- In case you missed it, my definitive guide to political letter writing.
- Watch this short video from Senator Cory Booker. It was a big inspiration to me and was part of the push I needed to create Resistance Letters. A lot of credit goes to him, and to President Obama’s Farewell Address. Required viewing for a libral activist in need of some optimism.
- If you want to speak directly to your local representative, you can search the Town Hall Project and see when your Congressperson will be in your area. Hopefully, they’ll be holding an open forum. If not, show up to their office or try to meet with them one-on-one. Many small town representatives are (usually) willing to sit down with small groups.
- Check out the Indivisible Guide, a grassroots-inspired liberal action plan for resisting the Trump Administration. Download the 5 Calls app, which allows you to quickly and easily call your Congresspeople – 5 calls in 5 minutes.
- Newspapers are crucial right now. Consider investing in and subscribing to your local paper – that’s where a lot of stories get started before they become national, and it’s also where a lot of investigative, “boots on the ground” reporting comes from. And we are in desperate need of that.
- There are some interesting alternative organizations and websites that do good work, but float a bit under the radar. I consider a few of these to be a little off the mainstream. I do not hide that these are liberal-leaning. I rely on these sources and find them to be quite authoritative, but we should question everything in the media, even if they claim to be reliable – and beware of fake news from any and all areas.
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Remezcla
- For D.C.-area lesbian/trans women, there’s a great resource at Tagg
- Mother Jones
- Vox
- Native News Online
- Russ Kick’s Memory Hole, a project dedicated to preserving material deleted or hidden by the government
- More popularly, Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Guardian are notable to me for their strong journalism
- Masha Gessen is an absolute authority on the subject of all things related to Russia, which is especially crucial with the Russian corruption and interference in our politics. Her “Autocracy: Rules for Survival” is utterly essential reading and is a primer for our resistance movement.
- You can buy stamps from the United States Postal Service. It’s always nice to get ones that celebrate diversity, but the choice is yours. You can find out where your closest post office is here. You have the ability to mail 4 letters for as low as $2.
- If you’re considering donating money to a charity, check Give.org and Charitynavigator.org first. The sites will give you an idea of the legitimacy of the charity you’ve chosen, and you can see how much money is actually given to the cause. If you’re looking for a place to start, perhaps donate to your local legislators/small town governances (that’s where so much change begins), or to organizations that represent liberal causes in court. Local homeless and battered women’s shelters always need money, as do libraries. Sometimes it’s best to start close to home. Make your hard-earned dollars count.
- Register to vote – and vote in all elections, no matter how small. Change starts at the local level, and are litmus tests for the country at large.
- Quick reference guide to access your Congresspeople in D.C.:
- House Representatives and their addresses/phone numbers
- Senators and their addresses/phone numbers
- Local office addresses/phone numbers can be found on the Congressperson’s .gov website
Photo: Foliage from the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
