Why this Activity?
Every single county commission, county court, city council, and school board will be impacted by the federal power grab that’s cutting funds, firing workers, and giving billionaires tax breaks on the backs of working people. It’s so easy to feel small right now against the backdrop of the massive-scale federal attacks on democracy that we’re experiencing every day. Recently, we got an email from Choose Democracy with this video, where a chain reaction gets kicked off by pushing over a tiny, 5mm domino and culminates with a 1-meter-tall, 100-pound domino crashing to the ground. It’s a powerful visual reminder that we can take small actions in our communities that have much larger ripple effects.
Anne Mitchell, a human dignity organizer in Wheeler County, put this theory into action recently when she attended her County Court meeting. Some counties have a county commission, and some have a county court. Anne shared, “It felt GREAT to show them someone’s watching, caring, worried, and pissed off. If you’re feeling inconsequential by calling a congressional office to be tallied, start local.” Check out Anne’s full report back from the meeting below!
What is the Activity?
This month’s Kitchen Table Activism is to put this domino theory into action by choosing a local civic institution that you believe is worth protecting and pressuring at this moment. Trump and Musk are undermining the administrative state in an attempt to cement an elite-controlled government, and that threatens all of us. But that also means we have an opportunity to put pressure on our local elected officials based on something that the vast majority of us believe in: government should serve the people, not oligarchs.
Pick a local public board that’s important to you and your community and ask them what specific programs, services, and projects are at risk or have already been harmed by federal action. If they are pro-democracy, how are they preparing for and resisting federal funding cuts and other changes? And perhaps most importantly, how are they communicating with the people that elected them about the impacts rural communities are experiencing and what their elected leaders are doing about it?
How to Complete the Activity:
- Get together with your group (no group yet? Grab three friends who care about this too and get together for coffee!) and discuss what local public body has a say in things that are important to you and your community. Is it the school board? The county commission?
- Research when the next meeting or public comment opportunity is and make a plan to attend. Who will go? What do you want to say and ask when it’s your turn to speak? Here are some of the questions Anne asked her County Court:
- What are you going to lose with federal budget cuts and other changes?
- Does that matter to you?
- Are you going to do anything?
- Are you telling your constituents about those impacts?
- Participate in the public meeting you chose and document how it went
- Report back! You can leave ROP a voicemail at 503-543-8417, email your county organizer, or better yet, let your community know directly by writing a letter to the editor, getting interviewed on your local community radio station, or posting on a community Facebook group about what you learned. Perhaps your domino will knock over a bigger one!
Did you make any headway? Did you run into an obstacle and don’t know where to go next? Join us at the Rural Caucus and Strategy Session the weekend of April 25-27 to connect with other community leaders from around the state who are striving to defend human dignity and democracy. Register yourself or your group for the Caucus here!
Extra credit: We also get a say in who represents our communities and serves on these boards. May special elections are just around the corner, where we vote on local districts, like school boards, water districts, and transportation districts. The voter registration deadline is April 29th. Check whether you’re registered here, and reach out to ROP if you want help connecting with local organizing around the May elections!
See you soon!
Warmly,
Sidra and the ROP Team
Here’s Anne’s full report back from her experience attending her County Court meeting:
This is LONG, but it’s my report on what happened in our local government today when I stood up for the people.
Today I attended the Wheeler County Court Meeting. The court admin was shocked to see a member of the public enter the room, and even said, “oh, I wasn’t expecting you.” To which I said, “don’t other people come to these meetings?” And she said “not really.” County Court meeting is on Zoom, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been to one, so I’m as guilty as others for not taking the time.
Anyway, business as usual, nothing controversial or very interesting on the agenda. The Judge’s Report: “Everything’s been quiet, except some snow plowing.”
I was there to see if there was ANY discussion about federal government programs or funding that might be affected by Trump administration’s actions or public revelations about federal agencies. Not a peep.
So being the only Public to comment…I asked if in response to the disruptions in federal funding and new administration actions, the judge or court had taken any action to protect federally funded programs that their constituents rely on, and no they hadn’t done anything. Judge Morley said we should just wait and see what shakes out, because the media is just all in a panic and Trump has so far reversed everything he said, so it’ll probably be fine. And what could little county commissioners do anyway?
WELL, I suggested they work with AOC (Association of Oregon Counties) at the least, and requested them to compile a list of county programs and services that are federally funded through grants, loans, and congressionally budgeted appropriations directly and pass through from the state of Oregon. I said “it’s your responsibility as our local government to be knowledgeable and work to protect vital programs. AND its your responsibility to communicate with your constituents about threats to their services, etc.
Judge Morley mumbled about keeping an eye on what’s going on…Commissioner Logan said he doesn’t pay ANY attention or actually care, and said we don’t really need the government to pay for anything in Wheeler County. I suggested to him that it’s OUR tax dollars, so perhaps we should expect to have some spent here. He just said, I think federal income taxes will probably not be a thing anymore… like nobody is going to have to pay them. I had no response, that was appropriate for a public meeting.
PEOPLE, we have a “vacant while present” commissioner and a milk toast Judge on our county court, who needs to understand what we elect and pay them for. Matt Davis is great and cares and said we should proceed with looking at where we rely on funding…
And they invited me back to the next meeting once they have some information compiled. WIN.
I implore ALL of you to go to your city council, school board, county court meetings to request their attention to what’s happening and to fight for their funding, programs, services, all the way up the government. Make them SAY they DO or DON’T give a rat’s ass about you.
Finally, Judge Morley said we need to wait and see what happens and then respond. I said “so put your head in the sand while it’s clear what has already been closed down, defunded, etc.”
When I said, well somebody other than secured government employees ALREADY has your personal data…he said “well they’ll never take away Social Security, Medicare, Medicare, etc.” I merely said, I hope not.
But I reiterated that we will require them to communicate with us about what’s happening to our poor county, if they do.
It felt GREAT to show them someone’s watching, caring, worried, and pissed off. If you’re feeling inconsequential by calling a congressional office to be tallied, start local.
Judge Morley said he hadn’t gotten any phone calls about people being worried or upset. So…maybe we start with ringing our county commissioners’ phones off the hook, to let them know we elected them to work for us and are concerned that they don’t realize that they are connected to state and federal government leaders and funding.
I hope you’ll all go to meetings ( they all do Zoom for public meetings now).
SHOCK THEM by showing up to be heard! And as hard as it is, remain mostly polite and respectful. I tried.
Background: Kitchen Table Activism (KTA) is a monthly activity by the Rural Organizing Project. The idea is that small actions can lead to powerful collective results when groups of people gather to complete the same action across the state of Oregon. ROP works to keep each KTA easily achievable so that groups with other projects or groups with limited immediate energy can still complete the KTA each month.
