Hey, readers.
Join me over at Fated States this Saturday, October 5th at 1 pm ET!
We’re phonebanking for Harris/Walz in my home-away-from-home state of Florida, and it’s gonna be fun!
Really!!
You’ll get to hang out with a great, friendly group of romance authors and readers *AND* help save democracy and the world!
(Fated Mates is a Romance Novel Podcast with Sarah MacLean & Jen Prokop, and they’ve created a phone banking group called Fated States, to help get out the Democratic vote in this year’s election. You don’t use your own phone number (you keep your privacy and no one will ever be able to call you back!), but you do need a phone and a computer to participate. There are plenty of breaks from making calls, and lots of warm and often hilarious support via the Zoom chat during the phone banking! There’s even a weekly Bingo game (for those of us who can multitask!) so you can win fabulous prizes. There’s also surprise visits from Your Favorite Romance Authors! You definitely want to be part of this large and inspiring group! We (and I’ve joined in often enough over the past few years to use “we!”) are fabulous!)
Here’s the link to sign up: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/665087/
Or you can sign up via the Fated Mates Podcast Fated States page at https://fatedmates.net/fatedstates
Give it a try! It’s really so satisfying to DO SOMETHING with a group of new friends!
Drop me a quick email or comment/message if you’re gonna join us, so I can be sure to say hi to you in the Zoom chat!
I also wanted to share with you an NBC News article about a stealth-style activism that can be done in even the darkest red (or even purple) places in America: Pro-Harris sticky notes pop up in women's restrooms and gyms and on tampon boxes
Woman are putting post-it notes all over the place to reassure their neighbors that their vote is private. (And that it’s time to restore women’s right to autonomy!!)
I’m thinking a really great place to put some of these notes might be in romance novels in your local library.
This is a really wonderful thing to do if phone-banking isn’t your jam.
All you need are some sticky notes (they don’t have to be fancy!) and a pen. And then, as you’re out and about you can be the 2024 woman version of Johnny Appleseed and plant seeds to grow freedom and democracy in your neighborhood or state.
Last but not least, I haven’t been able to stop thinking of a recent declaration from presidential candidate Donald Trump:
"Now, if you had one really violent day, like a guy like Mike Kelly, put him in charge. Congressman Kelly, put him in charge for one day. Mike would you say, right here, he's a great congressman, would you say, Mike, that if you were in charge you would say, oh, please don't touch them. Don't touch them. Let them rob your store. All these stores go out of business, right? They don't pay rent. The city doesn't have the whole. It's a chain of events. It's so bad. One rough hour, and I mean real rough. The word will get out and it will end immediately. End immediately. You know? It will end immediately."
You know from reading my early Troubleshooters books that I’m a longtime student of World War Two history. Since I was a wide-eyed eleven-year-old, I’ve studied the years between 1930 and 1945 extensively. And this man’s words (even though he’s talking about “stopping” retail crime) immediately called to mind Kristallnacht.
One really violent day.
Kristallnacht was one really violent night in Germany in 1938.
Synagogues, homes, shops were vandalized. Jewish people were assaulted and murdered. Please read more about it here, to help you remember just how terrible one really violent day can be: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kristallnacht
Trump’s words chill me to the bone.
My request to those of you who still support Trump and intend to vote for him this year:
Please ask yourself before you vote, how you will respond to the kind of violence that this man so casually and frequently extols. It’s not an impossibility—we all saw what happened on January 6th. Remind yourself of the violent scenes that were on all of our TVs as we watched in horror on that terrible, shameful day when our precious democracy—the peaceful transfer of power—was attacked.
And then ask yourself what you will do if this man is re-elected and authorizes violence against your neighbors—for any myriad of reasons. For being immigrants, for being Black or brown, for being Jewish or Muslim or atheist like me, for being trans or gay like my son. Will you join in and smash windows and trash your neighbors’ homes? Will you stand aside and watch as we’re attacked? Will you turn away and pretend you don’t see it happening? And do you really think that your children and grandchildren will believe you in the years ahead, when love and goodness once again wins—because it will. Love always wins, but this kind of divisive hatred will never be forgotten or forgiven.
Right now it’s violent rhetoric. Please let’s make sure it doesn’t become reality again.
Okay, I lied. This is the last thing:
“So what.”
Imagine watching Fox News and seeing images of that hangman’s noose and makeshift gallows at the Capitol, imagine knowing that the crowd has started shouting “Hang Mike Pence,” imagine being told by your aides that Pence was being rushed to a more secure location because his life was in imminent danger, and saying…
“So what.”
This motherfucker is the manifestation of the villain in every romance novel you’ve ever read. Embrace your inner romance heroine and vote for Harris/Walz to save democracy!
#VoteBlue all the way down the ballot, and please never stop fighting for our freedom, for our democracy, for equality, equity, peace, love, hope, and for the rights of ALL of our neighbors both here and around the world,
Suz
P.S. I’ve recently started taking low dose naltrexone in hopes that it will alleviate some of the debilitating symptoms of my long covid and eventually allow me to write again. Fingers crossed!!