Today I’m sharing an election safety checklist which includes useful links, and questions to ask yourself to help you and your community prepare. Thanks to the Anti-Racism Daily email newsletter for offering this Safety Checklist for November. Caveat: A few of the resources linked at the bottom of the checklist suggest actions I do not condone, except possibly in certain life-threatening emergencies. A pamphlet isn’t license to violate your moral principles. Think for yourself, and always be guided by your own highest moral principles.
The Anti-Racism Daily email newsletter has been an essential resource on my anti-racist journey. You can go here to get more info and to subscribe.
From Nicole Cardoza in today’s edition of the newsletter:
The first part of preparing is to prepare yourself. This is not to center your needs above those more marginalized. This is about ensuring you are resourced enough to do the most. Make your self-care plan.
Then get clarity on what it looks like to protect your community. The checklist offers ways to help from a wide range of perspectives: you can organize politically to defend polling sites, passing out food and water in places with long lines, or offer rides to people in your community. You can organize logistically by offering food, money, and other tangibles to those worried about leaving their homes in the coming weeks. You can also get prepared to participate or defend any protests that may unfold in the weeks ahead. The checklist includes links to upcoming trainings and virtual gatherings you can join – and I recommend subscribing for future events that may be scheduled as things unfold.
If anything, perhaps this plan will bring you and your community some ease and relief as the weeks unfold. But at most, it can save lives. …
Key Takeaways:
- State and local governments, organizers, activists and extremists are worried about election violence over the coming weeks
- Creating a plan is critical for your self-care, but to support and protect the people around you – especially those most marginalized
- Take some time to prepare now, and keep this election safety checklist in your back pocket for whenever a response to crisis is needed
Here is a U.S. Government website page on household disaster-preparedness planning. (It’s one of the resources mentioned in the safety checklist linked above.)
And my own plan: Offer food, water, shelter, preparedness training, emotional support to community members in every way I can. I aspire to be stability in unstable times.
And remember: Whoever gets voted into office, we still all have to wake up together tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. If we really focus on what matters, the forces that unite us are greater than any artificial thing we can possibly make up to divide us.