Even Long-time Advocates Need Encouragement
A book group nourishes and inspires the soul
By Jessie Snyder
After the November election, the Lehigh Valley (PA) Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) chapter decided to start a book group to reassess our strategies and boost inspiration. Even long-time advocates need encouragement these days.
Our chapter was launched in 2013, propelled by our desire to DO something. At the height of our effectiveness in 2019 (pre-pandemic), we generated over 3,000 constituent letters, sent 400 postcards to our Senators & Congresswoman, and had 45 letters to the editor published. Now, post-pandemic, we’re focusing on expanding our outreach through tabling, presentations, and working with educators.
So why not a book group?
Sam Daley-Harris’s book, Reclaiming Our Democracy, was the first book we chose. The book is based on the innovative strategies behind the organization Daley-Harris founded, RESULTS. RESULTS is focused on global and domestic poverty. The group has played a lead advocacy role in reducing global child deaths by 66 percent over the last 40 years.
CCL’s founder, Marshall Saunders, had been an active RESULTS volunteer for 13 years before launching CCL.
Our first book group meeting started out with a bang! To our complete surprise, with only a single email, Sam Daley-Harris agreed to join us by Zoom. Our group met an hour ahead of his visit to discuss the first half of the book and come up with the questions below to better prepare for our conversation.
Some Purposeful and Pointed Questions
Transformational Advocacy requires recruitment, building community, training, and encouraging breakthroughs. What is your personal experience with these components in your work with CCL?
How well is our chapter providing these components?
How might we improve?
In chapter 9, Sam writes “be unreasonable,” not hard to work with, but unwavering in your commitment. Throughout the book he suggests not shying away from making “BIG ASKS.” So we asked ourselves:
Have you made or answered a Big Ask?
What did you find inspiring in Reclaiming Our Democracy?
Are there strategies in the book that we could try in our local chapter?
What are your personal next steps?
Sam joined us, shared his “story of self,” and urged us to be ready to share our own. The “story of self,” developed by Harvard Professor Marshall Ganz, asks, “What happened in your life and what decisions did you make that got you to this commitment?”
Some New Strategies
Sam taught us how to prepare for meetings with some of our more MAGA-like members of Congress. “Find something they did that you actually like,” he told us, “and write letters to the editor thanking them for their leadership on that issue and urging them to bring the same kind of leadership to our issue.” To reach elected officials who reject the science we want them to heed, Sam urged us to meet with and enroll people who influence them or have their ear: their pastor, the largest employers in the district, state and local elected officials.
Sam also urged us to bring more heart to our meetings and shared Drew Dellinger’s poem “Hieroglyphic Stairway” that begins:
it’s 3:23 in the morning
and I’m awake
because my great great grandchildren
won’t let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?
Reclaiming Our Democracy is a soup-to-nuts story and handbook on how to reach out to and inspire members of Congress to create local, state, national, and even international change. It’s written in a down-to-earth style that is easily digested.
Some of our Takeaways
In the wake of our first book group meeting, our Lehigh Valley chapter will explore our CCL Community website and listen again to the trainings. We will practice speaking on specific issues and bills. We will research commitments of our members of Congress before our meetings, focusing on hopeful messages, and we will continue to encourage one another. Integrity, respect, and hope are guiding principles. Our next meeting will be fully devoted to these learnings.
After the meeting I wrote this to Sam: “Your inspiration came at just the right time.” Will, another member, wrote, “I found your talk very helpful in this difficult time.” And Dylan wrote, “We have been moved by your vision and will take the strategies you have shown us back to our chapter.”
You too can reach Sam Daley-Harris at sam@civiccourage.org. Even long-time advocates need encouragement these days. Sam and his book can provide both balm and fire.
Jessie Snyder is a member of the Lehigh Valley, PA, Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a retired inner-city school elementary teacher, and a docent at the Allentown Art Museum.
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