Friday, March 17, 2017

A Call to Action: Let's Keep It Going

The latest in Wendy's "A Call to Action" series...

Two months out from Trump's inauguration, one of my worries is that the outrage is outlasting the action.  I see post after angry post on Indivisible Westchester and Up2Us, two local groups I follow (check out https://www.indivisibleguide.com/ to join in your own area). There are a lot of angry and sad face emoticons, but my sense -- which I hope is wrong -- is that the early momentum is fading a bit.  Perhaps that's part of the natural progression, and the next big push will be the 2018 elections.  But I believe that hearing the steady drumbeat of discontent will be a powerful motivator for those in Washington. 

Postcards, emails, phone calls and letters may feel like a drop in the bucket.  And in isolation, they are.  But collectively, they send a message from the electorate to the elected.  So I encourage you to channel the anger, not just into Facebook posts and cocktail party rage (though both have a place in keeping us informed and involved), but also into activism.

One small example is Tom's letter to The New York Times (which was published online) in response to John Kasich's March 10 op-ed piece.  Here's the letter.  If you read something that drives you wild (and I know you do, multiple times a day), why not write your own.  Let's keep it going.

To the Editor:
Gov. John Kasich’s calm call for a bipartisan reworking of the health care law seems at first blush to be the “adult in the room” wisdom we desperately need. But it is in reality only marginally better than the partisan screeching he is trying to reason past.
While Obamacare could certainly stand some strengthening, the rational way to proceed is to improve it, not “repeal and replace” it, as Mr. Kasich advocates. Ted Kennedy used to preach the virtues of passing even an imperfect bill on important issues and then fixing any flaws. That is the true “adult” wisdom we need today.
TOM GARDNER, NEW YORK








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