Postcardocracy
Keeping in touch with democracy, one postcard at a time
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LATEST POSTCARD CAMPAIGNS AND UPDATES
LATEST POSTCARD CAMPAIGNS AND UPDATES
If you're new here (welcome!), keep scrolling for the answers to "Why postcards?" and "How do I do it?"
- 21 May 2017 Postcards lifting up Nestor! Nestor is a 27-year-old DREAMer who has been at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia for nine months. Originally from South Carolina, he was full of life, a 5K runner, and a college graduate with honors. Now he is in medical detention, feeling lonely and scared. Nestor’s loving parents are not able to visit. While he awaits news about his health and his future in the US, let Nestor know he matters with a kind, colorful, encouraging, or funny postcard. (No money or gifts. Just hugs via mail.)
Address: Nestor Daniel Avila Miranda
A# 204-631-097
P.O. Box 248
Lumpkin, GA 31815
(From Jen Hofmann's Action Checklist)
- 12 May 2017 FLIP THE 5TH in South Carolina! Archie Parnell is running in the June 20th election in SC's 5th Congressional District. Sign up here or text the word HELLO to (803) 630-0295 to get addresses for your voter postcards. Learn more about Archie here. GET OUT THE VOTE!
- 8 May 2017 Thank Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) for publicly opposing the revised ACHA plan, that would "severely harm the health and lives" of her constituents. Putting people over party makes a great leader. Address: 4960 SW 72 Avenue Suite 208 Miami, Florida 33155
- 7 May 2017 Action: Support healthy meals in schools (from Jen Hofmann's Weekly Action Checklist)
Write: Sec. Sonny Purdue 1400 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20250. Script: As a parent (or tax-paying community member), I oppose your plan to make school lunches less healthy. Your priority should be protecting the health of America’s youngest citizens, not the interests of corporate agriculture.
- 7 May 2017 Action: Advocate for the dignity of all Americans (from Jen Hofmann's Weekly Action Checklist)
Write: Sec. Ben Carson, HUD, 451 7th Street SW, Washington, DC 20410. Script: I am a tax-paying citizen who believes that all people deserve a home that is safe from invasion, elements, and pests, a home with heat and cooling, hot water, clean drinking water, and adequate space to gather, sleep, and prepare food. I am happy to see my tax dollar used to support cozy homes for Americans in need. Ben Carson’s shameful views offend me deeply.
- UPDATE - Kristi won! Yay!! 5 May 2017 PINE BUSH NY SCHOOL BOARD: If you want to send postcards to support Kristi Heiralla, contact her campaign through this Facebook page.
Why postcards?
Why postcards?
The best way to make contact with your officials is to go and see them. The next-best thing is probably calling and/or faxing, with emails coming in dead last. Where do postcards fit in?
Postcards may not change the world; they don't deliver real-time messages, and the White House isn't going to let you know how many it receives... but they do have special value:
- Postcard-writing can foster camaraderie and boost morale when done as a social activity. When people gather with one focus, creative juices flow; knowledge is shared; brainstorming ensues; and great ideas may result. In this way, postcard-writing can strengthen the sense of community within the Resistance.
- Postcards to voters who are likely to vote blue, but may not actually vote, can help convince them how important their voice is in swing elections.
- Postcards happen on your own time.
- Handwritten postcards come across as more personal than anything typed.
- Postcards do not need to go through delivery-delaying screening, as all mailed envelopes to officials do.
Wise words written on a postcard by a wise five-year-old, mailed to the White House for the Ides of Trump campaign, and immortalized in cross-stitch
How do I do it?
How do I do it?
First: get postcards.
First: get postcards.
Willing to go to the post office? Head there and ask for the pre-stamped postcards (they cost 38 cents each) or just buy post card stamps (34 cents each) and use your own postcards (or index cards).
Don't want to leave your house, or your post office is out of the pre-stamped ones? You can purchase postcards online from the USPS store. You can also use regular stamps (if you have a ready supply of those) on index cards, though of course a postcard stamp costs less. For bonus independent-artist-supporting points, check on Etsy for homemade artistic postcards specifically for the Resistance!
Would prefer not to spend four cents plus postage on the USPS-issued postcards? According to the USPS regulations, an index card is thick enough to go through the mail (because they are at least 0.007 inches thick), but anything thinner can get caught in the postal processing equipment. Card stock of the right thickness is also an option.
Second: get addresses.
Second: get addresses.
New and exciting! If you wish to help get out the vote in communities where turnout is expected to be low, and the seat has a chance to flip from red to blue: Sister District will match you to a race and provide you with voter addresses to send postcards to.
If you want to tell your elected leaders how you think they are doing, or what you think they should be doing: a quick Google search will bring you to the specific officials' pages, where you can find their contact information for both local and D.C. offices. Thank-you postcards to congresspersons who stand up for their constituents and act bravely are also much appreciated!
If you aren't even sure where to begin: check out a site like 5calls.org or Jennifer Hofmann's Weekly Action List (scroll down to the Archives if you don't want to sign up for the weekly emails) for ideas based around specific issues. Often they include the relevant addresses right there.
Third: get creative.
Third: get creative.
You can write a short and simple message, which is totally great. Or you can pull out your art supplies and add your personal touch. Write a poem, draw a picture, be funny, be colorful. Imagine what kind of postcard would stick out in a pile of otherwise drab mail!
If you are doing a get-out-the-vote campaign, you will have to stick within a certain set of guidelines (the team running the postcard effort will share the guidelines with you), but you can still make it pretty!
Remember, of course, not to make threats or suggest violence.
Fourth: get social.
Fourth: get social.
(Solo postcarding is okay too!!)
Attend or host a postcard-writing party, whether in person or virtual. Use the hashtag #epistoresist if you post or share photos about your postcards.
Some independent coffee shops host postcard meetups; check with the ones in your area.
If possible, meet weekly or monthly during your lunch break at work with other democracy-minded colleagues.
Consider snapping photos of your finished postcards... it is nice, on the hard days, to be reminded of the fruits of your labor!
Postcards written during a postcard party for the Taxing of Paul Ryan campaign.
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