Until Jerry and Penny come back to the area, I’ll be trying to get more involved in Democratic events and relay what I discover. I’m new to this activism, been fairly comfortable just letting things happen – but no more! What is in our White House now is horrific! Every belief I have is being trampled on and ridiculed all in the name of egos and money! I just can’t stand what’s happening in our country! Being an introvert has kept me from becoming active sooner, but I am forcing myself to do something! We can’t let our country continue on this way!
So here’s a little bit of what I’ve been doing:
Built and maintain this website! It’s loaded with valuable information that Jerry and Penny supply me!
My first attempt at getting involved was to attend an Indivisible meeting in Chico. I was impressed with the literature and website and the way they presented their ideas. I thought this would be an ideal place for me to start so I attended one of their meetings.
Unfortunately, I was not made to feel very welcome. There was a brief introduction saying that there were many “newcomers” but no effort to say who they were. Also no one really came forward to explain what the group was doing. The meeting was not as organized as I would have liked and many times there were signs of “eye rolling” because someone was taking too long to talk or talking off topic. I was a bit put off by this attitude, and felt uncomfortable because of it. There was no literature to take, a simple flyer describing the group’s purpose at least would have been nice. For me, this group was not a good fit.
So then I attended a Democratic Action Club of Chico meeting. MUCH better. Very organized, brief intro in the beginning of the meeting of group goals, past events discussed, coming events and what they were trying to accomplish. There was also a table with literature with people there to answer your questions. They had speakers and others were actively recruiting people to work on committees and events. I’ll be going again to another meeting this month and will probably “dive in” and try to help out in whatever way I can.
So the point of this is that if you’re holding a meeting, make sure everyone there knows what’s going on, what’s important to the group and reach out individually to people. It made a huge difference to me. And will be the difference in getting people interested in getting involved in the voting process!!
