By Becky Gillette – In what is believed to be the largest political gathering since the days of massive opposition to the proposed SWEPCO high-voltage powerline, 64 people showed up Sunday at the first Eureka Springs meeting of Indivisible, a national movement designed to combat cynicism about government and instead help citizens reclaim their government.
“Government is us, not something being done to us,” Indivisible’s website claims.
Cynthia Hudson, one of the organizers of the meeting in Eureka Springs Sunday afternoon, said the meeting wasn’t about voicing fears and frustration. Instead, it was laser focused on taking actions to influence elected leaders to do what is best for the people, instead of big business.
“We are very focused,” Hudson said. “That was why the meeting was short. We took steps as to what we are going to do as a group together, and it was great. I was pleased with how many people turned out.”
Indivisible was started by a group of people working on Capitol Hill who watched the Tea Party start with a handful of people and become a powerful national influence.
“The people who have been working on Capitol Hill have created a handbook for us, Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, that details the same tactics the Tea Party used in order to get where they are now,” Hudson said. “That is how it started. Rachel Maddow let people know on one of her shows this past week that this was available. Since then thousands and thousands of handbooks have been downloaded, and meetings have been held all over the nation. The meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, was packed.”
The movement may be going viral in a period of time some are considering the darkest days the nation has experienced in many years. Campaign spending is so out of control that some Americans have lost faith that individual citizen action can have any effective influence. Trump’s pledges to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, create a national registry for Muslims, criminalize abortion, stop supporting NATO and deport millions of non-documented residents have caused obvious concerns.
“People are kind of at a loss as to how to fight big government,” Hudson said. “This is how you do it, small meetings like we had Sunday. We are organized, action based and focused on being effective instead of just complaining. The Indivisible guide says if you have somebody who stands up at a meeting and just keeps complaining, ask them to take it out to the parking lot. We can all complain at home, but not at the meeting. We have to move forward.”
Hudson said people need to get the phone numbers for their senators and representatives, and call consistently. “You need to call every day because things are happening every day. For example, the Trump Administration is getting its cabinet together. Phone calls are good.”
What about letters? One local couple pledged to handwrite a letter each week. But Hudson says letters and emails can more easily be ignored than phone calls.
“It used to be people working in congressional offices answering telephone calls were sitting around playing cards because they weren’t getting many calls,” Hudson said. “They are not playing cards anymore. They are having to listen to the people, us, who have the real power if we were exercise it. Calls are making an impact.”
The group also plans to be active on the local and state level.
Another organizer of the meeting, Nancy Paddock, said it was amazing the amount of turnout for a meeting that had only been called five days before. She expected about 20 people. “It was all kinds of people,” Paddock said. “It was a great cross section.”
In addition to the 64 people who showed up, a lot of people responded on Facebook that they would have come if they had known about it. There are now 125 members of the Eureka Springs Indivisible Facebook page less than a week after it was launched.
The first action planned was sending a group to AR Sen. Steve Womack’s office in Harrison to present themselves as a group and say they are against racist, sexist and xenophobic actions taken by Congress.
“We are going to do state legislature action, and will be present at town halls meetings and other events attended by our senators and representatives,” Paddock said. “We will join with other indivisibles across the country.”
Some argue that citizens have little impact compared to corporate donors who give huge sums to politicians. For example, Sen. Tom Cotton from Arkansas has received $960,000 from the Israeli lobby and millions from the Koch brothers.
But Paddock said people could have an impact.
“There must be a way to overcome big money in government,” Paddock said. “We just need to make our voices be heard now. Senators all over the country are getting tired of endless phone calls. We are not going away. We are here for the long haul. We will be paying attention to what is going on at the state capital. We will make our presence known in the statehouse. We will make them recognize what the people really want. We have started something, and we are going to follow it wherever it takes us.”
Paddock points to one success already with the early stealth effort in Congress to gut the independent congressional ethics panel. Those plans were dropped after a massive public outcry.
The group plans a second meeting Jan. 29 at a place to be determined.
“We need a meeting house large enough to hold at least a hundred people,” Paddock said.
For more information, visit the Indivisible Eureka Springs Facebook page or call (479) 244-0123 or send an email to Nlpaddock@gmail.com.