Eat, Write, Gaga, Repeat

Friends I have an idea:  In less than a week, a gazillion Americans are gathering at parties around the country for the Super Bowl or something.  As you know, we have entered “a free fall plunge.  And the sound you hear is the sound of shit hitting the fan.  Globally” (1:35 in the clip or just the whole thing!).  So how about we use this occasion to gather and tell our elected officials that we’re ready to make America great again?!  Like…ready to get America back onto its pre-11/8 track?  

Let’s have a Super Bowl letter writing campaign to support the Women’s March’s first action! We can eat, write, dance to Gaga, and repeat!  

• Folks who are eager to watch the game: perhaps you’d like to write a letter in between the 1st and 2nd quarters?  Or during the commercials?
• Folks who are eager to watch the commercials: you can consider writing your letter while the football action is going on!
• If this is too discombobulated for you, make your own rules!  Maybe the interested folks write a letter during the puppy bowl before kickoff and then letter writing is done by the time the game starts!

You might be thinking “I’ve been calling, texting, writing, snap chatting, tweeting, instagramming, screaming, crying, eating my feelings, and marching, for the last three months. Why should I dedicate my Super Bowl Sunday to acts of resistance?”  Plenty of folks have jobs, kids, parents, social anxiety, and engagements that made it difficult to be as involved as you were leading up to and following 11/8.  Many of them are eager and willing to be involved so let’s take a few steps that can make it easier for them to take part in this movement!

Let’s assign folks to bring more than just food to the shindig:
-someone can print the templates from the Women’s March!
-someone bring the stamps
-someone bring the envelopes
-someone bring paper, pens,  stickers stickers stickers, glitter, glue sticks, crayons

If you trust your friends, you can purchase all of this stuff on your Amazon prime account and ask folks for a donation at the party.

Now that you have enough glitter, stickers, and crayons to supply a 3rd grade classroom, find your representatives and get started making short letters, long letters, Valentine’s Day cards, drawings, stories, essays, or 7 act plays, about the America you believe in.  Also glitter bombs.  I will add scripts to this page throughout the week.  We can thank officials who we feel have been fighting for us, we can reprimand officials who we disagree with, and we can let ALL officials know that we care, that we are watching, and that we are in this for the long haul.

Other ideas for the Super Bowl Action Resistance Extravaganza:

• Make your laptop or tablet available for folks to set up donations to different organizations like the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, Planned Parenthood, etc.
• If making your tech available is out of your comfort zone, how about a poster next to the TV with websites for people to visit on their phone in between making bets on whether the puppy in the commercial is advertising beer, a jobs website,  or a new baby shampoo formula?
• VOTER REGISTRATION!  Yes – you might have friends and family who are NOT REGISTERED TO VOTE!  We have elections more frequently than every 4 years for local officials who affect real change in our communities.  Registering now can allow folks to vote in any upcoming local elections, and the national midterm elections in 2018.
• Check out the women’s march page for the next set of actions.
• And after you put all of your art projects into the mailbox on Monday morning, donate your leftover glitter glue to a low income 3rd grade classroom in your area! Or ship it to the Goodwill in one of your leftover Amazon boxes!

Okay folks, that’s all for now.  If a Super Bowl letter writing party isn’t for you and your crew, that’s fine. But if it strikes you and you have the resources, roll with it.  I truly believe that it is important to listen to our bodies and to do what is right for us, and if you need a day off, then take it; this past week is only the first battle in the war over the next 4 years.

Edit

I have a confession: I don’t watch sports.  Unless the Chicago Bulls are on and Derrick Rose still plays for Chicago AND he doesn’t have a torn ACL, but that ship has sailed.  Or Shaun Livingston is playing.  Or there’s a really good underdog story.  I am a total sucker for a good underdog story about struggle and grit; track and field is my favorite because the athletes’ stories make me laugh, cry, and cheer, all at the same time.  I also like watching the World Cup in soccer. And quidditch.  I’m not a big football fan, though I have had a fantasy team in the past.  I love the commercials during the Super Bowl and get a kick out of guessing what is being advertised.  But I don’t really have “teams” that I cheer for, besides the Bulls.  And since the Bulls are going through a rebuilding phase, I’m confused.

I wrote #eatwritegagarepeat from the perspective of someone who likes to go to the Super Bowl party to…eat, hang out with friends, and watch the half-time show, forgetting that some folks show up to watch the game.  If you want to write SOME letters but don’t want it to dominate the party, compartmentalize the activity so that letter-writing gets done before the game even starts. Or perhaps it just takes up the down time in-between the first and second quarters.  Make it your own!  And again, if you need a break from the polit-apocalypse then take it!

#eatwritegagarepeat
#superbowlwriteathon
#makeamericagreatagain
#valentinesfortrump