It can’t hurt, right? Why your calls to Congress can fall flat.
Let’s talk about action.
When I tweeted out my advice and strategies on contacting elected officials, I had no idea the reach and impact it would have. And, as I’ve watched that advice spread and the ideas in that advice take hold, I’ve noticed a couple things.
First, I can’t control the results. I’ve had people send me messages and tweets referencing my advice not knowing it’s me who originally shared it. I’ve seen people share calls to action that aren’t effective. And, it was very frustrating at first. I felt sort of personally responsible for bad information.
But, I’ve learned that not everyone is going to take the time to understand or research. So, I’m appealing to you to take what I’m saying here and hopefully use it to do some good within your sphere of influence.
Let’s talk about why this tweet and image is problematic.
What happens when you send a text to this number is you get a link where you can fill in your address and name and it will send out an auto-generated email for you to your senators and representatives. As you know, I don’t recommend sending form emails at all. They are easily ignored and often these types of emails are sent without consent. When I shared this last night with my advice not to do it, I got pushback from people saying, “Well, it can’t hurt, right?”
I want you to remove that phrase from your vernacular. The most important part of action is deliberation and thoughtfulness. When you engage with your elected official, you want to sound as credible and knowledgeable as possible. It’s human nature that you want to engage with someone who knows what they want and has a grasp on the situation — congressional staffers are no different.
The fact is that while it feels good to do something rather than sit and bite our nails, it’s important to channel our efforts into things that are important and make an impact. I believe that no matter the issue and no matter your level of expertise and skill, there is always a productive action you can take.
Along that same line and back to the “well, it can’t hurt, right” excuse, it can hurt a movement. You may think of yourself as one person who is calling the attorney general’s office to ask to postpone the electoral college vote (not something they can do by the way), but you represent a movement of hundreds and thousands of people. So, before you move to call someone or send an email, sit a moment with the reality of your collective impact.
Before you copy and paste, retweet, or share anything, take a little time to ask yourself if this action is useful. Does it fall within the sphere of influence of the person you are calling? Are you asking for something that’s possible and specific? Do you know where this information originated? All of these questions take a moment or two to answer, but they are key to good activism.
If you do find you’ve shared something that wasn’t true, take the time to modify your status or tweet out an explanation. Then, when you see the information being shared elsewhere, take the time to educate. Let’s make our actions count.
Want to know more about contacting your representative? I wrote an entire ebook about it that you can download today.
