(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Blue Waves Start With Ripples - COVID Toolkit DNC Watch Party Edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-08-19 Remember COVID? Well, if you’re like my friend that I recently and belatedly caught up with you might say, “ Yeah, I remember it like it was last month, because it was”. That’s right, COVID is still with us, still making people sick, still putting people in the hospital, and still putting people in the grave. Also, we still really don’t know what the effects of Long COVID will be. Here’s a little video about something that happened a century ago. Check it out if you are fascinated by medical mysteries or if you don’t have enough anxiety in your life today. So… Get up to date with your vaccine. And thus concludes the public health portion of this PSA. The rest of this PSA is concerned with with… well, i guess it’s also a bit about public health, but also about public education, civil rights, climate change, economic equality, and just about every other aspect of our society because this is about the upcoming election and the profound effects that this election will have on every aspect our lives. And now… How tools we used during the height of COVID can help save the world today. My recollection of spring and summer of 2020 is a bit hazy, for sure. I remember certain activities: speed shopping the supermarket with a homemade mask like there was blizzard made of skeletons bearing down on us, resolving to buy box wine because the weight to volume ration vs bottles made the dreaded trips into the public sphere more efficient, avoiding the bigger farmer’s market because they still allowed vendors to sell things for on site consumption and the smaller one had a gatekeeper with a counter controlling access and reminding everyone “Up one side, down the other. No doubling back. No chatting”, being allowed to drink a beer inside the pizza place because I was just “waiting for take-out”. washing everything that came into the house, including the goddamn potato chip bags, and scolding joggers on sidewalks for breathing too hard 2020’s Summer of Negroni may have had something to do with that haze I mentioned. But… what’s harder to remember is the feeling or vibe of that time and how long different phases of that first year lasted. Sure, there were musings about post-capitalism as part of the conversations around “not wanting to go back to THAT normal”. And there were very smart thoughts about our nation’s relationship to global supply chains and the health of the planet. And there were observations we made about ourselves and what was really important for us to pursue in our own lives. But, we eventually came down from that high and emerged from that haunted forest. And it is really hard to “re-feel” that unique shared experience of freedom and isolation, of potential and dread. But there were a few phenomena from those muddy days of 2020 which may be of use to us in this election cycle: We checked in with or checked up with people we care about a bit more often Friends and relatives across the globe became almost as close as the ones down the block We understood that we all had to do our part in a collective effort to move forward So, this week, as Team Harris take to the stage in Chicago, make a connection with someone close to to you and/ or someone you haven’t connected to in a while. Consider having a shared experience with a friend or relative that might not be around the block or just down the road. A few texts while listening to Big Blood from Maine Speeches, and to a greater degree, a whole evening of them (along with some nice entertainment selections) have ebbs and flows of energy. You don’t have to fill the voids and keep the energy going. Something I learned during COVID was that these remotely shared experiences can have the same room for almost all of the things that would happen in a face to face shared experience of the same thing. For example, a few buddies and I started listening to music together once a week during COVID. We would have a little zoom chat and then have a synchronized listen to something none of us had heard before while we made our comments via text. Here’s the one diary I did here on DKos on our listening parties. Two separate options, depending on who want to reach: 1. Watch the DNC with a Harris supporter that you think has the potential to become more engaged. Excitement begets excitement. Just asking someone if they want to join you for a little video chat or text message sideboard lets them know that you not only prefer Harriz and Walz, but that you a stoked about them. If they are luke-warm about the Dem ticket, maybe they get a bit more excited. If they are already excited, maybe they can be encouraged to get more involved. Donate. Sign up to volunteer. Go to an event. Take that next step. In our listen parties, we aren’t gabbing away the whole time, but when someone hears something that resonates with them, they comment. In this case, when your watch-buddy gets excited about something and comments, it opens a door for someone to gently ask something like “So, I don’t usually donate to presidential campaigns, but I threw her a few bucks. How ‘bout you?” or “I haven’t phone-banked yet this cycle, but I am planning on doing that really soon. Have you ever tried that?” 2. Watch the DNC with a friend or relative that leans Trump (or Kennedy or Stein), but who you think might be reachable. Yeah, this might be a little less fun. And it might take a bit more discipline to not lose your shit, but the potential payoff is pretty great. So, if you can succeed with some form of “Just listen to what they have to say”, or “I think you’d like Walz”, good on ‘ya. The text thread side bar might be really useful for this type of engagement. First, it is slower and nobody can hear the emotion in the voices. If they throw out false Fox-Trump misinformation, you can take sec, and do fact check if that’s what seems right. It also creates a record of the chat. You can follow up the next day with additional info. The other party might also go back and look up some fact you mentioned or link you sent or just listen to you argument in way that is not available to them in the moment. You will have opened up a dialogue with someone and you will have let them know that you are open to them as person. So... revisit the communication modes of 2020, check in on or check up with someone who matters to you, and remember that we are all in this together for better or for worse. And, if you already have other plans, if this is idea induces nausea for you or if the person you ask blows you off, please remember: This year, leave nothing on the table. Give others the tools and encouragement to do the same. If you have a friend or relative in battleground state, I have a It has county Dem office info, quick-links to events both state wide and at the county level as well as poll worker info and other useful bits as I find them. GA, NC, NV, and AZ are up there. More states to follow as time allows. Need some crazy music from the 19th Century? That’s all for today. I gotta go do a little bit of money making and then a little bit of phone-banking. Cheers [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/19/2264209/-Blue-Waves-Start-With-Ripples-COVID-Toolkit-DNC-Watch-Party-Edition?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/