What? Another announcement list?
Well, yes.
Why? As I think many of us saw back during the flurry of activity
over the repassage of the Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act in
April and May of 2005, one of the things that's often necessary in
order to make legislation move is activism. Literally thousands
and tens of thousands of people wrote, emailed, and called their
legislators. Some of them were alerted to both when to act and
what to do by the grassroots organization, "Concealed Carry Reform
Now!" — better known as CCRN. But a fair number of folks turned to my own LiveJournal as a source of
news, some on a daily (or even more frequent) basis. As I've said, over and over again, what repassed the MCPPA wasn't any individual or group, as important some folks and groups were. It was people... calling, emailing, writing, and I like to think that the thousands of folks who read the LiveJournal and took action during that time made a difference, because they — you — did. That
journal — and the new Forum — had and has
its place. But they
do have some limitations — you have to deliberately browse to them in
order to be updated.
Email, on the other hand, comes to
you. Hence the Activism announcement list. It's intended to be a
low-volume list, and announcements only — it's not a place to discuss
issues, but to be alerted to the need to take
action, whether that action consists of calling specific legislators, writing letters and/or emails, or showing up for a rally. I'm hoping, of course, that those needs come only rarely,
or not at all, but developments both around the repassage of the MCPPA
and events since have persuaded me that it's much better to be
prepared than to be caught flat-footed.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, just fill in the
form below. This list will only be used for announcements, and —
I hope — only rarely. But wouldn't you want to know when there's
a need to take action before it's too late?
It's up to you; as always, you have to make your own calls about such
things, but I do hope you sign up,
and, as always,
stay safe,
jr
