The January of TFG's inauguration, our friend Rabbi Dayle Friedman sent out an email inviting friends for an hour of sending texts and postcards to protest 45's outrageous actions. We settled on Thursdays at one. People brought their own postcards, stamps, and we shared messages, addresses, and strategies. In honor of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, we dubbed ourselves the Persistent Postcarders.
Throughout that administration, about two dozen different people rotated in and out, with some of us attending quite faithfully. In time we switched to direct postcards to voters, as more initiatives set up shop to make that possible. Thanks, Blue Wave Postcards! We are not allied with any particular postcard group - sometimes opportunities are available through www.Turnpablue.org, which many of us are involved in, focusing on statewide campaigns in this massive swing state of ours. We work with out-of-state groups, as well.
Once COVID descended upon us, we of course couldn't meet in person, and we all so missed the camaraderie, education, and friendships that had been forged. For eighteen months or so we met weekly on Zoom, about 8 of us. We discussed COVID, politics, and all continued to independently write postcards. We are very proud of one of our members who ran and won for Judge of Elections in her precinct, and works her butt off in the run-up and on Election Day.
Over the early COVID summer pre-vax, we met outdoors on porches. Soon we began a tradition of celebrating one another's birthdays. In short, we have become a tight circle of political-nerd friends, each involved in various campaigns plus sharing our postcard activity.
This past August we had an overnight at my vacation home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, enjoying one another's company, great food, a beautiful setting, and as you see by the photo: POSTCARDS.
We are ecstatic that in our own small way we helped PA elect a Democrat to the State Supreme Court, and that candidates we postcarded for in VA helped flip the House of Delegates and hold the Senate.
Back in the day we were featured in the Washington Post. The group will be turning six in January. It has changed all our lives, it's safe to say. New, powerful friendships for a bunch of 70-somethings is a big deal. We are better together! All these postcard groups are the secret sauce that will save democracy, of this we are convinced.
- Betsy Teutsch