Civics

Civic Diary 3/8/2017

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Hello everyone, time for another civic update!

What am I up to?  Well less than I’d like due to some craziness (friends in assorted crises).

Helping with a political group’s social media: Still at that, and that one is getting challenging as noted, since there’s so many ways to take it – and ways to do it wrong.  What are the right news sites?  Right groups to post?  It’s quite a lot to learn and I’ve got a meeting on it coming up.

This taught me to be a lot more careful of information sources and to better understand more subtle political landscapes.  Some activist groups are at odds with each other.  People debate over the value of news aggregators.

A big thing I’m finding is social media has truly changed politics – there’s many ways to interacts and it vastly speeds how things move.  It’s also more multiordinal than expected – spread across many media.  Which is important in this charged political environment and our reliance on certain communications.

Lesson: Admit you have a lot to learn as you get civicly involved, and really learn to dig into the news and groups you follow, there’s probably some things you’re missing.

Getting Involved In New/Informal Groups: A lot have sprung up lately and I’m finding there’s something for everyone.  These seem to act as a kind of social nexus for getting people involved, and I think there’s something to that.  People involved in one of these more informal groups are also involved in other social groups – so this acts as a kind of connecting ground.

A lot of this is people taking a stab and doing it – and it seems to work.

Lesson: I think the new informal groups springing up are going to be really important as people are looking for new ways to get involved.  Also some politicians are really underestimating the organizing going on out there.

Getting Into District Flipping: This has gotten really big lately, and it’s important to find districts to flip, districts to maintain – and who you want to primary as they kinda suck at their jobs.  I think we’re going to see a lot of this in 2018.

Lesson: 2018 will be interesting.

Continuing Economic Activism: Calling companies about who they support, etc.  This one I’ve been intermittent on, but I think it’s important to keep at this.  Not boycotts per se (though I’m fine with those) but letting companies know their actions matter.  Believe me, some people listen.

Lesson: Not sure if there’s a lesson, yet, except this has been kinda ramped up to 11.

Regular Representative Contacts: Calling my reps all the time on issues.  They do listen, believe me (and one office has people who know me).  This also means follow your reps on issues – because you may be surprised.  Without naming names, one of my congresspeople had disappointed me – then pulled off an amazing town hall where it seems I’d sort of misunderstood their strategy.

What I do as noted is set up a Google alert to see who to call my state or federal reps on.  If you’re not sure what to annoy them on, let me recommend https://5calls.org/ – plus I find the more informal groups often have great advice.

Lesson: Keep doing this.  Daily.

I admit I’ve not done as much as I’d like.  I’ve got a civic guide I’ve worked on I need to return to, I’ve not been able to make my city council meetings that I wanted, I want to do more with CivicGeek.com.  But if you stay active you’ll do something.

One thing I find myself thinking over is that those everyday things we do to keep society running matter a lot.  Help a friend out with their needs.  Give someone a ride.  That stuff is more valuable than we realize.  I’ve had friends go through some awful crises and the fact people helped them, even a bit, made a difference.

– Steve

Civic Diary 2/13/2017

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Still haven’t stopped these, though man they need to be more commonly updated.  I got hit with some nasty illness (we have multiple colds here) and apparently got sick twice.  So the last few weeks weren’t fun.

Political Groups And Activist Groups

I’m now helping with social media for a political group in the area – it’s a sort of “test” ground for me and my other ideas, because . . .

Don’t think you can just go to an activist group and say “give me something.”  A lot of them have hierarchies, legal requirements, etc. you have to follow.  I learned that the hard way, so now I’m working my way up.  Still I get to do some good and am going to use this to introduce a few new ideas and cool things.

The great part of being part of an established group is reach.  Nothing like being able to do something to affect a few hundred to a few thousand people.

I’m looking into involvement with my city and possible a few other groups.  I think all you can really do is just keep trying them out until something clicks for you.

TAKEAWAY: Pick at least one activist group to join, but remember it may take time to get a position.  Help anyway.

Do It Yourself

So one of my acquaintances up and created a political group for friends on Facebook where we coordinate.  Might want to give that a go too!

TAKEAWAY: Try a social media group for friends and politics.

Regular Activity

To help me out I’m doing the following

  1. I have a Google Alert for all representatives on the state and federal level, so once a day find out what they’re up to.
  2. I keep my usual news feeds.
  3. Out of that I find what I want to call them on – usually daily or every other day to tell them what they did right and wrong and make specific demands.
  4. This helps you keep up on local information anyway – I’ve had a few surprises, most of them pleasant.

How’s it working?  Not entirely sure as I’m one person, and there’s many voices, but my Congressman’s office now calls me by name when I call before I speak.  So I’m making an impression.

I’ve also decided that https://grabyourwallet.org/ is worth following and am calling companies carrying Trump merchandise.  Very inappropriate and an area of ethical concern – especially as of late.

TAKEAWAY: Set up news/alert feeds to tell you who/what to call on each day.

Documentation

I’ve been updating my civic guide and do need to post it now that I no longer feel terrible.  It’s been pretty helpful!

That’s what I’m up to.  What about you?

– Steve

Creativity And Freedom

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

Creativity cannot be separated from Freedom; it is the source of it and the result of it.  Share it, encourage it, understand it.

Creativity allows people to think in new ways that both liberates and maintains liberty. The creative can dream around problems, finding new solutions when none were apparent.  The creative are harder to constrain by despots, as they have the tools to out-think oppressors.  The hopeful tyrants cannot face down dreams they know nothing about.

The despot worries in his throne room, heart racing.  Someone is out there who can find solutions, communicate in new ways, invent new treasons.  The despot fears you and doesn’t even know your name.

Creativity strengthens the people that treasure it.  Society is stronger for the news ideas the creative people bring.  The imaginative see dead ideas and infuse them with new life, resurrecting the lost things of value. Creative people can see the foundations of society and connect them to their innovations, joining past and present, the new and the renewed.

A single shining inspiration in your mind and old ideas come alive, history is connected, and you can see how ancient thoughts and new dreams come together.  Centuries and aeons link together in new strengths and old wisdom.

Creativity strengthens relations among people allowing them to support each other.  The creative are open to new relations among people because they can dream.  The creative find new connections among people, building alliances that resist tyranny.  The creative discover new ways to understand others and cooperate in ways unforeseen.  A web of connections and associations and alliances makes people all the more resilient.

Those that create are your allies, and a single conversation can create a year’s worth of dreams.  A moment’s pause lets you see everyone new.  You reach out to make new friends easy.  What tyrant doesn’t fear a web of collaborators who can out-dream them?

Creativity should be encouraged and shared among people.  To arm people with creativity is to give them tools to find meaning and protect themselves and others.  To share with other people builds connections and camaraderie, creating alliances that maintain the society. The sharing and encouragement of creativity is a measure of the strength of society.

Once someone lifted you up and said you could create.  Now you can reach out to others, teach them to use their creativity.  Each person so encouraged is an ally and a beacon.  Connection spreads from the outstretched hand.

Creativity is the result of freedom.  Because new thoughts can come to mind, the unthinkable becomes possible.  As old ideas can be seen anew, the foundations of society are renewed.  Because new ideas are encouraged, society can change and evolve.  As people encourage creativity, alliances are built.

– Steve