Civic Engagement

Passion is overrated. At least, that is what both my father and business mentor taught me. The former replaced it with doing the work. The latter emphasized skill or know-how. After years of experience, I understand both are correct. Often, I think about the lessons they taught me and how they relate to translating a critical mass of public support and social attention into actual and impactful policy changes.

I am a product of immigrants, the spouse of a DACA recipient, and a trauma and gun violence survivor. I follow and volunteer for local elections, canvas, write letters, call lawmakers, read a dozen political books a year, and make it a habit to keep up with legislative schedules and Supreme Court decisions. I am constantly disappointed with how many laws with popular support that fail to pass anyway. Lobbyists and interest groups with deep pockets are more impactful on our politicians than the people they present. I cover this concept a lot on my social media account and text community.

I have been 'disowned' by an uncle for admitting I've voted for candidates in both parties. I have had strangers spit on me (pre-pandemic, thankfully), slam doors in my face, and call me every bad name I can think of. People are passionate about their politics, but in my experience, not many know where to direct that passion.

Last year, when the world heard about the unfortunate case of Breonna Taylor, thousands of us sent "Birthday for Breonna" cards to lawmakers, encouraging them to ban No-Knock Warrants and hold those responsible for her death accountable. This burst of action: letter-writing, calling, and physical protests led to a single government body passing an actual change into law to prevent similar tragedies. I was lucky enough to get involved and see that action turn into a law that eventually passed in Louisville, the city where Breonna lived and worked.

But one city wasn't enough. My group of contacts and I wanted more. We organized several Zoom meetings and found that if we reached one million people on social media, 15-20% of them reshared our posts. Only 1% of those who shared the post actually showed up to the meetings and participated in letter-writing and live-tweeting. As months passed, those numbers steadily decreased until our last meeting a year after Breonna's case made headlines had 20 attendees.

Passion wasn't enough to create sustained action from a large group of people for more than a few weeks. To make a real impact, we needed to make it easier for people to understand an issue and create the change we want to see.

When I first saw our numbers declining, I hired a developer to help me create an easier way for people to mail letters to lawmakers. It took much longer and cost more than I initially thought, but the developer finished just in time for that last meeting. Those 20 people who turned up for our meeting last month turned into 200 postcards sent using that system.

Now I have a small case study with metrics. I know I can use this platform to create a community based on channeling their civic energy. Because of my organizing experience, I know that it will take more than passion to create the momentum needed to make real change. Because of my life and work experience, I understand that momentum will only come by doing the work and sharing my political know-how with those who want to make a difference.

My father taught me to work hard and show consistency. He followed the same routine every day, and it took him through and beyond many of his goals. I was his captive audience as he grew his business, hit and maintained his goal weight to this day, raised four children, and fulfilled his dream of buying acreage in wine country. I watched him in awe as he did these things, and it wasn't until college that I paid attention to how: he worked at it every day. He distilled his goals into daily action steps and took those steps consistently: chipping away at his dreams, so he climbed his mountains one step at a time. Passion got him started, but continued action got him to the mountain top.

My business mentor is one of my first digital marketing clients. We started working together in 2014, when his annual revenue had passed one million dollars for the first time. He accomplished this with his small consultancy solely based on being a skilled consultant and salesperson. Being a natural leader and teacher, he wanted to recruit salespeople as passionate as him to increase his annual sales. Instead, I convinced him to share his industry skills with more than a few people. Over the years, we've worked together to execute a marketing plan based on sharing his industry knowledge with different types of content to as many people as his budget allows. By educating his potential clients, his income has surpassed ten million dollars a year. Similarly, I want to combine my passion with my marketing and research skills to build a network of people that know how to create and sustain pressure on their lawmakers to act on behalf of their constituents.

'Living my passion' the way I envision requires that I pass on my skills to as many people as possible to help them understand how small, repeated action can create an environment where our representatives truly act on 'the will of the people.' Most Americans believe this is how the government should function. But unfortunately, many don't have the time or tools at hand to truly see the difference they can make.

Many want to create a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients. Over 72% of the electorate supports this idea, but congress has still not acted.

Our test campaign went well for those who could take action that day, but I found that it would be more successful if I could use a system that allows me to drop this information all at once or in small pieces with reminders for our community to take action when they could. I'm currently discussing this with organizers and leaders of existing organizations to find the best way to structure this platform to be flexible and effective for getting the highest level of consistent activity. Simultaneously, I've been working with a lawyer on turning the brand I've established into a non-profit. This won't come quickly; it's not meant to. This work requires doing the work and thinking long-term.

I'm at a time in my life where I have the passion, skill, and daily action plan I need to execute this, and the experience I've had with organizing gave me both the confidence and vision I need to push myself forward