You marched, now what? Civic Engagement

“You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.” ~ Howard Zinn

Yesterday’s Women’s March gave a call to action for many to participate in the civil discourse. I hope this march occurs for generations to come — human beings standing together for the values we believe.

I hope this march occurs in whatever political outcome, and I hope that future presidents and congresses will stand with the people — as if to yell that we will fight this fight together — the fight of living the values of compassion, justice, understanding, equality, women’s rights and more.

Many marched. Many did not.

Either way — what do we do now? As a society — liberal, conservative, etc. — each of us will see or hear something that bothers us, and we consciously or unconsciously ask ourselves: What should I do? What can I really do?

What camp are you in?

I think it is important to understand how you feel about these two buckets (and, whatever variations). To understand what you think, feel, and believe — your personal story — of any given choice is important.

If you feel action is necessary, ask yourself: Why? Why do you care? Am I angered when I see/hear about the challenges of the world? Am I saddened? Or, … [fill in the blank].

If you feel action is unnecessary, ask yourself: Why? Why do I think action is not necessary? Am I numb to the challenges of the world? Or, do I think our systems will take care of the situation. Or, … [fill in the blank].

What in your life has made led you to that belief? What personal circumstances make you feel that way? What has your experience been? What are you feelings around the various situations in the world (e.g., numb or angered)?

To understand what you believe and value is powerful.

Personally, I have often felt disheartened and overwhelmed when I see or hear about the suffering that occurs in our nation and world (across all walks of life). I wrote an article on MLK Jr. that shares some of those thoughts:

My Conscious Effort to Reflect on the Life of Martin Luther King Junior

What is your engagement context?

I believe a common human experience with challenges we see is a feeling of being overwhelmed. With so many issues and challenges, what do I do? What is my relationship to it all?

Personal Context

The “Personal” engagement context is the thread through everything. If your intention is to be involved in the systems and structures that create our society, then this is the place to start.

Your Why:

How do you feel about the world around you? Why does it matter to you? What do you value? Why do you value what you value? What was passed on to you from your ancestors? What was absorbed through your community/religion/etc.?

Now, more than ever, we need reflection and to understand ourselves and what we value. In doing so, this will help us make decisions and our relationships with the challenges we face today.

Your Understanding

Stand guard at the door of your mind ~ Jim Rohn

There are countless things going on in the world. There are things you disagree with. There are things you agree with. And, everything in-between.

The media and others will try to tell you what you should think about a certain situation, but the only path is critical thinking and reflection on all information that comes your way. This is an act of empowerment — this is an act of civil disobedience.

To look at all sides of an issue, to look at the historic context, to look at the philosophies and to develop your own understanding and to keep asking questions is an act of defiance of the status quo.

Discussing the Issues

A great poverty of our times is the loss of discourse — where we are more focused on convincing the other of their wrongness, and our rightness; or, the weakness of their idea/position; or, the superiority of our position.

This type of discussion absolves us from two things:

1. Being authentic about our values/fears/concerns
2. Being bigger than our “lizard brain” (i.e. Fight or flight mind) with regards to a discussion where we may be wrong.

This loss of discourse is most prevalent with our families and dearest friends. If we are unable to speak authentically about our personal life matters, then it is not a reasonable expectation to speak of the challenges that we face together in this world. With this loss of discourse, what do you?

Feel the frustration; and, don’t talk about issues? Debate” the rightness or wrongness of an individual?

If you have seen these strategies to be effective, then continue. If not, here are my thoughts:

1. Don’t try to change anyone. Don’t — it doesn’t work and even if you do they will resent you
2. Try to observe/research the broader context, history and trends with as much possible objectivity
3. Try to see how you feel, and what that means you value.
4. Try to see what the other feels, and what they value (and try to help them understand that)

Inherent views of rightness/wrongness breed mistrust and disconnection. We must cultivate the skills of communication, listening and discourse to be able to bridge the divides we face, and move forward as a society.

How you live your life?

Every moment provides us with an opportunity to live in alignment with our values.

• If you believe in kindness, then practice kindness.
• If you want to feel understood, then practice listening and understanding.
• If you don’t like the idea of sweatshops, try to not to buy from companies that have sweatshops, or communicate your thoughts to the companies.

This all may seem obvious, but if other peoples actions impact you — then, of course, your actions impact others as well. How we each live our lives matters.

Our thoughts, words and actions are a form of civic engagement.

Capitalism as a Context

If you are reading this, you are a part of the world and inherently participating with the outcomes and the changes that are occurring in our world.

For example, we are participating in a capitalistic society. This may seem obvious, but it is easy forget that there are participating in a wide-variety of systems and structures that have only been put in place in the last couple hundreds of years. Even more importantly, that these systems and structures have their own history.

As human beings, we are constantly forced to ask ourselves: How will we interact with this system? Whether it be what we buy, where we work, what we support indirectly and directly tends to be an interaction with some aspect of capitalism.

Also, we have to acknowledge that our government and press are functioning within a capitalistic society (and, the resulting outcomes of that).

Understanding Capitalism, Money Systems, and Systems Thinking:

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?” ~ David Foster Wallace

Without understanding what is capitalism, our monetary system, etc. we are in effect the two young fish — ignorant to the fact that we are swimming in water.

There are countless books espousing the ideologies for and against capitalism, and I believe it is important to do the work to understand the systems and the inherent outcomes. The philosophy of Ayn Rand and many others has heavily influenced the concepts behind capitalism and the functions of government.

Whether you agree or not, it is important to consider that the we are working in a system we made up. And, therefore we must objectively understand what that means. To that end, I recommend reading a primer on systems thinking.

Thinking in Systems

Being a Consumer

When we buy — do we buy with the knowledge of why we are buying something, or how this product made its way into your hands.

There are a countless chain of events for any one item we wear, use or eat. This video created by Annie Leonard in 2007 provides a wonderful understanding, and hopefully begins the process of thinking about how you consume.

Will you shop at organizations that reflect your values? Will you voice your opinions about how they deliver products (e.g., when Amazon gives you a giant box and for sending you a thumbtack)?

Understanding the Future of Businesses/Organizations

Across the spectrum of the various institutions in the world, I think it is important to begin to understand the systems and how the various organizations work and influence our day-to-day life.

For example, education funding is largely tied to property taxes, how does that impact schools in high-income vs. low-income areas. Or, that many (if not the majority of the prisons are publicly traded companies.) If we can understand the incentive structures behind the various businesses, we can understand how decisions at all levels impact human beings.

• Energy
• Education
• Food
• Healthcare
• Transportation
• Financial Services
• Etc.

For additional reading on systems and the changes we may see:

Great Transition Stories

Charles Eisenstein " Sacred Economics

Journalism

The majority of mainstream media are publicly traded companies. As organizations, they must meet their quarterly growth targets, while attempting to maintain journalistic integrity.

The media is mainly an advertising driven business, and we need to understand that whenever we read an article or watch the news program.

Some news media tries to create jarring content that fuels emotions, and — in doing so — they gain our attention (and, our attention = advertising dollars).

This is a zero-sum game, as eventually consumers lose trust because of the sensational nature of coverage.

A good and subtle example of this is an article from the New York Times, “In the Shopping Cart of a Good Stamp Household: Lots of Soda.

At the bottom of the article, the author notes “Across all households…more money was spent on soft drinks than any other item…”

The title was misleading, and in all likelihood edited to improve click-through-rates.

We must engage in critical thinking and questioning — not taking articles as information, but finding the slant of the author and what opportunities to create more understanding — and, then let the newspaper know our view.

Here is a good article on media bias and how to flag it:

How do you tell when the news is biased? It depends on how you see yourself

Lastly, I think it is extremely important to support good journalism (on all sides of the political spectrum).

Investigative Journalism at its Best

ProPublica

Good Left-Leaning Media:

News, sport and opinion from the Guardian's US edition | The Guardian

Good Conservative Media:

So you want to get out of your bubble: try reading these conservative websites

Government & Institutions

Whatever political leaning, I believe it is important to a) understand what you value and the roots of your views, b) understand the systemic context with which we are living, c) to engage in civil discourse with intent of true understanding, and d) engage with our government.

The Folly of Hero Syndrome

There seems to be an inherent desire to personify the enemy and the hero. Practically speaking, this makes sense, but in reality, I believe the most important thing is focusing on values and what values individuals and ideas and institutions represent.

If we engage in our values as a way of life, then whomever the leaders or whatever the ideas — we will strive towards the values we believe in.

The easy answer to any situation is to put the hopes and dreams on a mythical hero. Or, to view the situation as too complex that any one action could not shift the tides. This way of thinking is easy, and absolves our responsibilities and personal and collective agency.

Civic engagement must be a practice of living in integrity. A habit. A way of life.

Taking Action: A Case Study

The Tea Party is considered a political phenomenon, and their power was a hyper-local focused. The fundamental strategy was based on opposing Obama’s legislative agenda fully at every turn. Their grassroots effort created the conditions for a fundamental shifts in the Republican Party, and electing the new president.

Staffers from congress wrote the Indivisible Guide to document the Tea Party strategies and tactics. Download it here:

Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda

Ways to Take Action

As taken from the Indivisible Guide, there are four key strategies with Members of Congress:

1. Town halls. MoCs regularly hold public in-district events to show that they are listening to constituents. Make them listen to you, and report out when they don’t.
2. Non-town hall events. MoCs love cutting ribbons and kissing babies back home. Don’t let them get photo-ops without questions about racism, authoritarianism, and corruption.
3. District of ce sit-ins/meetings. Every MoC has one or several district of offices. Go there. Demand a meeting with the MoC. Report to the world if they refuse to listen.
4. Coordinated calls. Calls are a light lift but can have an impact. Organize your local group to barrage your MoCs.

Coordinated Calls

I have most actively been engaged in making phone calls, and I believe this is the easiest lift for all of us.

Step 1: Find the phone numbers of your congressmen or congresswomen, and save their numbers to your phone

Call My Congress

Step 2: Keep Track of the Issues

There are so many issues, and it will be increasingly important to keep an eye on the issues, the news and hold elected officials accountable. Understand the issues, the legislation and your views on solutions.

• Income Inequity
• Education (e.g., K-12; College)
• Incarceration
• Environment & Animals
• Money in Politics
• Foreign Policy
• Immigration
• Jobs/Living Wage
• Climate Change
• Civil Rights: Racial Justice
• Housing
• Public Health (e.g., Zika, etc.)
• Healthcare (Rx Costs; Disability Rights)
• Etc.

Step 3: Coordinated Calls; or, Regular Communication with Members of Congress

Ask the staffers questions about elected officials views, and make sure they know how you feel about the issues.

My Closing Thoughts

These are some of my initial thoughts, and I will continue to refine and am open to your thoughts.

I am going to continue to ask myself: How do I engage in our civic discourse to support mutual understanding ? How do I engage in our civic discourse to feed our better angels? How do I protect those who are less fortunate? How do I understand those I may disagree with?

I believe a great principle or cause it is always at our door steps, and the struggle to even understand what those principles are for each of us is a worthy endeavour.

I hope this article has supported you in some way. If it has, please do share.

~ Krishan