I Started Here: A Newbie’s Guide to Getting Involved, Going Grassroots, and Making Things Happen

I’m guilty of thinking that politics was something for “political people.” “Political people,” definition wholly mine, were mostly lawyers. They loved things like fundraising and C-SPAN. Some of them enjoyed FOX News, others preferred George Stephanopoulos.

Let’s jump ahead to the part where I realize that’s a wrongheaded way to look at things, and that lack of understanding and personal complacency (because feeling that racism (or any other issue) is wrong isn’t the same as DOING something about it — and DOING something doesn’t mean making a lot of furious Facebook posts) helps explain how we ended up where we are now as a nation.

Here are the specific actions I’ve taken to re-boot my understanding of politics and political action, and to start getting involved. This is two months worth of trial and error that I hope will help anyone not sure what to do next.

I read the Indivisible Guide (https://www.indivisibleguide.com/). It’s short and smart and focused on getting your local elected officials, the Senators and Congress members representing you, to listen to your concerns. At most this will take you an hour to read.

I found action-oriented grassroots groups on Facebook. After the election, many groups sprung up on Facebook. Find one. Find three. Join. Start reading posts, start engaging with the group’s action. Don’t forget to join and follow organizations doing work on more focused issues and concerns: Planned Parenthood, the NAACP, Black Lives Matter, the ACLU and the myriad local groups working on those issues along with immigration, health care, climate change. One hurdle — some groups are closed, so unless you have a member add you there isn’t a way to know they exist. Here’s how I joined my favorite closed group, Action Together NJ: I went to pick up a rental car on November 11th, and started, cautiously, talking about the election with my favorite employee at the rental car place. She mentioned that another customer, a business owner I’d met a few times in town, was in an off-shoot group of Pantsuit Nation focused on action. I messaged her on Facebook (and felt a little bit weird about it since I was almost a stranger to her). She was happy to add me to the group. Chances are slim this will happen to you (unless you also have an awesome friend at a rental car company), so be bolder than I was — ask your friends if they’re in any helpful groups. They will be happy to add you.

I started learning about my local government. In early 2016 I move to a terrific town in NJ. I love it there. I knew the name of the mayor, but that was about it. A lifelong New Yorker, I didn’t do a very good job learning about my new home state and town. I knew Cory Booker was my Senator (yeah!), but I didn’t know my other Senator was Bob Menendez. I didn’t know my congressional district until I was invited to join a group called NJ 11th for Change. This information is not hard to find. Type your zip code in here: http://whoismyrepresentative.com Then start researching. They all have websites. Your town has a website. Read everything you can find.

I found a helpful human being and met them for coffee. This step was critical and hard — I’m not great at reaching out to strangers for help, but I needed help. I’d read my local town website (super helpful, loaded with information) and still didn’t understand what to do. I’m a pretty confident woman, and I still had a million questions about how to start getting involved in a meaningful way. Through a Facebook group (Action Together Morris County, an offshoot of the NJ group), I found out the name of the head of our local Democratic party group. Turns out, it’s someone I’d met once at a local volunteer event. I still felt really vulnerable asking an almost stranger to explain local government and politics to me. Guess what? He was happy to do it. He brought a friend, I brought my husband. I left that meeting with a plan — I was going to start going to local Democratic party meetings, and I was going to start going to Town Council meetings. I also found the local town committee that was a good fit for my skill set, and I’ve already volunteered to help run a local storytelling festival. Trust me, every committee needs more hands.

I went to meetings. My first meeting was the town council reorganization meeting on January 2nd. I brought my husband. I loved it. I felt like I had a solid, surface-level understanding of how things worked. That’s a start. I also went to the first meeting of Action Together Morris County. There was a massive crowd on a freezing Sunday night, and I left feeling inspired to keep making calls and volunteering my time and skills. I went to the NJ 11th for Change meeting. Then a meeting of the county Democrats. I’m still feeling a little Goldilocks, trying to find the groups that feel “just right.” And I’ll be honest, these are not frustration-free experiences — I had a bit of a meltdown at the county Democrats meeting last week when it started to feel like the room was losing momentum. There was a noticeable tension and I get it. Lots of us were newcomers, hungry for advice on how we could help. The folks who had been fighting the local fight all along weren’t quite prepared for that. And for the organizations that just sprung up, a bunch of strangers with day jobs are suddenly tasked with wrangling crowds of strangers into meaningful action. We’re all muddling through this together. Let’s work with each other and not make hasty judgements. Try not to be a jerk. I remind myself of this at least a few times a day.

I made phone calls. There are four people I don’t mind talking to on the phone — my mother, my husband, my niece and my nephew. Otherwise, the phone isn’t my friend. But I knew from The Indivisible Guide and from articles I’d read that coordinated phone calls to government officials could make a difference. That the act of calling makes a physical statement because real humans are answering the calls, or picking up the voicemails and recording the concerns of constituents. I saved the office numbers (local and D.C.) of my local elected officials into my cell phone contacts. The more calls you make, the easier it gets.

I started making donations. I joined Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and the NAACP. I subscribed to my local newspaper. My husband subscribed to the Washington Post. I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford that right now, so we’ll continue to help where we can. Do what you can. Do not feel pressured to help financially if you can’t. Your time has value too, so if it’s possible, volunteer.

I’m just getting started. Everything I’ve done so far is just the prelude of what’s to come. There’s hard work on the horizon, and so much more learning to do. I love my country. I love democracy. I will keep volunteering my time and talents, donating to the causes that need it, and showing up to meetings and rallies. I’d love to see you there too.