More activism

[redbird]

cattitude and I went to a hearing of a state legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary yesterday, because the ACLU asked people to be there to fill the room and show people cared about a specific bill, which would limit police and corrections department cooperation with ICE.

The room was very full, with people sitting on the floor with laptops. People who wanted to speak had to sign up, which gave the chairs at least a little warning that they were getting a crowd. We listened to speeches, and some back-and-forth sparring by legislators [that's the chair's word] for a bit over an hour, then left because I was overheating, and went for a restorative walk in the Public Garden.

This is another thing that I never thought I'd be doing, even after we moved to Arlington (meaning the state capitol is an easy subway ride from me, not in a city two or three hours away). As with most activism, I don't know whether it had any effect; as I mentioned to rysmiel, even when we win something I don't know how much, if at all, my efforts contributed, but we persevere.

Today I decided I am probably not up to actual phone calls to legislative offices, so I used resistbot to fax Sens. Markey and Warren calling for an independent investigation into Russian meddling in the election, and specifically that they should get Comey to testify before the senate. The fax to Markey got through, the one to Warren didn't, which is the same result the bot reported last time. I figure this means either more people are trying to reach her, or his office has more hardware for receiving faxes. Warren has been getting a lot more press than Markey (I've seen "Nevertheless, she persisted" on a bumper sticker), so the former seems plausible. I think this means I should concentrate my efforts on Markey and my Congresswoman, but it might mean I need to call Warren, the Springfield office if necessary, if I can't get through by fax.