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2020 was quite the year for all of us. I started the year doing my job, coming home, and going about my routine as I always did. Then the world stopped when COVID-19 came.  

I have the kind of job that requires you to serve others, and I derive a great sense of fulfillment from that—but the sense of not having a purpose really surfaced when I was faced with so much time on my hands, when I realized how busy I keep myself all of the time. We as Americans never stop, it seems.   

But while we were still in the center of all the turmoil and anger and pain in this country, I noticed random acts of kindness—small ones, like people opening the door for others when I’d go out for groceries, and big ones, like when an acquaintance of mine contracted terminal cancer at 35 and half the town organized the largest benefit I’ve ever seen. It reminded me that service is what this life is about. We are at our best, our finest, when we give of ourselves to others—like folks who go to help hurricane victims or the way people band together after a family loses their home to fire. It’s a balm to the wound of division and hatred.

So I decided I needed to continue to be of service, but in a new way. I put together a political group on Facebook to give people a safe place to air their concerns without fear of being ridiculed. It doesn’t matter whether members are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or something else. Everybody belongs. Everybody in the group had fears about the course our country was on. We got together and learned how the government works by fielding questions from the members and researching. We learned how to contact our legislators. We contacted them when we saw things we didn't like. We resisted the idea that our voice or our vote doesn't matter.  

And then Emily Murphy rose up to block the peaceful transition of power after the November 2020 election, and we learned about this little federal agency called the General Services Administration, of which not many of us had ever heard.

When I found out that she was holding up Biden’s transition funds, our group saw it as the final straw in four years of breaking precedent and tradition, not in the name of service to the American people, but in the name of self-service for an abusive and xenophobic presidency.  

That is when I realized that democracy isn’t a spectator sport. We have to do our part. 

So I started a petition with MoveOn to demand that Emily Murphy release the Biden transition funds. All of the members of the group signed it. Truth be told, I didn’t know how large of a response it would get. I was happy we all stood up and did something by signing it. Then MoveOn stepped in and sent it out to more MoveOn members, and together, all of us made a huge difference, and the transition funds were released after our petition delivery was featured on CNN. 

It could never have happened without MoveOn and everyone who signed. It would never have been successful if I hadn't stood up and spoken out and started the petition in the first place, if all of us hadn’t done our part. It was incredible and so gratifying to see that I was a part of changing the shape of our national landscape. 

Will you do what I did and start a petition about an issue that matters to you?

I learned so much from this experience, but most importantly, service isn’t one person; that’s just the spark. Service is about all of us working together for the good of our country and other people. We can no longer live our lives and allow the running of our country to be on the shoulders of those we elect. We all have to shoulder that privilege and responsibility. 

Join us and be of service to our communities and our country by starting a petition today.

Thank you!