Lydia Likes It

The volunteering life {when one door closes}

For the past eight years, I've been organizing a political postcarding group of 70+ writers from all around the country, friends and friends of friends and sisters of friends and new friends. We've written and mailed more than 30,000 postcards to voters, reminding people to vote, encouraging voter registration, promoting vote-by-mail. Now, with the election behind us, I feel it's time for me to step away from that project, and fill the couple of hours I spent on it every week with something else.

So, what's next? I've been considering a few things, and have talked with three different organizations about them: running a conversation group for English language learners; helping immigrants who are applying for US citizenship to practice for their citizenship test; doing one-on-one conversation with someone in Ukraine who wants to practice English.

I'm also quite keen to write another book in the spirit of There's a What in My Where?. To be honest, I've been thinking about it for close to a year, but have had trouble corraling my thoughts into a concept that feels tight. The idea I've been toying with just hasn't jelled yet. Perhaps I'm fighting against my own notions of what this book might be, and for whom I would be writing it. Time to just sit down and write, I think, and see what dribbles out.

Mail-in ballots

When I first became eligible to vote, back in the Stone Age (on my 18th birthday), there were two ways to vote: in person on Election Day, or by absentee ballot. In order to qualify for an absentee ballot, you had to promise to be absent on Election Day: away from home (at college, in the military, etc.), or planning something more dire, like a hospital stay or traveling for work. Thank goodness things have changed! Now you can vote early in person or with a mail-in ballot, like the one I receive for every election in Boston (despite the fact that I live only two blocks from my polling place). Some states send them automatically to every registered voter; other states require a sign-up (often online). No excuses necessary! Fill out your mail-in ballot at home and send it in by the deadline, or drop it in a ballot box or at a local election office. Easy peasy, so there's no excuse for not voting.

Leaders We Deserve

When he was a high school senior in 2018, David Hogg survived one of the deadliest mass shootings in an American school, at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Since then, David co-founded March for Our Lives, an organization that has motivated young people around the country to keep the issue of gun violence in front of the rest of us, and he went to Harvard. Now David has taken his activism to the next level; he's co-founded Leaders We Deserve, a grassroots organization dedicated to electing young progressives to Congress and State Legislatures across the country to help defeat the far-right agenda and advance a progressive vision for the future. "Our mission, "says the web site, "is to identify and elect more trailblazers – youthful, audacious, and charismatic leaders who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo. We pledge to stand with them, equipping their campaigns with the tools to succeed: from fundraising and messaging to scheduling and budgeting. We’ll raise the banner of their cause, rallying funds online and in person." And these young leaders are not out there alone. Take a look at Leaders We Deserve's Advisory Board. Impressive! And then, if you can, consider whether you might like to join me in supporting this next generation of leaders.

Civic Shout

What's better than a petition that's a bit left-leaning, brief and to-the-point, from a nonprofit partner organization you trust on an issue you care about, that comes right into your inbox and you can sign with your email address? Civic Shout, based in Delaware, sends me one or two petitions each day, on topics like protecting old-growth forests, racial justice, urging Congress not to give public land to mining companies, extending the deadline for higher education financial aid, and protecting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. For each petition, you know what organization is sponsoring it, and what the key text of the petition advocates. Sign the petitions you support, and skip the ones you don't. This is not a fundraising operation; it's strictly petitions created by some of the best known nonprofits, like Sierra Club, Save the Children, Oxfam, Greenpeace, Amnesty International and more, on issues that are near and dear to my heart. I've looked all through their site, and there doesn't seem to be a way to sign up, but if you skim through their list of most recent petitions and sign one, I think that will get you on the Civic Shout mailing list. I'm sure that's how they found me, and I'm so glad they did.

Get Up, Stand Up

Starting the new year ready to work hard to preserve our democracy? Me, too. The fabulous Jamaican singer Bob Marley, who left us in 1981, led Bob Marley & The Wailers in the most poignant, and commercially successful, reggae hits of the 1980s. The 1984 best-of album Legend contains all of the top reggae songs you'll recognize, and will be on my playlist until at least November 2024. Now, turn up the sound, and sing out with the Wailers, in concert here in Munich in 1980.

 

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight

 

Preacher man don't tell me
Heaven is under the earth
I know you don't know
What life is really worth

He said all that glitters is gold
Half that story ain't never been told
So now you see the light, hey
You stand up for your right

Come on

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight

 

Most people think
Great God will come from the sky
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high

But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now a you see the light
You stand up for your right
Jah!

 

Get up, stand up (Jah, Jah)
Stand up for your right (oh-hoo)
Get up, stand up (get up, stand up)
Don't give up the fight (life is your right)
Get up, stand up (so we can't give up the fight)
Stand up for your rights (Lord, Lord)
Get up, stand up (keep on struggling on)
Don't give up the fight (yeah)

 

We're sick and tired of your ism-schism game
Dy'n' and go to Heaven in-a Jesus' name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man

You can fool some people sometimes
But you can't fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light (watch you gon' do?)
We gonna stand up for our rights (yeah, yeah)
So you'd better

 

Get up, stand up (in the morning) give it up
Stand up for your right (stand up right now)
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight (don't give it up, don't give it up)
Get up, stand up (get up, stand up)
Stand up for your rights (get up, stand up)
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight (get up, stand up)

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up
Don't give up the fight
Get up, stand up