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Silja Kallenbach's avatar

This was an eye opening article for me, coming from a very blue city in a very blue state. Hats off to progressive organizers in these states where odds are so much against them. Thanks, Martha.

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Jan Austin's avatar

Thanks for letting people know what it's like to be blue in this blood red state! I live in Dickson County, which may be the worst! If I want to be around friends, I have to go into Nashville.

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Martha Merson's avatar

Keep us posted if you find ways to organize with neighbors on anything from disaster preparedness to bartering for food and childcare. Thank you for writing, Jan. Wishing you strength.

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John Jacob's avatar

Thank you for sharing this story, it’s inspiring to see how people are able to connect around community, mutual respect and understanding others needs…

Not sure if a slow burn will help us now, but the reminder is indeed needed to keep “soft” power in high respect overall 🙏

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Jeanne Raines's avatar

Weird - tried to repost this on FB for all of my rural-red state friends and family, and FB blocked it twice from posting with this message: "Warning: This Message Contains Blocked Content. Your message couldn't be sent because it contains content other people on Facebook have reported as abusive." Then, just tried to post the link and "something went wrong" with that twice, as well.

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Jan Austin's avatar

This kind of crap happened to me as well on FB and I LEFT!!

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Martha Merson's avatar

Yup, it's been happening for months. Copy some of the article text and direct your followers to www.thegrassrootsconnector on substack.com I hope that is enough of a guidepost.

Thank you for sharing by email and other vehicles!

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Mitch Ritter's avatar

I thought it was just me failing at FB....

Tio Mitchito

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Anthony Flaccavento's avatar

So great to read about Aftyn's work in TN communities and the state legislature. We connected a few times back when she worked for Rural Organizing as well as Indivisible. What Aftyn recommends, that "The Democratic Party in the state needs to be rerouted to providing direct services. We need to be out painting barns and providing meals," is precisely what the Rural Urban Bridge is doing in rural Virginia, Georgia and elsewhere through our Community Works initiative. Aftyn, if you read this, I'd love to reconnect! anthony@ruralurbanbridge.org

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