RECAP
April 25, 2025 Recap: Title: “COMMUNITY MATTERS - practicing the things that make democracies work.”
Season 5 | Episode 17 (Show 209) WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE
What a week! We hope you had a great weekend making time for family and community. The crew got busy building community and practicing things that make us happy — joy is an act of resistance! After a weekend at the Rural Retreat in Virginia (Katherine White), touring Las Vegas (Finale Norton), and getting down at the Virginia Democratic Women’s Caucus Building Bridges Listening Tour in Hampton Roads (Carrie Short), we finally sat down to write the RECAP from the April 25th show!
Come together, right now … Over Me
On Friday’s show, we focused on how we “COME TOGETHER” in community. Naturally, we danced into the room to the Beatles’ “Come Together,” which was going to be Timothy Leary‘s campaign song against Ronald Reagan in 1969, but Leary’s campaign was halted after he was imprisoned for cannabis possession. Lucky for us, Lennon then released the song for the Beatles. We thought this song was appropriate because, although our country was not yet labeling states as “blue” or “red,” it was a very divisive time in American politics.
Today, with a perceived absence of leadership from political parties and elected officials, the grassroots are the ones helping people COME TOGETHER!
🎬 The FPL team started our lunch discussion talking about a big opportunity to come together – The 2025 POWER UP Women’s Summit- June 27-29 at Tyson’s in McLean, Virginia. Find your community and enjoy speakers, workshops, postcard events, and networking among women and allies who support each other in community. We expect it to be the biggest women’s summit in its nine-year history (book your hotel).
USING TECHNOLOGY & SOCIAL PLATFORMS TO BUILD COMMUNITY
Never in our modern political history have we had a platform like the Friday Power Lunch (or any of the podcasts and Substacks hosted by Network NOVA and our ally groups) to bring us into community with people from all over our country. We are trying to be a model of what grassroots connecting and community can be.
After a quick round-up of highs and lows from the week, we introduced our first guest to talk more about community and building it everywhere we can.
Come together, right now … Over WE
Susan Wagner introduced Hali Lee, author of “The Big We” The idea from her book came from a shared giving circle she started with members of her Korean community. A philanthropy professional, she described modern philanthropy as “Big Phil.” The influence on large wealthy donors has really shifted priorities for giving in America from decentralized community based groups to centralized (mostly old and white) donors and foundations. We build our priorities around the priorities of the funders, so we are more attractive to them.
SAY NO TO PASSIVITY - DO NOT LOOK TO THE RICH TO FIX THE SYSTEM
💰Hali reminds us if we reply on billionaires it cultivates a passivity. It is up to us, citizens, to be the changemakers to make our communities more joyful and free, we must not rely on billionaires to this - this class is not interested in changing the systems that made them rich. We must do this for our communities.
Listen to Hali in the below video talk about being proactive.
THE FIVE Ts
Developed well before the 2024 election, her book asks– how do we organize around “The Five Ts,” time, talent, treasure, testimony and ties? Do we want to organize our Five Ts around white guy billionaires or do we want to orient our Five Ts toward the rest of us. Grassroots organizations and community members know what’s happening; they should be the ones who decide what works and where the money will go.
Hali walks from the “I,” to “The We,” to the “Big We.” What I can do, and what can the groups that you’re part of (we) do in order to do good in the world? Finally, the “Big We” is the system that underlies all that I and we do. People have lost connection to the we, especially after Covid. Citizens coming together to do good is the cure for loneliness.
🍽 Hali uses the metaphor of the kitchen table throughout her book as a place where community happens. She told a story of her grandmother who used her kitchen table to host “Tea Parties” where her friends and neighbors could meet and get to know a local candidate. They built community around her table and were later credited by that candidate as helping her win.
📙 You can purchase Hali’s book here.
Next up! House Parties! No, not Kid n Play famous 1990 dance party. We were thrilled to host co-founder Cecilia Minalga of the Bay Area Coalition.
🏠 Cecilia is all about building community, one gathering at a time. Listen in below about the power of house parties.
Cecilia Minalga “House Parties to Build Community-Organizing 101” is a workshop to help you start your own party plan! Cecilia’s simple plan is based on the importance of building community around kitchen tables, sofas, folding chairs and pots of coffee (or tea) at House Parties. She has been involved in bringing groups of people together as an organizer at Bay Area Coalition and now, she has developed a structure and training for the House Parties. The House Party Tool kit helps people run them in their communities.
By bringing people together and allowing time to talk and build community, the House Parties build relationships and trust. They also use house parties to build a volunteer base and inspire people to get involved. House Party participants leave with opportunities for political, community service or advocacy activities. Each house party also tries to inspire participants to host their own parties, eventually creating a cascade effect that can amount to thousands of engaged people. Cecilia pointed out that the house party concept is not new, but they may be increasingly important to build community in our own divisive time.
Sign up for a workshop here.
FOUR DIRECTIONS - NOW FOR NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNITY BUILDING
Our final segment turned to OJ Semans (Oliver), Co-Executive Director, Four Direction & Bret Healy, , Chief Strategy Officer at Four Directions. Using the strength of Native communities, Four Directions advances equality at the ballot box across Indian Country. They pull resources and work with other organizations to engage Native people in the political process, most importantly voting. About 23 years ago, they realized the power of the native vote when a local race flipped after the Native vote was counted.
Their successful strategies include paying for contact information for Native Americans and their families, high-tech outreach, getting access to non-voter files, and developing relational databases. They conduct voter registration and education and advocate for equity in voting access.
GETTING OUT THE VOTE - HIGH TECH & HIGH TOUCH
Four Directions uses grassroots and paid organizers to focus on four components: 1) The Power of the Vote 2) Registering to Vote 3) Showing up to Vote, 4) Ensuring Votes Get Counted. OJ and Bret also said that the census is crucial – with the census goes the voting; and Native populations are historically undercounted.
GRASSROOTS DOING THE WORK THAT MATTERS
“At the end of the day, it is us.”
Four Directions also supports a number of lawsuits in various states to guarantee Native voters protect their vote. They are currently focused on being proactive to protect their vote from the SAVE Act. Bret said, “when it comes to voting rights in native America, we’re still talking about treaties and sovereignty.”
THE WRAP UP
We wrapped up by talking about the “C Word,” which Katherine White reminded us was COMMUNITY. Feeling a little salty, Coastal Anchor Carrie Short added corruption, chaos and cuts– forces that are motivating a lot of people to seek community.
Susan Wagner wanted to end with her own C word– “C’ ya,” as in “see ya, George Santos!” During our show, we received the news that George Santos received a seven year sentence in his federal fraud case. Susan wanted everyone to know that she and her fellow grassroots activists in New York deserve a lot of credit for calling out Santos and demanding his removal from office and prosecution. We ended by encouraging everyone to get out there and COME TOGETHER– IN COMMUNITY.
PS- good luck to George Santos in his new community in the federal pen!
Before we close, we want to share May Day events and Resistance Events. Make sure you have a plan and use every opportunity to expand your community.
Virginia Grassroots Coalitions has a great list of Resistance events here.
We have a fantastic show this Friday with Katherine Stewart - Author, Journalist, her latest book: “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.” And, lessons from the Movement to End Poverty with Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-BackBook in their new book: “You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take".
Safe safe and see you Friday!
Coastal Carrie and Crew!
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