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VEST Her Podcast
A podcast exploring the invisible barriers holding women back in the workplace and sharing stories of women navigating careers and building power collectively.
VEST Her Podcast
Women's Political and Civic Engagement
Discover the invisible barriers that hold women back from seizing their rightful places in political and civic spaces. In this episode, Andy Moore, founder of Let’s Fix This and Executive Director of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, speaks with Mia Barros, founder of Voluntarios por Kamala, Blaire Postman, Founder of Cat Ladies for Kamala, and Cortney Tunis, former Executive Director of Pantsuit Nation. In it, they discuss the fear many women experience around political engagement, strategies to overcome that fear, and the importance of stepping into political conversations, especially when others cannot. The conversation also highlights the significance of local elections and civic engagement, regardless of swing state status and more.
Join us as Mia, Blaire, and Courtney— share their unique insights into overcoming societal pressures that often urge women to prioritize politeness over impactful dialogue. Special thanks to Andy Moore for moderating the session.
If you enjoyed the episode share it with a friend and don't forget to leave us a review. If you are ready to take your career to the next level, apply to join our community of professional women, all eager to help you get there and stay there. Check out our VEST Membership and apply today! www.VESTHer.co
Hey everyone, this is Erica Lucas, your host and founding member of Vest, an organization connecting women across industries, regions and career levels so that together we can expedite the pipeline of more women in positions of power and influence. Welcome to another episode of the Vestor podcast, where we explore the invisible barriers holding women back in the workplace and share stories of women building power collectively.
Speaker 2:I just want to normalize that, like I think all of us are afraid of time. I think all of us are afraid of time and I think, as women, many of us prefer to please, to be liked, to avoid conflict. I'm not saying that's all we are, but I think a lot of us have been socialized that way and so it can be easier to just avoid these things. For example, when I started to approach people about voluntary for Canada, I realized it's okay for me to ask, it's okay for me to tell and also say to them if this is not of interest to you, that's a-okay, and just sort of normalizing that civic engagement is productive, respectful, even if not everyone agrees with our particular brand of it, like that can, that's all right your various you know identity privileges can help you be the person that's speaking up, or means that you know you're not in a place to do that and want to step back.
Speaker 3:And that's in part, why it's really important to have coalitions and your close people that you're working with, because if there's a topic that is just really hits very close to home and I'm not going to be able to have this conversation in a way that is, you know, whatever measured or something like that, then you know someone else can step forward and take on that work.
Speaker 4:It is different. When you're earning, you know you own your own business. And so to Courtney's point about the privilege. I don't have a two-year-old I have to feed and pay for to go to certain things, so maybe it's easier for me to take my risks.
Speaker 5:My two older kids play soccer. I'm on the sidelines every week and you hear so many conversations that are really close to being impactful and you can feel the parents and I think in particular the mothers not say the one thing that would make this into a persuasive conversation. For the sake of politeness, right, keeping peace on the sideline, the husbands, the dads, don't always have that same filter.
Speaker 1:In this episode, andy Moore, founder of let's Fix this and executive director of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, speaks to Mia Barros, founder of Voluntarios por Camela Blair Postman, founder of Cat Ladies for Camela, and Courtney Tunis, former executive director of Pantsuit Nation. In it they discussed the fear many women experience around political engagement, strategies to overcome that fear and the importance of stepping into political conversations, especially when others cannot. The conversation also highlights the significance of local elections and civic engagement, regardless of swing state status, and more For our guests. Full bios and show notes go to wwwbestherco. Forward slash podcast. If you enjoy the episode, share with a friend and don't forget to leave us a review. This episode is brought to you by Vestor Ventures, a peer network of professional women and investment fund for women led companies in the care economy and future of work. To learn more, go to wwwvestherco. This episode was part of a more intimate coaching session with Vest members and has been repurposed to accommodate this episode.
Speaker 5:Mia and Blair, I'm going to start with you, because it's about this election. We're witnessing something that is truly unprecedented, like a massive wave of volunteerism and community led initiatives that are shaping the political landscape in ways that we haven't really seen before, and not least in a long time. A lot of these were built on the powerful groundwork laid by the Win With Black Women group. Could you each, mia maybe I'll have you go first and then Blair can you tell us about how and why you decided to get involved?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I just want to say thank you all so much for being here. Thank you, erica for inviting me, thank you, andy for moderating and, to the other panelists as well, very excited to be here. So I'll just give you a little bit of the background story for Voluntarios por Cámara. We were founded to protect and empower Spanish-speaking voters and, of course, to help elect Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, and the origin story of our group and why I wanted to do this goes back to 2020.
Speaker 2:I was a new mom, it was the pandemic, and I decided to volunteer on the Spanish side of the National Voter Assistance Hotline, and right after I joined in the first week of October, the hotlines started to receive hundreds, if not thousands, of calls from voters in Spanish, and so I was getting emails that represented a voicemail, like every minute, of people that needed help, and, as it turned out, those calls were coming from Florida, arizona, georgia, because voter registration was about to close in those states on October 5th. And that experience really left a mark on me, because by the time the team was able to get us all the voicemails and we were able to get back to everybody, we had to tell them they missed their deadline to register to vote for that election and it really broke my heart, really for two reasons. The first is how can we have a system in which millions of our fellow citizens don't have the tools they need to exercise their constitutional right to vote Like that just is wrong. And second, these are folks that wanted to vote. We didn't need to convince them and they were calling a Democratic hotline and, unfortunately, I don't know what else to conclude, except that the message they probably took away was that no one cared enough to be there to help them or call them back in times where they could vote in the election.
Speaker 2:So this year in which the election, as all of us know, is just crucially important as important as 2020, if not more for all of our futures and, I think, a year in which it's really become clear to everyone that the Latino vote is an extremely, extremely important part of our electorate and likely to be the decisive vote in our election I just thought I at least want to try to make sure that doesn't happen again. So I spoke to my husband and took a bit of a leap and decided to focus on this for a certain period of time, and now, you know I'm excited to say that our volunteers, including the amazing Erica Lucas, will be supporting Spanish-speaking in the swing on the spring state hotlines, um, and also protecting the vote on the ground as poll monitors and poll observers. Designated agent, designated agents and more Um. So that was kind of what really pushed me to get involved, that experience, um, and you know it's. It's really exciting to see all the energy around getting involved this year.
Speaker 5:But that was my particular story Awesome. Thank you so much, blair.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much for having me. Thank you to Erica and Andy and everyone at Vest I. You know, the first time I really volunteered in a substantial way for an election was in 2020. And you know I don't I try to keep this on the down low, but I'm a recovering lawyer and I've been out of that business for way longer than I was ever in it. And in 2020, I signed up for I think they called it voter assistance or election integrity and I trained and went to Philadelphia I was living in DC and I live in Baltimore and work in DC and went to Philadelphia and stayed at the polling station I was assigned to. Actually, I was like, are you sure I haven't been a lawyer for like 20 years? And they're like, no, no, that's good.
Speaker 4:And you know we had a lot of training and we were there on site in the unlikely event, honestly, on site, in the unlikely event, honestly, that something really substantial happened and, at the very least, we were a person with a hotline number to what they call the boiler room who could level up real problems that couldn't be resolved on site. A lot of them are not necessarily malicious of intent. Sometimes it's a simple misunderstanding of human poll workers and voters who don't understand when you can cast a provisional ballot and what that means, and lots of other rules. And, as we all know now, those rules are even more so lately, constantly in flux and changing all the time. So, whatever they were back when I did this in 2020, I'm sure they're obsolete in some way now. And, of course, I got my postcards and everything else and that election, after a lot of, frankly, trauma and distress for a lot of us, I believe, went the right way, thankfully, and we're better for it, and I had gotten my postcards and I'm like I'll probably sign up for the voter thing again.
Speaker 4:And then, first of all, it was so exciting. I think we all have yet to fully comprehend the amazing happenstance of Joe Biden stepping aside and also endorsing Kamala Harris, and I think that's going to be something we're going to need some historical perspective on. But I was so excited when she came on board and I was always looking to do more because, even though I haven't been in politics, I've been a little adjacent. I used to be a bureau speaker agent for former political and media people. This answer is way too long. I didn't feel like. I never felt like I was doing enough, but I didn't know how to get a handhold on it.
Speaker 4:And if JD Vance had been even slightly less of a total jerk and hadn't just been so openly, blatantly and so comfortable being hostile towards women of every walk of life? But starting with these childless cat ladies and I realize you know I'm a childless cat lady by every definition of the word. But it's not about that. It's about othering people and this is just an easy sort of bad joke way to get a toehold in of people being numbed to the othering of their other fellow citizens in this country and their rights and their importance and how we all have to take care of each other. And I got the URL that day and the Instagram the day that he stepped aside and endorsed Kamala Harris, and we've had some helpers along the way, but I'm largely a one-person show and it's been.
Speaker 4:Without getting into detail, this answer is already way too long. It has been the best thing I've ever been involved with because of the amazing people I've met, and I really believe we're going to win this election, even though I'm nervous. But somehow, even if we don't, I don't feel like I would totally lose faith anymore because of all these. I know that I'm not the only one, and I know that there are other people I'm with, so that's that's how we started. Sorry for the length.
Speaker 5:That's great. I, politics aside, I do think historically, we'll look back on this election Everyone who's here represents PR or comms in any way and look at some massive missteps on political messaging by certain individuals, for sure. Courtney, a similar question for you you launched Pantsuit Nation in 2016, which is one of the largest communities for mobilizing millions to become more civically engaged, and later on, after joining forces, you became the head of activation for supermajority. How have you seen the landscape evolve since 2016, in particular, regarding women female voters and this unity call started by win with Black women and then followed by other women led groups.
Speaker 3:Well, it's been really, uh, interesting to not be with Pansy Nation or Supermajority right now, um, you know, since 2020 and kind of watch everything happen. And what's most, um, interesting to me is really the landscape is evolving, in part because of all of the groundwork that was laid formal organizations like Run for Something that's actually bringing people in to run for office, to organizations like Pantsuit Nation, which were really about getting people to engage with each other and recognize their own power when it comes to civic engagement, and then, once their kind of empathy for one another had really been cultivated, then take the step to actually do the work that makes our country better for, you know, our neighbors and ourselves, and so some of what you know was necessary. It's funny to see some of the parallels. So, for example, pantsuit Nation blew up over the course of two weeks, you know, went from zero people to roughly 3 million people in about two weeks, and Facebook was scrambling to get everything in line. To figure it out, we had these amazing people that were just working almost 24 seven to stop the thing from crashing, to make sure that everything was working, and that exact same thing just happened with Zoom, when all of the when, the size of the win with Black Women Call got so large that they needed to, you know, react in real time and create these tools that are now, you know, equipped to handle these extremely large organizing calls. And even organizing on Zoom was something that started for the 2020 election bringing people together, doing trainings for it was really, you know, kind of a function of the pandemic. You know, doing trainings for text banking or phone banking had to happen over Zoom, and so recognizing that this is a tool and then the tool really blowing up is pretty amazing to see.
Speaker 3:I think, also, the Roe decision really changed the way that women saw themselves reflected in what's happening on the national level. I think we all always knew that our, you know, personal rights were at stake, but when that actually fell, the reality of that was, you know, even for those of us who are tracking this, who are on the kind of side of the percentage of the population that keeps track of all of these things on a regular basis, it was still just an absolute gut punch, and so a lot of people began telling their stories, and this was really a key element of the Pantsuit Nation philosophy that it's through storytelling that we really understand what is at stake when it comes to these issues. And you know, at the DNC you saw all of those women and their male counterparts telling their stories about reproductive issues, and that's the way that we really understand what's at stake. What's at stake, and so there's that storytelling kind of through line and then Roe coming down, I think really encouraged more women to see themselves in the reality of this election.
Speaker 3:And the final thing I'll say is you know, one thing I think is really important and what's really exciting when something like Cat Ladies for Kamala starts or Voluntario Support Kamala, is that Win With Black Women had been having that call for years I mean I think eight years or something and so they were ready when the time came.
Speaker 3:All of that infrastructure was there and what they needed was just to have more people come and more people care and be part of it and the invitation go out to more people. What's going to be the next catalyst for what we now see is all of these organizations that have raised so much money, that have engaged all of these people. So I think you know if there's a lesson in all of this and this speaks actually to what you were talking about, blair, that you know, no matter the outcome, there's a sense of kind of hope. That's there. That's a little bit different, even as it feels, like you know, extra, extra important that the election, you know, doesn't go in a Trump direction. That people know how to organize the average person knows how to organize in a different way than they did before and there's a sense of organization sort of coming to your door rather than you needing to go out and find it. That, I think, is empowering a lot of people to become more active for the first time.
Speaker 5:That's great. Also, courtney didn't know, but she was an excellent segue into what I'm going to ask next, Because what I kind of heard all of you saying is there's two levels here, like in your stories. There's the raising awareness, gaining awareness of the public. But then what do you do with that? How do you organize that? Because if you just have a lot of followers, you're just a meme account, right that? Because it's, if you just have a lot of followers, you're just a meme account, right?
Speaker 5:The magic is, how do we create opportunities for engagement and for action at the individual level? And so, on the survey that Erica read earlier, it said that 67% of Vest members share that they still get most of their political news from traditional media and then social media, their political news from traditional media and then social media, podcasts, online stuff, kind of going on down. And this strikes me as one of those big shifts where, even eight years ago, even four years ago, the way in which Americans received information and from whom, has shifted, in some cases majorly, some cases maybe just a minor shift, but we are much more based in like information silos now. And so how do you all and this is open to anybody, but how do you see the roles of traditional media and non-traditional media evolving this year as compared to 2020 or 2016?
Speaker 4:I am certainly the newbie of these group of experts and just to reiterate, win With Black Women leads all of us to this day, through the election, through, hopefully, many years to come, so just wanted to make sure everyone understood how that being on those calls every week for eight years really made the rest of us possible, because I am learning every single day what to do. And what really struck me, Andy, is I say this all the time we have a lot of followers. We have more followers than some of these grassroots groups, and what I've told people is that if we don't get people actually taking action, it's meaningless. It's meaningless. And so, for example and I can't even name all the different grassroots and affinity groups who have helped us in addition to Win With Black Women but, for example, we are going to be doing a caravan to Penn, as they call them, to Pennsylvania, to meet cat ladies there weekend after this for two days of canvassing in York County, pennsylvania. Everyone's welcome and you can go to their website and sign up for different swing states, different shifts, different dates. We are doing phone banking every week.
Speaker 4:We had to learn how to do these things. We had to get help from other people and when it comes to the information silos, I think the best thing that a group like ours can do that has sort of this wide but maybe not deep reach with our followers not yet is to encourage them to learn with us. So, for example, I try to regularly express in our different posts and videos and emails that, look, I'm going to do this phone bank. You know, when I did my first phone bank Two weeks ago, here's what I learned. Here's what I was scared of. Here's what's not scary about it, or as scary as you might think. Don't want to do our thing. Here's a list of our website of like 20 other things you can do with other groups. You don't have to do our thing. Here's some. Let me introduce you to these other groups. Or maybe someplace that has a.
Speaker 4:I'm one person. I'm in the mid Atlantic. I'm not going to be in person at a Nevada canvassing group. Here's maybe some people you can get in touch with there. Learn with us, learn with us. But also don't take the fact that you don't know everything as a hindrance, because the truth is most people have to learn this by doing it and, I think, getting that information. I work my day job is in traditional and streaming media. I work for a large media company in advertising and you have to be everywhere, sort of in one way or another, and one of the ways that different grassroots groups can help is some of these groups. Geeks for Hairs are great on Twitch. I'm not going to be on Twitch guys, it's probably not going to happen, I mean not in a meaningful way in the next two weeks.
Speaker 4:You know what? I'm not going to be on Twitch guys. It's probably not going to happen, not in a meaningful way, in the next two weeks. You know what I'm saying. I'm jumping on something with them and they're going to be on Twitch and they're going to do all the work and I'm going to say hi or whatever. I'm not going to be able to execute everything, but I'm going to do a few things as well as we can with our resources resources and then I'm going to either push the our cat ladies who are interested in other things than what we're giving to other places, other resources, or and or I'm going to hop on with other people who are going to help me get my word out through other channels. But you have to be it's very fragmented and you kind of got to be everywhere, but you can't do it by yourself.
Speaker 5:Courtney or Mia? How do you see the roles of traditional media and newer media shifting this year?
Speaker 3:about TikTok and how there are people there that are speaking in plain language and explaining things to people that you know. This is what this means. You know the news is reporting on this. Here's what that means, or? Have you heard this story? I'm going to do like a five part video on it and it becomes almost like a long form version of understanding what's happening in the world. Um, I'm not like. I I'm very skeptical also of, like all social media because of its potential ill, but that is says the woman who you know ran a giant Facebook group. But, um, the uh.
Speaker 3:What is so interesting to me is, again, it's about meeting people where they are, and and it's about getting people, getting the information in front of people, and maybe that is through, you know, the we talk.
Speaker 3:The Call Her Daddy podcast, for example, was a place where a lot of people just are, and now Kamala Harris is there, and if you're on TikTok and you're scrolling, you know you're going to find these people that are talking about various issues, and I think it's a.
Speaker 3:I think it's a really interesting combination and I think that there are some really strong creators out there that they themselves are doing a really good mix of bringing in traditional media, introducing the story, breaking it down, that kind of thing, so I think that that is really good. On the other hand, there's a lot of crazies and a lot of people that don't know what they're talking about and a lot of misinformation that's coming from a similar place, and I do think that you know the responsibility of the platforms to be giving people the knowledge to know like this is AI created? This is a refuted topic, you know. Here's some other articles about that. All of that technology that helps you understand and kind of know how to consume media in a more intelligent way, I think is really important and that's sort of a really big learning curve that we're all going through right now with the changes in technology. That is going to continue to evolve the way that we interact with traditional versus non-traditional media.
Speaker 5:I have a friend that works in traditional media as a TV journalist here in Oklahoma and then Detroit, boston. He recently got laid off and did what anybody does, where he started a podcast and a sub stack and is now doing his own thing. But he relies on legacy media, as it is, to report news and then he, like, synthesizes that and does his own little nugget. And I trust him. I think it's great. But he and I've had the conversation of if you grow this, you will become the trusted source People won't, even you'll be disconnected from, or the reader, the listener will be disconnected from the original source and while I may trust him, there's thousands of other people doing that. Right, and that's what you said, courtney is that suddenly the opportunity for disinformation or even just like spin that might be subtle at first can quickly spin out of control and I think that gives a lot of people some pause.
Speaker 5:And all of this kind of goes in together with heightened polarization. Sometimes talking about politics being perceived as political can feel dangerous or contentious. The news last week about an individual being a plot being foiled for a mass shooting on election day a guy from here in Oklahoma has made it hit home, I think for a lot of us, and certainly for many women, including those in the vest community, worry about political retribution and how it might impact their business or their spouse's business or their kids at school or any number of things. So this is really a question for anybody or everybody there. But how do we combat that? How do we foster healthy, productive political conversations? I feel like there's a difference between political conversations and conversations about politics, sometimes right Like it's a tent issue, especially with folks who might hold different viewpoints. What advice do you have for the audience?
Speaker 3:So this is a really difficult topic and certainly not something that I think maybe we're going to solve in this moment here, but what I will say is that I think it really comes down to your individual decision about how you're going to move in the world when this happens, and that you know we're I think each of us is aware of the way that one person's energy can either escalate or deescalate a situation, and you can choose to be the deescalating energy, even if you're angry, even if you're, you know, insulted, and I'm saying, I'm saying this, I never, I don't always do this, so there's times when I am like, no, this is the land in the sand, I'm not going to give you grace.
Speaker 3:But it is about individual energy, and one thing I think is really interesting to have as an example right now is the Liz Cheney Kamala Harris interactions and conversations, that these are two people who are really on opposite sides of the political conversation but have decided, like we're not just being cordial, we are actually coming together and standing on our common ground, and this is what it looks like to have those conversations in a essentially civil way, that this is not about like slinging insults back and forth at each other.
Speaker 3:This isn't about, you know, being a sort of a lightning rod for, I don't know, memeing or something. This is about standing in front of people, recognizing that we're on different sides of the spectrum, but this is the way that we've come together and I think that that's just a really important visual that we have right now, as compared to what we're seeing in a lot of other places. But, when it comes down to it, a lot of it is about individual decision making. In those moments when things get heated and that's difficult, because sometimes you shouldn't have to be the person that is the bigger person and you can make your own decision about it. But when it comes down to it, I really think it's about a individual decision.
Speaker 4:And if I could just piggyback on Courtney, I think the Liz Cheney, kamala Harris visual and reality is exactly perfect.
Speaker 4:And Kamala Harris I'm going to not get this quote exactly right but talks about I may learn and evolve my understanding of issues and details and life experiences that other people have that I don't have, which is why they may think differently than me.
Speaker 4:But I'm not going to compromise my values and it is an individual thing. I, you know, I work for a big company that works with other people from big companies and I can't always say the first thing that comes to my mind in some conversations. But I also keep in mind what my own values are and I'm not going to and in my discussions I can have appropriately polite, convivial discussions with people who think differently. But I want to make sure I'm not compromising my values in that process, whatever that means for me personally, and I don't personally believe that's going to interfere with my work. But if I'm prepared and I had to be prepared when I took on this more public-ish role with the Cat Ladies is that if I feel like I am acting appropriately in the space and someone just finds out that I do this and they don't like it. Well, that's not something I don't feel that's inappropriate, and so I just I try to always be understanding and open-minded and convivial, without but I am not going to compromise my values.
Speaker 2:I just want to normalize that, like I think all of us are afraid of time and I think, as women, you know, many of us prefer to please, to be liked to avoid conflict. I'm not saying that's all we are, but I think a lot of us have been socialized that way and so it can be easier to just avoid these things. And so for me, in doing this work, some of it has just been trying to really go back to what matters to me and be a little bit brave about it. Matters to me and be a little bit brave about it, like the same way I would tell my daughter and you know, believing that this is right, believing in the urgency.
Speaker 2:And then I've found that I, over time, I've become more and more afraid of engaging in respectful discourse, and that's bad, we have to move away from that.
Speaker 2:And so, for example, when I started to approach people about voluntario pro canada, I realized like it's okay for me to ask, it's okay for me to tell them and also say to them if this is not of interest to you, that's a-okay, and just sort of normalizing that civic engagement is productive, respectful, even if not everyone agrees with our particular brand of it, like that can, that's all right, and talking about these issues has become so taboo and it's really dangerous that it's become so taboo. So, you know, I think, just trying to get a little bit more comfortable with doing it in a respectful way, of course, not sort of violating your values that is obviously not good but also, like we heard about there's changing Kamala Harris like trying to find points in common with folks who do see things differently, so that, even if we disagree, it's in a way that still can feel productive, like we're connecting as humans, we're being, you know, we're humanizing the other, we're, we're being social with the other.
Speaker 3:It's not easy and it is very scary, but I think sometimes these interactions, can go better than we expect If we can put the fear like a little know identity privileges can help you be the person that's speaking up or means that you know you're not in a place's really important to have coalitions and your close people that you're working with, because if there's a topic that is just really hits very close to home and I'm not going to be able to have this conversation in a way that is, you know, whatever measured or something like that then you know someone else can step forward and take on that work. And that's actually a lot of what you know we would do in Pantsuit Nation when it comes to moderation. That you know if this, if hey, are you okay in there? Like, do you need any help? What can I do with? Like, how can I support you?
Speaker 3:And sometimes you know it would just be like today's not the day for me to you know, get in there and talk about something that's really difficult for me to engage with. That you know on a personal level. So I think there's a piece, too, about recognizing when you are the person with the privilege and can step in and be the voice that is more moderated, but keep like, bring that other person into the room with you and make sure that their needs, their rights, all of that is represented. I think that's a really key thing and something that we. It's something that you sort of have to practice doing, like reminding yourself you know when you have power, when your power is compromised and when to use it.
Speaker 4:And I just said just to acknowledge, jumping over into the chat a little bit and, yeah, it is different. When you're earning, you know you own your own business, or when I I now live in Baltimore, I work in DC, I have a base pay that goes along with my position. That is very different than the eight years I spent in a very small city in southeastern North Carolina doing the same work, where I worked at 100% commission and had to go out and talk to very local business owners in the greater Wilmington North Carolina area, in the greater Wilmington North Carolina area, um, and you know, 10, 12, 14 years ago, and uh, it's, it is different. And so to Courtney's point about the privilege. That's, um, that's true, that's real.
Speaker 4:I, for example I mean you joke about childless cat ladies I don't have a two-year-old, I have to feed and pay for it to go to certain things. So maybe it's easier for me to take my risks. And you know, I now do have a position where I'm not on. I have, we all have things we have to do to earn our pay, but it's not the same thing as, literally, where I used to work. They called it you only eat what you kill.
Speaker 4:But, the, the, the. The fact that now I have this position is it became this year, but starting in 2020, in particular, it became to feel for me and the position that I had, frankly but impossibly immoral for me to not take advantage, to not give everything I could give, because there were so many people who were not in the position, who were going to be in a position where they might feel more retribution, where they might feel more danger to their personal, economic and family security or their personal well-being, their physical security. So I just want to acknowledge everything going on in the chat, and Courtney too, because it's real. It's real.
Speaker 5:Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 5:I love the energy around this answer and I have a similar experience that I'll share real quickly. And then we're getting close on time. But you know, my two older kids play soccer. I'm on the sidelines every week and you hear so many conversations that are really close to being impactful and you can feel the parents and I think in particular the mothers not say the one thing that would make this into a persuasive conversation.
Speaker 5:For the sake of politeness, keeping peace on the sideline, the husbands, the dads, don't always have that same filter. They'll stand off to the side and watch a football game on their phone and just observing it, the dynamics there, is interesting and I think I'm very sympathetic to the massive amount of emotions that everybody brings in my experience, particularly women to this election and the issues that affect their household that you may feel unable to fully express. My wife, I know, will go to the car and scream by herself sometimes just to get it out, because she can't say the thing out loud she really wants to out, because she can't say the thing out loud, she really wants to, and so I think, really excellent feedback on tactics and ways to create that space when necessary. So we've got, we'll say, like seven minutes left, I think, and I want to make sure that we have some time to talk about local stuff. Right, we talk a lot about the presidential election.
Speaker 5:It certainly captivates the headlines in the media, but all of us have the opportunity to think and act locally. In places like Oklahoma, where we're not a swing state and we might feel left out, there are still ways that we can be involved. And so, to each of you, what strategies would you recommend and how would you highlight the importance of like state and local elections, maybe in contrast, those national things, and how can VEST members take action in their community and go ahead? Blair?
Speaker 4:But I'd say, boy, we've all learned how important your state legislators are in dealing with things like women's health care, voting rights, even how they're implementing, sometimes you know, funds that they could get from the federal government, and when you're in a state that's not a purple state or, you know, not, a competitive state. Primaries your primaries, are really important. That's what comes to mind for me. Primaries, your primaries, are really important, that's what comes to mind for me. But vote the best that you have. Vote every time, and even if you don't think any of your choices are perfect.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Mia. I think you were going to keep in mind is that you know, many of our national leaders were local leaders. You know Barack Obama was a state senator, Kamala Harris was a district attorney, Tim Walz was a local organizer for his hometown, for John Curry, and then became a representative in Congress. So you know, by voting now, by investing in local politicians now, you are helping to create the leaders of the future and you're helping them to build the skills to become the kinds of leaders that we want for all of us at a national scale. So there's lots of I mean, there's many, many ways in which local elections are crucially important, but that's another one that people don't always think about.
Speaker 3:I would also add that. So ballot ready is a really great resource to prepare for voting, and part of what I really love about it is that you can see where you're the people who represent you stand on various issues. It gives you a better understanding of what the heck you're voting for in these down ballot races, and I know that for many years I went into the voting booth like who is this? And I'm just like, yeah, I'm also from Massachusetts, so it's a little bit. Sometimes there's just one name and it has a D next to it and you're like, okay, vote for that person. But every once in a while there is an actual, you know, important difference between how people feel about specific subjects that you care about in your local election, and I find Ballot Ready a really useful place to just get to. You know, what have they said about this, what are their points about this, what's on their website about this? So that is, I think, just that's a resource that I share pretty often with people when they say you know, I don't really know what's going on in my state Because I think, my goodness, our state websites like so archaic and difficult to navigate and like all that they want is just like I don't know. I just feel like I go there to pay a parking ticket or something, but it's that is really helpful.
Speaker 3:The other thing is that, again, because the pandemic kind of created all of these different opportunities that allow us to connect with people outside of our state without leaving our homes, that, you know, phone banking is something that you can do no matter where you are, and you can call in to different states.
Speaker 3:I know that I'm, you know, sending vote forward letters in to swing states from, you know, my little blue Massachusetts, and so there are more ways that people have created who recognize that this is a difficult situation that a lot of the country finds themselves in, where they feel like it's not enough for me to just vote, because I know the way that my state is going to go. The other thing that I think is interesting is that over the course of certainly my lifetime, we've seen states move from you know, red states to purple states. States become swing states. Swing states become, you know, entrenched in one color and so kind of flexing your muscles and being ready when your state might suddenly actually be in play or there's an important seat in your state. That's in play is, I think, just an important thing to keep in the back of your mind that, like I'm not doing this, it's not a useless thing to engage in this, these civic practices, because it could be on my doorstep, you know, in the next election.
Speaker 2:Could I just add one other thing that that I thought of you know I just want to advocate. I just want to say that I think as women, we're just constantly feeling like we're not doing enough, we aren't enough and that can make us avoid things at times because we just get overwhelmed. And I just want to emphasize that one hour is enough. You know, in one hour you can phone bank. In one hour you can do a boot camp about best practices for advocating and promoting on social media. You can also recruit, you know, five volunteers in one hour.
Speaker 2:So I think for all of us, we're constantly feeling that pressure, like we have to remind ourselves that we can't let perfect be the enemy of the good. And you know, if we can put aside the self-judgment and sort of trust that anything we contribute is positive and making things better, we have more room and more space to just do the even just a small amount that we can do, because many of us are in seasons that are alive, but that's all we can do, a small amount but that's still amazing, and so I just wanted to add that in really quickly.
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