thank you!
I only spoke with staff, not sure how to talk to a real senator. I was worried they’d try to talk me away from what I wanted to say, but they just listened. So I just spilled on the talking points. You don’t need to be super prepared, because they won’t be debating you. But do prepare a little bit, so you know what message you want to get across. Hope it works out for you! I hope to read about your experience
Awesome, Lynn! It’s helpful to know that signing online petitions work. I like what you said about how calling feels more intentional. I’m so inspired by your guts and your success story.
Thanks, Sandra! I agree, I was never certain before. Now, I can feel great about signing dozens of petitions online
Well done Lynn. I really like that you went above and beyond signing a petition. That extra phone call could make a big difference. Thanks for investing the time. It was great to listen to the audio.
Thanks, Lori! Glad the audio was useful. I was super awkward, being it was my first time, but thought that people might still be interested in hearing it.
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