Today, we’re excited to be reviving our open threads to hear from you, our readers.
But first: Let me introduce myself, since I’m new around here. I’m Michael Berk, and I’m coming aboard as managing editor here at The Ink to help Anand build a bigger, better newsletter.
I’ve been a writer and editor for publications like The New York Review of Books and The New York Times, and I’ve worked on the digital end of things at PBS and CNN. I even helped start a small press. It’s been fun; I’ve done a lot of interesting projects; I’ve been lucky.
Like a lot of you, at least since 2016 (and, to be honest, quite a bit longer than that), I’ve been dismayed at how, in the 21st century, we seem bent on repeating the worst mistakes of the 20th, and I’ve been looking for ways to turn that anger in a more hopeful and active direction.
And that’s what brought me here. I’ve been a longtime reader of The Ink, and, in coming aboard now, I’m going to do my best to make sure that when you come here, you’ll find information and inspiration and community to help you turn your own righteous anger in a more fruitful direction: towards hope and action. We can’t leave passion to the autocrats.
Over the past year, Anand has spoken about how critical it is to pull together local efforts people are making across the country to build a big, broad, national pro-democracy movement. Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, political scientist Daniel Ziblatt, and political messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio have told us much the same.
And from what we’ve heard from you, readers, it seems that many of you are already active, working with national organizations or locally in your communities; others of you are just beginning to figure out where to put your time; and some of you are looking for help just getting started. Now we understand there are some limits to connecting online and the real work needs to be done IRL, but there’s no reason why we can’t start building some community here.
“I spent 40+ years of my life creating ad campaigns,” writes Ink subscriber Judy Teller in a recent comment here, “and I understand something about powerful, emotionally gripping messages that inspire interest and provoke action. I’m sure there are lots of people who have this and all kinds of talents, and would want to use them. But I have absolutely no idea about how a Movement gets organized. I see that other subscribers have similar concerns. Can you please offer some practical advice or connections towards getting organized?”
We invite everyone who’s found an opportunity to participate politically — whether that’s been in your community, in your state, or in national efforts — to tell us about how you took the first step toward getting involved. If there’s an organization you can share, that’s great, too. Any ideas you have for getting underway are welcome.
“What if,” asks Ink subscriber Ted Lemon in the comments, “we had a daily to-do list with maybe 30 minutes of stuff we could do that would make an actual difference? What if we could trust someone to maintain that list? How would we do that? I think it’s an interesting question.”
We also understand that everyone’s resources of time, energy, and commitment are limited, so if you’ve been having difficulty finding a way to get involved, to make space in your life, or simply want advice on taking that first step, we’d love it if you could talk about that. And if there’s something that’s getting in your way, let us know about that, too.
“It’s work, but it’s also fun,” says Ink subscriber Dave Fleischer, “to pull together a team of friends to begin, either by going door-to-door to talk with infrequent voters and non-voters who know Trump is bad news but are disconnected from politics, or by seeing in person or calling on the phone people you know who either miss elections or even those who have voted for Trump in the past but are quite conflicted about it. In other words, act, ask others to act with you, evaluate how well you do, then keep trying and you’ll find you improve. That’s how movements get built.”
So tell us, Ink folk: How did you take the first step toward getting involved? Or if you want to do more, what is holding you back and how can the rest of us help?
These open forums are for our subscribers, and, as such, we expect people to be generous and open, to listen and to share. This is not for anyone with an internet connection. This is your space. Welcome.
This post was originally published on The.Ink.