Commentary from a college classmate of Mary Jane F.
A town hall with our local House of Representatives member, Rick Larson* appeared on my phone yesterday and I decided to listen in. Larson, a Democrat, has represented this region of Washington for 24 years and is now in charge of the transportation subcommittee. There were 400 questions in queue, and 13,000 of us listening.
Some good points:
1. Contact. Contact. Call your representatives in Congress with your concerns. Call representatives and senators whose actions you do not like, call the White House. And then call again the next day. He says these numbers make a difference. The White House is feeling the pressure. If you don’t want to call, send emails. Write letters. Keep the pressure up.
2. A woman asked about working across the aisle. He said that there is no concession with what the Trump team is trying to do. However, in committee they do work across the aisle and are able to come up with effective legislation.
3. He believes that the reason Trump team is doing so much that is outrageous so fast is — they are throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. The more we are outraged and make that known as they throw these things at the wall the fewer they will get away with.
4. I can’t list the different many things that were mentioned that he says can actually not be changed by executive order but it was comforting to hear. A lot of the government is continuing to function fairly normally.
5. Support your attorneys general, support them with letters, emails etc. That is where the real battlefield of this crisis is.
6. The ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center and other nonprofits need to be supported in whatever ways you can. They are doing good work.
There was more but that’s enough for now. We need to work with the good people who are representing us.
*Rick Larsen is the representative from Washington’s 2nd Congressional District