CARD PARTY
Local residents host gathering to write postcards to representatives
GREENWICH, N.Y. >> Retired school teachers Marylou and Alan Stern came up with the idea to start “Greenwich Indivisible” in response to the recent national elections. They are deeply concerned about the direction of the Trump administration and the focus of their group is on the local impact of national issues on their small, rural farming community.
When Marylou heard about other organizations around the country holding “card parties,” meetings where groups of citizens gather to write postcards to state and federal representatives about issues that concern them, she decided to hold one of her own.
Mary Lou taught science in the Ballston Spa School Districts and is concerned about policy changes that affect climate and the environment. She is not as knowledgeable about other areas of concern, such as health care, but other members of Greenwich Indivisible are.
The goal of the card parties is to bring together different people who are knowledgeable in different areas. By educating one another, they can then form cogent and compelling messages to send to their congressional leaders.
“We wanted to develop clean, concise and powerful statements in our messages to state and federal officials,” said Alan, who – in addition to his career as a Special Ed teacher – spent 18 years with the NYS Education Department, focusing on issues related to student disabilities.
Three issues that were the main focus of the event, which was held in the Stern’s home on Monday, May 15, were heath care, immigration and the environment.
Alan noted that the changing immigration policies could have a potentially serious impact on the surrounding farming community.
“Immigration policies could have a tremendous impact in Washington County,” said Alan, adding that the farming community is heavily dependent upon migrant labor. He also said that many farm workers and their families live in the community year-round.
Recently, members from Greenwich Indivisible met with the sheriff of Washington County to discuss how they could support law enforcement efforts and work together to help workers and their farm employers gain access to important legal information and counsel, if it should become necessary.
Other issues were discussed, such as how to help workers prepare for childcare in case they are detained by ICE officials.
The card party attendees spent the first 15 minutes of the evening coming up with short, clear messages, which they wrote on post-it notes and put on a large board. Each member of the group could then use each other’s ideas on their postcards to officials.
“We had quite a large stack of postcards by the end of the evening,” said Marylou.
She also said that, on the day before the event, she went to the post office in Greenwich to purchase postcards, and they were all out of them. Her sister, who is also part of the group, discovered the same thing at the Salem post office.
“We’re hoping that people who received our invitation to the card party and could not attend picked up postcards of their own to send,” she said, adding that, next month, they are going to host a political salon.