Article: Pep Talk for Impeachment Outreach

B) Let’s post to blogs and websites.

C) Write our local editors.

D) If the mainstream newspapers reject the real news, turn to the college newsletter editors. After all, college kids are very sharp, and they do talk. Young readers will inform their parents, who then will spread word and get involved.

E) The smaller, local papers may also be eager to print news which is rejected by the mainstream, because it gives them the cutting-edge. After all, they want to sell their papers. Try them out! You never know who you are going to reach: A movie-maker? Never under-estimate the powers of the smaller news papers and how many people will be reached as a result of your letter. You might be very surprised at how effective writing just the local newspapers can be! How do you know how influential just one of your readers could be? Sometimes, all it takes is that one reader, not the hundreds of thousands.

F) Shy about writing a public letter? Consider inviting like-minded friends to a Letters-to-the-Editor writing party. You can give each other feedback about your letters, thus greatly increasing their impact and effectiveness. See also my tips here about writing effective letters to the editor: http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarymanage.php?submit=view&did=4959

G) Let’s dial in to radio talk shows. Speak up! We never know who we are going to reach, and who will take the ball and run with it, reaching large numbers of people. Let’s also ask our email recipients to do the same, in order to get impeachment on the public radar.

H) Part of our power as activists is to identify and rebut commonly-held thoughts and beliefs, in the public sector.
Example:

“It’s too late to impeach. It’s a waste of time”.

Rebuttal:

“To not impeach is to lead future Presidents to believe that they, too, can literally get away with murder. They too will assert their unchecked powers and so-called ‘executive privilege‘…if we don’t impeach Bush and Cheney, now”.

Another good rebuttal might be:

“Israeli radio stations have announced Bush’s plans to attack Iran within the next few months. Impeachment---right now-----could literally be a matter of life and death. What if YOUR kid was sent to fight for yet one more lie?”

Or try this one, since people “hear” short phrases well:

“Too late to impeach? Over my dead body. Or, perhaps, over your kid’s?” (But be careful…gentleness may be more effective than shaking someone by the collar).

"It won't work to preach to the choir". WRONG! Getting a wave going is powerful. The wave gathers strength, gaining credibility. Members of the wave become empowered by knowledge, thus able to talk to others and convince them more effectively, thus helping the wave to grow. Knowledge is power! And in order to gain that knowledge, the choir itself is our best source of information. Yes, friends, preaching to the choir works!

You get the drift. Fill in the blanks, insert your own ideas…the point is, that our best effectiveness as activists comes from identifying and rebutting such commonly-held beliefs and assertions.

When we can effectively rebut those beliefs, we stir up thought in other people. And it’s when others begin to think---and come to their own conclusions, not necessarily to ours------that people begin to “wake up” and become more proactive.

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