50 Ways to Love Your Country

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
-Anthropologist Margaret Mead, 1901-1978

As I read MoveOn.Org’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country, this quote came to mind again and again, attributed to anthropologist Margaret Mead. MoveOn’s book is the action plan to match her sentiment. In 2003, the online organization issued a call to members for personal stories of political activism. MoveOn got more than 2,500 replies. They have culled the top 50 stories here, including entries from former Vice President Al Gore, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and author Gail Sheehy. Each entry is one to three pages long, and concludes with bullet points from MoveOn summarizing how to follow in the author’s footsteps, whether you want to write a letter to the editor or hold a fundraiser in your home. The writing is clear, crisp and jargon–free, since most of the entries are written by people who had little experience with the press or politics before their involvement with MoveOn.

A typical entry is the story of Naomi Warren, 22, of Indiana. Warren describes how she volunteered to meet with Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican, despite being an ardent Democrat. She attended the session as a representative of MoveOn, and was surprised by the receptiveness of Lugar’s staff to her point of view. “I left the meeting feeling more empowered than I had in many months, if not years,” Warren writes. “It seemed like such a simple act—after all, we had only contacted one of our legislators. And yet, those contacts prove incredibly powerful. Indeed, they make a great difference.”

Several stories in the book are truly inspiring. A Texas lawyer challenges powerful Republican incumbent Rep. Tom Delay in a primary, forcing the congressman to appear at debates and offer his position on issues. Kristen Breitweiser lost her husband in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. She lobbied legislators for months on Capitol Hill until there was enough support for a 9/11 Commission. Other stories are simple acts of passion. A California mother of three carves out time to make 20 phone calls a day to strangers, urging them to oppose the 2003 gubernatorial recall election. A New Hampshire woman continues to write an op-ed column for her newspaper, despite being out of step with local opinion.

The tactics in this book can be applied to any organization’s advocacy efforts. Want to write a letter to the editor? Write short sentences and pay attention to the publication’s word limit, according to Gary Porter, 57, of Ann Arbor, Mich. No goal is too lofty for MoveOn. A reader can dip their toes into the political waters by volunteering for a campaign or working a phone bank, or they can initiate a constitutional amendment. MoveOn tells readers how to do both.

Above all, the book shows how the Internet and political Web sites like MoveOn have made it easy for one person to spur others to action. Passionate about a candidate, and want to tell your friends? Fire off your “political picks” in a mass e-mail to your entire address book each Election Day, like Michael Rosenthal, 48, of California. Alert the media to uncovered events by developing media lists and writing press releases at home, easily delivered to hundreds of news outlets through e-mail. That’s what Mary Rickard, 51, of Chicago did when she felt the mainstream media was ignoring an upcoming Federal Communications Commission vote on media ownership. Online petitions drafted in the middle of the night and sent to a few friends have resulted in hundreds of thousands of signatures. The book begins with an introduction from MoveOn executive director Peter Schurman, who says the Internet has freed the public from the dominance of the media and business elite. "Thousands of voices can come together quickly online and count heavily with legislators, who often hear nothing from constituents but a lot from paid lobbyists," Schurman writes.

For public relations professionals, this book reminds us to ignore no one. We should return every call and take every e-mail and letter seriously. Roughly a third of the stories in the book stem from an incident where a person’s input was derided. Instead of giving up, the negative experience fueled the person’s quest. Many entries have sentences similar to the one in Jerilyn Fay Kelle’s story, titled “Defy City Hall.” Kelle approached a county commissioner with concerns about a dangerous road, and was treated shabbily. “Ironically, if he had tried to reassure or appease me, I might have dropped the issue. Instead, infuriated, I wrote letters to several local newspapers,” Kelle writes. The story does not end well for the county commissioner. The book’s unintentional lesson is that organizations need to engage in issues management, even with their harshest critics. The Internet and groups like MoveOn have made it easier for one person’s dissatisfaction to spread, rapidly.

MoveOn has a strong point of view. The presence of stories from Gore and Pelosi underscore the group’s connection to the Democratic Party, and many of the book’s entries are related to political acts that oppose Republican candidates and ideas. A conservative reader can apply the same MoveOn strategies to win their battles, but it might be a tiring read. Overall, though, the book is the perfect starter guide for anyone seeking to enhance their civic and political life. As Nancy Pelosi tells the reader: “Know thy power.”