ACT & REPORT BACK / Participation is one of our words for the decade and the last few weeks have shown how important it is more than ever. We need to be involved in our local politics. We know this isn’t easy, we know information feels like it’s everywhere (it often is) but we encourage two quick actions you can do today._
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1. Find all your local government departments, senators and ministers on Linkedin and follow them. Check your feed regularly (and engage with it simply by liking or adding your opinion in a comment so it keeps coming up) to stay on top of surveys, plans, policy ideas, town halls, elections, and anything you can provide input on. For example this year some of us have contributed in our areas to biodiversity agreements, right to protest, city development plans, public transport and bicycle infrastructure._
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2. Look up all the dates for your local elections – whether that’s a senator, a mayor or a general attorney; whatever is voted on by the public in your area. Pop them in your calendar with any notes you need (i.e. date to register for voting, how to vote etc). They’re in for the year then as best as possible._
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We need activism. We need to march. We need to protest. We need to call our friends in (and out) but after all that; we need to vote. If you’re in a democratic (we use that word fairly loosely as open democracies rarely exist, but generally considered democratic) country then you – we – get to change the course of our futures and ensure we have a sustainable and positive life; that means equity and it means a thriving environment. So many countries don’t get this (and we need to fight & support alongside them to ensure they do). This is a relatively quick and massively impactful way we can all contribute. The more you do it, the easier it gets._
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P.S. We joined Linkedin recently and will be posting to our page regularly – you’re welcome to find us on there as Nowhere and Everywhere and get some interesting tidbits and other pages/orgs to follow.
