A year ago a friend and I came up with an idea to have an impact on the upcoming election we called “The Great American Listening Tour.”
I read about a group of people on the Peninsula who had been getting together for years, working on various campaigns, and I thought they’d be a good sounding board for our idea. They were, and they inspired me with all of the work they had been doing, their successes, their wisdom, their kindness and passion, and all of the existing ways people could make a difference without inventing something new. For each of the last six months, they’ve been meeting at my shop.
Despite the outcome of this election which certainly wasn’t what our group had hoped for, I’m thankful to have met these people and for all the work they and volunteers across the country did with millions of letters and postcards, texts, phone calls and doors knocked upon.
Among organizations we heard from over the months was SisterDistrict.org, a grassroots organization with more than 70,000 volunteers working to get Democrats elected at the state level. Coincidentally, I ended up canvassing in Arizona with one of the Sister District co-founders. We had a great time in the 100-degree heat knocking on doors and I’m thrilled that Ruben Gallego won the Senate seat there. Our group heard from the Georgia Voter Protection team. We were saddened by the measures being taken to prevent people from voting, and impressed by the advance work the protection team had done recruiting a massive nationwide volunteer team. Many of our group volunteered with SwingLeft.org, a grassroots organization with more than a million members communicating with tens of millions of voters.
One of the sweetest presentations we got was from Dina Jacobson, the founder of Bake Back Better (bakebackbetter.com), an organization that selects and sponsors “down-ballot” progressive campaigns and causes across the country where a few thousand dollars can make a huge difference. When someone makes a donation to the campaign or cause, volunteers deliver four delicious homemade cupcakes as a gift to the donor or to someone they love. Of course Dina brought cupcakes to our gathering and they were awesome. Dina says recruiting volunteers is easy. There are a lot of folks who are open to different ways of fundraising and enjoy baking and delivering more than phone banking, letter writing and canvassing. Bonus: if you happen to be delivering cupcakes, the recipients are always happy to see you!
The other huge bonus of volunteering is community building. Rather than fretting about the world you can get together with nice people, bake, decorate, box up and deliver cupcakes, and create new friendships. Dina quipped “Come for the cause, stay for the fun!”
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Since their 2020 founding they have raised $367,000, delivered more than 23,500 cupcakes, with more than 250 volunteers across the country. In this year’s election, Bake Back Better supported winning candidates Woodson Bradley and Lisa Grafstein, breaking the Republican supermajority in North Carolina’s Legislature, giving incoming Gov. Josh Stein more power over legislation he might oppose.
One of Dina’s motivations for doing this work comes from her son Joseph, a special needs adult who lives in a group home and is on Medicaid. Like many parents of special needs children, knowing that someday you won’t be there to advocate for your child makes it critically important to foster a loving, compassionate, and caring society and government. So, despite or maybe because of the results in this year’s presidential election, the dough must go on (I am NOT sorry for the baking pun). Dina will be vetting causes and campaigns for the 2025/26 election cycle and I’ll look forward to seeing who gets the baker’s nod.
With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I’m grateful to all of the people who took time out of their daily lives to volunteer during this election season. While I am disappointed in the presidential and congressional results, my love of country and belief in Democracy remain strong. The work continues to build a more loving, inclusive and healthy community locally and nationally. Where we find fear, let’s spread hope, where we find hate, spread love, and where there is anger, spread peace. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t loudly speak out and demand justice when we see harm being done to people or the rest of creation. We must. I will. Silence is not an option.
While some may think that there’s not enough room at our table to feed all who are hungry, I say build a bigger table. That’s the work of our lifetimes. May it be fruitful and may your Thanksgiving be as sweet as Dina’s cupcakes.
Mr. Wiesner, over five months ago you “promised” to write columns that would move anyone who isn’t already on one side or the other, to give people hope or motivate them to do better, or to spark mutually helpful discussions? In just about every column since, you weren’t honest about holding to your promise. Now you write, “Where we find fear, let’s spread hope, where we find hate, spread love, and where there is anger, spread peace.” But if you weren’t honest about keeping your promise of over five months ago, how can we take anything you write to be honest or sincere? Maybe your “we” doesn’t include you, like your previous promise?
Will, the answer is NO, a liberal editor isn’t interested in the truth, but we are privileged to read the same cutsie, open arms and pretend to be kind and nice LTE from Craig. Terrence is spot on
Apparently, Mr. Wiesner’s exhortation of, “Where we find fear, let’s spread hope, where we find hate, spread love, and where there is anger, spread peace,” is completely ignored by Jorg. Jorg isn’t interested in any of those things and instead prefers to continue spreading his fear, hate, and anger. What else but silly nonsense does Jorg have to bring to any conversation? Although Jorg has been dining on crow and sour grapes since the recent election, I hope on Thursday, Jorg can enjoy his crow with perhaps onions and BBQ or Tabasco sauce? Happy Thanksgiving!
JustMike650: That's so obvious that it shouldn't even be necessary to explain it. Even the max word count for an LTE is defined by each editor, different for the various papers. Can't you cook up anything more interesting to argue about?
Anybody that thinks Ruben "Cartel" Gallego - is a better choice for the people of Arizona is brain dead and emotionally compromised. And that is putting it nicely.
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(11) comments
Mr. Wiesner, over five months ago you “promised” to write columns that would move anyone who isn’t already on one side or the other, to give people hope or motivate them to do better, or to spark mutually helpful discussions? In just about every column since, you weren’t honest about holding to your promise. Now you write, “Where we find fear, let’s spread hope, where we find hate, spread love, and where there is anger, spread peace.” But if you weren’t honest about keeping your promise of over five months ago, how can we take anything you write to be honest or sincere? Maybe your “we” doesn’t include you, like your previous promise?
Not even YOU, TY, were able to scratch up anything but silly nonsense against Mr. Wiesner’s excellent and thought-provoking column. Nice try, though!
it was indeed "thought-provoking." Made me wonder if a Republican group would get this much space.
Mr. Wiesner is a DJ weekly columnist, with the format defined by the Editor, villalen! Didn't know? Now you do. Or perhaps not.
Will, the answer is NO, a liberal editor isn’t interested in the truth, but we are privileged to read the same cutsie, open arms and pretend to be kind and nice LTE from Craig. Terrence is spot on
Apparently, Mr. Wiesner’s exhortation of, “Where we find fear, let’s spread hope, where we find hate, spread love, and where there is anger, spread peace,” is completely ignored by Jorg. Jorg isn’t interested in any of those things and instead prefers to continue spreading his fear, hate, and anger. What else but silly nonsense does Jorg have to bring to any conversation? Although Jorg has been dining on crow and sour grapes since the recent election, I hope on Thursday, Jorg can enjoy his crow with perhaps onions and BBQ or Tabasco sauce? Happy Thanksgiving!
Jorg wrote:
Mr. Wiesner is a DJ weekly columnist, with the format defined by the Editor.
Jorg as far as 'defined by the editor' - you could not be more wrong.
Where do you get some of your 'spaghetti to the wall' drivel?
JustMike650: That's so obvious that it shouldn't even be necessary to explain it. Even the max word count for an LTE is defined by each editor, different for the various papers. Can't you cook up anything more interesting to argue about?
Anybody that thinks Ruben "Cartel" Gallego - is a better choice for the people of Arizona is brain dead and emotionally compromised. And that is putting it nicely.
Exactly what should be said about those supporting Trump as our President!
Not quite sure its the same metric, My dear Jorgy. I do hope you and your loved ones had a good Thanksgiving.
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