What can an ordinary person do?

by Audrey Novak Riley

Lately, it’s been just excruciating to read the headlines, hasn’t it? No matter where you stand on the political or social topics of the day, there are too many nasty, nasty things going on in the world. I don’t know about you, but it makes me feel disgusted and exhausted and powerless. What can one ordinary person do?

I don’t like feeling like that, so here’s what I do to feel better. I write a letter to my senators and my congressional representative. They can’t do everything, and they certainly aren’t doing anything fast enough, but they have a bigger voice than I do, and they need to hear from me. So, I write to them. A lot. I always get a response, too–usually, it’s a form letter, but sometimes it’s not. How about that!

Make some noise! Let them know you’re out here and you have something important to say!

Lots of ways to write

There are a lot of ways to write to your senators and representatives. You can send good old-fashioned letters on stationery, postcards, email, tweets, and more. You can even telephone them. (I’m told that it’s more useful to call their district office–the office in your town or your state–than their Washington office.) And you can write letters to the editors of newspapers, too–it doesn’t have to be your own local paper. You could write to the editor of the newspaper in the state capital or the nation’s capital. Make some noise! Let them know you’re out here and you have something important to say!

Women of the ELCA’s Director for Justice, Jen DeLeon, has a lot of suggestions for ways to make your voice heard, and so does the ELCA Advocacy office. And I know you have suggestions, too. How do you make your voice heard in such times?

Audrey Novak Riley is proud to tell her senators and congressman what to do and when to do it. She leaves the “how” up to them. Watch in late fall for our updated resource about how Christians are called to be political.

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