Last week I had the privilege of being part of a progressive roundtable meeting with Senator Patty Murray and her staff. Murray listened to, and engaged with, 16 representatives from various local entities concerned about the sequester and other federal economic policy actions. We heard the stories of the many people for whom these policies are a nightmare: veterans who’ve sacrificed for our country — and then been denied the medical assistance we promised them, (don’t even mention the financial promises!); single mothers struggling to make ends meet; resources being terminated; people suffering.
And as I listened to the stories I found myself wondering how did we get here? How has the richest nation on earth become immune to the suffering of our own people? How do we justify continuing to pour billions and billions of dollars into the very institutions and people that brought about the crash of 2008, while abandoning the people whose jobs were eliminated, whose lives were destroyed?
Over the last two years, in my conversations with politicians at every level — local, state and federal — when asked what we can do to help, the one answer that is part of every answer is: tell the stories. Make videos of people telling their stories and send them to our electeds, post them on the net, share them on social media. We do a pretty good job of recording our local actions — protests, demonstrations, marches. Now we need to take the time to get to know the people who are suffering and to help them tell their stories. Those stories, and the people who can tell them, are important. And we need to offer them our time and energy.
