On Valentine’s Day, in school rooms across the nation, youngsters are instructed to inscribe affectionate phrases on pink heart-shaped playing cards and ship them to a prescribed group of individuals they know. Shops are stuffed with prewritten greeting playing cards designed for romantic companions. Individuals within the U.S. send about 145 million Valentine’s playing cards yearly. February 14 stands out as the most letter-writing-filled day of the 12 months.
However what if we took Valentine’s Day as a reminder to write down letters past private valentines — letters which can be a type of motion? Let’s seize some low cost chocolate (or not) and a pen (or a laptop computer) and put some phrases on paper that might immediate concrete change.
Listed here are a number of solutions to get us began. These are only a sampling of the numerous varieties of letters that may spur transformation; I hope they encourage us to collectively think about extra potentialities!
One approach to actively observe love is by writing to somebody who’s incarcerated. Prisons are constructed on ideas of isolation, segregation and disconnection. By writing to somebody inside, we defy these forces, just by connecting.
Over the previous 20 years, I’ve had dozens of pen buddies, together with my very own sister, who was incarcerated on and off for 14 years. These relationships have sparked my political writing and motion, and have helped me assist the writing and motion of these inside. They’ve fostered mutual help, providing alternatives for us to assist one another. They’ve remodeled my pondering and prompted years-long conversations.
Writing a letter to somebody in jail additionally serves a realistic protecting perform: When an individual receives mail, it alerts to guards and different authority figures that they’ve individuals on the skin searching for them. It additionally serves as emotional assist for individuals inside, who’re subjected to ongoing isolation and trauma, as Rev. Jason Lydon, founding father of Black & Pink, a pen pal-based group that helps LGBTQ and HIV-positive individuals in jail, instructed me years in the past in an interview. He famous that for individuals inside, “having a reminder that you just’re cared for and never forgotten — and half of a bigger factor — may help you take care of the psychological and emotional wrestle that’s the actuality of being locked up.”
As Liberation Library, a collective that sends books to incarcerated youth and encourages letter-writing to individuals inside, states, “Letters are really a lifeline for these in jail or jail.”
Listed here are some sources to search out somebody to write down to:
- Solitary Watch runs a Lifelines to Solitary program, connecting of us exterior with individuals inside solitary confinement.
- Black & Pink runs a nationwide pen pal program, matching LGBTQ+ individuals and other people residing with HIV/AIDS inside prisons with pen buddies on the skin.
- Survived & Punished’s Letter Writing Action Center supplies addresses for incarcerated survivors of gender-based violence and sources on how one can arrange letter-writing occasions.
- Sick of It! connects disabled individuals inside and out of doors of jail.
- Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Undertaking NIA, lists numerous letter-writing alternatives here. And Heather Mytelka, director of digital engagement and mobilization for Households Towards Obligatory Minimums, supplies an intensive pen-pal program checklist here.
Letters to elected officers can play a task in impacting coverage and shifting lawmakers’ perceptions of what their “base” believes — even after they’re written by these of us who acknowledge the stark limits of electoral politics and have a tendency to function in additional grassroots arenas. This is applicable to native, state and federal officers alike.
Whereas copy-pasting a letter generated by an advocacy group is actually higher than doing nothing in any respect, it’s price it to take only a few extra minutes to personalize the textual content to make the communication deeper and more practical. An alternative choice is writing a letter as a part of a coalition, with different individuals or organizations.
I requested Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Center East coverage on the Pals Committee on Nationwide Laws (FCNL), what makes a letter to an elected official highly effective. He emphasised {that a} private or coalitional letter ought to at all times make a really particular request for motion, and likewise acknowledge and reply the lawmaker’s potential issues.
What if we took Valentine’s Day as a reminder to write down letters past private valentines — letters which can be a type of motion?
“Be clear within the textual content of the letter about what the issue is, the way it impacts your group, what’s your proposed resolution and what are your supporting particulars,” El-Tayyab mentioned. “Be concise together with your language and ensure to delete any phrases and sentences that aren’t important to assist your key arguments. Much less is extra!”
If you happen to’re writing a letter by your self, El-Tayyab suggests together with your particular person narrative in relation to the subject. “Be sure you are telling your story and bringing in your private connection…. That may have a huge effect on how a coverage maker understands the problem.”
A coalitional letter, in the meantime, can mirror large-scale assist for a difficulty and likewise assist with standard schooling.
Following up after sending a letter issues too, El-Tayyab says. It typically is sensible to ask for a gathering with our representatives or officers after delivering a letter. Sending a replica of it to the press will also be a helpful transfer, to maximise its impression and uplift its message within the public eye.
The following pointers don’t apply solely to elected officers. We will use them for different authority figures we could also be focusing on; for instance, we’d write to school officers to strain them to vary a dangerous coverage, or to the administration of an organization to push them to acknowledge a union.
One type of letter that routinely modifications lives is a be aware backing an individual’s clemency petition. Clemency is a course of via which a governor (on the state stage) or president (on the federal stage) can free individuals from incarceration. The observe contains each pardons — which change or get rid of a legal conviction — and commutations, which shorten or alter a sentence, typically leading to somebody being launched from jail. Clemency, in both type, has the potential to radically rework somebody’s future with the stroke of a pen. However whether or not that stroke of a pen occurs is extremely influenced by public enter. And for a clemency petition, that enter is conveyed via letters, which could be straight hooked up to a petition or despatched straight to the governor or president.
Usually, letters in assist of clemency petitions are written by relations and associates, however petitions are palpably strengthened by letters from the broader group.
“Clemency is a political course of, and so letters in assist of an individual’s launch could be very useful,” Rachel White-Area, director of the Girls & Survivors Undertaking Illinois Jail Undertaking, instructed me. White-Area has filed many clemency petitions on behalf of incarcerated survivors of gender-based violence.
White-Area emphasised that letters from individuals who officers may not count on to assist clemency are particularly helpful; this contains “dad and mom, individuals from the group affected [by the act for which the person is incarcerated], or individuals with lived or skilled expertise with victimization.” Different key letters might come from individuals who can decide to do one thing — nonetheless small — to assist the particular person acclimate to society upon launch, like pointing them towards sources, serving to them create a resumé, helping them in enrolling in programs or sending them encouragement.
In writing clemency letters, White-Area says, keep away from denying any hurt the particular person might have brought on or spelling out the nitty-gritty particulars of their case: “This isn’t the house to relitigate what occurred.”
Clemency letters are a possibility to transcend a type letter and share empathy and experiences to make somebody’s freedom extra attainable.
“No matter you say, say it from the guts,” White-Area mentioned.
Many organizations often put out requires clemency petition letters of assist, in addition to letters of assist for mass clemencies that might free 1000’s of individuals directly. Join the mailing lists of campaigns and teams like Survived and Punished, Illinois Prison Project, New Yorkers for Clemency and California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and comply with them on social media. Write a letter to induce President Biden to commute the sentences of long-incarcerated individuals in federal jail, like Leonard Peltier, Roberta Bell, Michelle West, and lots of others.
Shifting public narratives will also be a key a part of political transformation. Letters to the editor — notably these printed in native newspapers — may help attain new audiences on urgent social justice points. Teams just like the Sunrise Movement have made publishing “letters to the editor in small-town papers” a part of their coordinated marketing campaign methods, and the Debt Collective has held trainings on writing letters to the editor as a part of its work to finish pupil debt and push at no cost faculty. Letters to the editor are additionally learn by coverage makers, advocates, group organizers and media-makers who can amplify the letter’s message.
To write down a letter to the editor, El-Tayyab suggests selecting a particular subject, then discovering a related latest article within the publication you’re focusing on. Reference that article within the letter. Situation a centered demand, displaying what the issue is, how it’s affecting individuals and the way it ought to be addressed.
“Make a transparent and concise argument with one or two information,” El-Tayyab mentioned.
Phrase counts for letters to the editor are sometimes fairly quick; be certain to examine the publication and make sure the letter stays below the restrict.
If you happen to’ve obtained a private connection to the problem you’re writing about — and also you’re comfy sharing it — a letter to the editor is an effective place to incorporate it. “Don’t be afraid to inform your story and use your individual voice,” El-Tayyab mentioned.
For one of the best likelihood of publication, comply with the newspaper’s tips precisely, together with its directions for the place to ship your letter, how one can label the topic line, and whether or not to incorporate an attachment or place the letter within the physique of an e mail.
When our letters are printed, we will use them to advocate additional, sharing them on social media and sending them to determination makers, organizers, and different media. A letter to the editor can stay — and spur motion — far past its publication date.
Relationships make change. A letter generally is a potent power for connection, relationship-building and imagination-fueling. As Robyn Maynard instructed Truthout’s Kelly Hayes in a dialog about Rehearsals for Residing, the e-book of letters Maynard coauthored with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, “Letter writing as a type is one thing that may embody a really deeply feminist politic that’s about pondering collectively, versus pondering as ‘I.’ That’s, I feel contra-arrogant, at the least in the best way that we have been making an attempt to do it, the place it truly is about collectivizing what it means to consider freedom.”
A letter to a buddy generally is a likelihood to collectivize our political desires, at the same time as we’re strengthening the relationships essential to actualize these desires.
Maynard additionally famous that letter-writing permits for “extra openings than closings.” In letters to associates, we pose questions. We inquire. We open house, create house, make new solutions attainable.
In speedy phrases, a letter to a buddy or chosen member of the family can be an opportunity to strengthen your individual assist methods and examine in on these you care about. Three years of pandemic have strengthened what has at all times been true: We want one another, and reaching out to fortify your current relationships, via letters, generally is a significant act of care and connection.
Plus: Letters final. As Kathy Zadrozny and Donovan Beeson, founders of the Letter Writers Alliance (2007-2020), have noted, “A letter is proof of historical past, an artifact of 1’s life and group.”
The oldest surviving valentine was, by the way, composed in jail (by a French duke locked up within the Tower of London) 608 years in the past.
Who is aware of what that means our letters will maintain sooner or later, how lengthy they’ll stay?
So, though I’ve uncared for to buy that field of heart-shaped stationary, I’m setting apart a while at present to take motion via letter-writing. I hope you’ll be a part of me.
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