Name: Susan
Age: 60
Occupation: Retired
Role in the Resistance: Founder of Indivisible Marin
Location: Marin County, CA
When did you 'join' the Resistance or become politically activated? While living in Boston from 2006 to 2016, I did anti-genocide activism, focused on South Sudan. That's really more, well, it's not politics, it's activism. I haven't been as involved in things like elections and US politics until recently.
What prompted your political interest?
I actually gave up the genocide work a year and a half, almost two years, before the election. I stopped because I didn't feel like we were progressing. I didn't feel like there were enough people who cared to make a change. 10 years is a long time to be working on something, when you don't feel like you are making a lot of progress. Then I spent two years, essentially trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I've always wanted to be someone who contributes to the world, and I couldn't quite figure out how to plug in. I did some volunteer activities and didn't quite feel passionate about any one thing and then, as everyone always says, Trump was elected. I knew I had the skill set with my marketing experience, and I certainly had the motivation to get involved. So, I just got together with some neighbors, we were brainstorming 'what can we do?'. One of them, actually, had read about Indivisible, and we were like 'yeah, let's start an Indivisible chapter'. That was in January. If anyone knows the Resistance movement, they have probable heard of Indivisible, but we barely even knew what we were doing. We just grabbed the name. We were sitting around, drinking white wine, and we said, 'yeah, let's start an indivisible chapter. This neighborhood is called 'Upper Lucas Valley. We'll be Indivisible Lucas Valley.' A glass of wine later, we were like 'No, that's no big enough, we will be Indivisible San Rafael." A glass of wine later, we said "No! Indivisible Marin!"
What is the most meaningful thing you've done in the Resistance, locally or nationally? Founding Indivisible Marin and learning to be a leader, because I haven't really been a leader in my prior career. It's been a pretty steep curve, but it's very rewarding to learn a lot and watch myself become a better leader.
What results have you seen from your efforts (positive or negative)? A lot of times, people will ask me if I feel what I'm doing really makes a difference. The way I answer that is, to create a mass movement, you need mass, and we are part of the mass. Anyone can say, I'm just one person, or we're just one chapter, so it doesn't matter, we can't help, but if we all said that, there would be no movement. It's analogous to voting, if you say, I'm not going to vote, I'm just one vote, then our whole system of democracy is meaningless. I feel our biggest accomplishment at Indivisible Marin is that we contribute through sheer numbers and our energy. We've also started action teams around specific issues like women's health, and the environment. These teams are getting involved, oftentimes locally, and I feel like they are making a very obvious contribution. Now, we are also getting people involved in preparing for the midterms, and taking back Congress in 2018 is the way we will really be able to change things.
What have been some of the biggest challenges and how are you addressing those? The biggest challenge is keeping people engaged. There was obviously a lot of energy and passion after the election. People wanted to do something, and many people have kept up that energy and passion. A lot of people, though, have gotten discouraged because it's so much worse than we expected, or they've just kind of slipped back into their lives. It's hard to carve out time to do this work. We are constantly trying to keep people engaged, drawing new members, giving people new ways that they can participate. Our mission, which is a bit different, is that we are trying to appeal to new activists. People that have never done this before, but because of the election, want to get involved. Everything we do, we try to gear towards that. What we are trying to do now to get more people involved is creating a campaign team. They will be our foot-soldiers for the midterms. Those people won't necessarily have to make a big time commitment, but maybe they can phone bank once or twice a month, or maybe some text banking from your home. That's another challenge in Marin, the demographic is older, the people who have time are retirees, and we are trying to reach all ages and demographics. You really have to tailor options for busy people. If you go to our website, you'll see our whole website is laid out like that, 'If you have 5 minutes a day, do this. If you have an hour a week, do this.' We are trying to make the message clear that there is something for everyone.
What non-traditional avenues would you recommend to those in the resistance that have been effective for you or others around you? Text banking is one of the newest techniques being used to reach voters in the red states, and it's something everyone can do from home. We want to encourage these voters to call their members of Congress. That's the most powerful way to make change. If we can text voters in red states, and get them to turn around and say to their representatives, 'Yes, we want to protect the ACA', or 'Yes, we want to help the dreamers', that's where you can really start turning votes in Congress.
How can the average person with competing priorities make the biggest impact with limited time, energy and resources? I think they should become a member of a progressive group, like Indivisible Marin. Through the e-newsletter, through the communications of that organization, they will learn of opportunities to take action. It could be a 5 minute opportunity, it can be a one hour opportunity. They can pick and choose, but at least they'll be in the pipeline to get information. You have to plug in.
What inspires you to continue to fight? All the corny stuff. Making the world a better place for my children and my grandchildren, for myself, and for all the people I don't know in the country and the world who are suffering, being treated unfairly, and who don't have a good quality of life because of these decisions being made by our terrible government. Helping change people's lives. That's what it's all about.
Who should we all be following in the Resistance, if we aren't already (authors, social media, podcast, etc) Pod Save America. What I love about them is that you learn a lot, and it helps you be really informed since they are in the inside, but they are so funny. So I'm laughing out loud, even though it's a really upsetting topic. Laughing sometimes, it helps you cope.
You can find out more about Indivisible Marin by joining their Facebook group here, or visiting their website here.
I actually gave up the genocide work a year and a half, almost two years, before the election. I stopped because I didn't feel like we were progressing. I didn't feel like there were enough people who cared to make a change. 10 years is a long time to be working on something, when you don't feel like you are making a lot of progress. Then I spent two years, essentially trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I've always wanted to be someone who contributes to the world, and I couldn't quite figure out how to plug in. I did some volunteer activities and didn't quite feel passionate about any one thing and then, as everyone always says, Trump was elected. I knew I had the skill set with my marketing experience, and I certainly had the motivation to get involved. So, I just got together with some neighbors, we were brainstorming 'what can we do?'. One of them, actually, had read about Indivisible, and we were like 'yeah, let's start an Indivisible chapter'. That was in January. If anyone knows the Resistance movement, they have probable heard of Indivisible, but we barely even knew what we were doing. We just grabbed the name. We were sitting around, drinking white wine, and we said, 'yeah, let's start an indivisible chapter. This neighborhood is called 'Upper Lucas Valley. We'll be Indivisible Lucas Valley.' A glass of wine later, we were like 'No, that's no big enough, we will be Indivisible San Rafael." A glass of wine later, we said "No! Indivisible Marin!"
What is the most meaningful thing you've done in the Resistance, locally or nationally? Founding Indivisible Marin and learning to be a leader, because I haven't really been a leader in my prior career. It's been a pretty steep curve, but it's very rewarding to learn a lot and watch myself become a better leader.
What results have you seen from your efforts (positive or negative)? A lot of times, people will ask me if I feel what I'm doing really makes a difference. The way I answer that is, to create a mass movement, you need mass, and we are part of the mass. Anyone can say, I'm just one person, or we're just one chapter, so it doesn't matter, we can't help, but if we all said that, there would be no movement. It's analogous to voting, if you say, I'm not going to vote, I'm just one vote, then our whole system of democracy is meaningless. I feel our biggest accomplishment at Indivisible Marin is that we contribute through sheer numbers and our energy. We've also started action teams around specific issues like women's health, and the environment. These teams are getting involved, oftentimes locally, and I feel like they are making a very obvious contribution. Now, we are also getting people involved in preparing for the midterms, and taking back Congress in 2018 is the way we will really be able to change things.
What have been some of the biggest challenges and how are you addressing those? The biggest challenge is keeping people engaged. There was obviously a lot of energy and passion after the election. People wanted to do something, and many people have kept up that energy and passion. A lot of people, though, have gotten discouraged because it's so much worse than we expected, or they've just kind of slipped back into their lives. It's hard to carve out time to do this work. We are constantly trying to keep people engaged, drawing new members, giving people new ways that they can participate. Our mission, which is a bit different, is that we are trying to appeal to new activists. People that have never done this before, but because of the election, want to get involved. Everything we do, we try to gear towards that. What we are trying to do now to get more people involved is creating a campaign team. They will be our foot-soldiers for the midterms. Those people won't necessarily have to make a big time commitment, but maybe they can phone bank once or twice a month, or maybe some text banking from your home. That's another challenge in Marin, the demographic is older, the people who have time are retirees, and we are trying to reach all ages and demographics. You really have to tailor options for busy people. If you go to our website, you'll see our whole website is laid out like that, 'If you have 5 minutes a day, do this. If you have an hour a week, do this.' We are trying to make the message clear that there is something for everyone.
What non-traditional avenues would you recommend to those in the resistance that have been effective for you or others around you? Text banking is one of the newest techniques being used to reach voters in the red states, and it's something everyone can do from home. We want to encourage these voters to call their members of Congress. That's the most powerful way to make change. If we can text voters in red states, and get them to turn around and say to their representatives, 'Yes, we want to protect the ACA', or 'Yes, we want to help the dreamers', that's where you can really start turning votes in Congress.
How can the average person with competing priorities make the biggest impact with limited time, energy and resources? I think they should become a member of a progressive group, like Indivisible Marin. Through the e-newsletter, through the communications of that organization, they will learn of opportunities to take action. It could be a 5 minute opportunity, it can be a one hour opportunity. They can pick and choose, but at least they'll be in the pipeline to get information. You have to plug in.
What inspires you to continue to fight? All the corny stuff. Making the world a better place for my children and my grandchildren, for myself, and for all the people I don't know in the country and the world who are suffering, being treated unfairly, and who don't have a good quality of life because of these decisions being made by our terrible government. Helping change people's lives. That's what it's all about.
Who should we all be following in the Resistance, if we aren't already (authors, social media, podcast, etc) Pod Save America. What I love about them is that you learn a lot, and it helps you be really informed since they are in the inside, but they are so funny. So I'm laughing out loud, even though it's a really upsetting topic. Laughing sometimes, it helps you cope.
You can find out more about Indivisible Marin by joining their Facebook group here, or visiting their website here.
