Americans are pushing back

This is our country ... not for billionaires only!

Kansas Virtual Town Hall with absent Senator (click here to watch)

Americans are speaking up: rallies, town halls, virtual town halls, massive phone calls, marches, buying strikes … as congressional phone calls and emails are ignored.

One of my favorite actions happened in Kansas, the state where I grew up. Kansas tends to be a conservative state, so I was somewhat surprised when I stumbled across a virtual town hall of Kansans calling for … demanding that … their Republican Senator, Jerry Moran do his job and serve Kansans.

We need to hear each other

What surprised me about this Town Hall was my own reaction. I am not a great fan of Zoom meetings, but I was glued to my seat for over two hours as 34 people told their stories … real stories of real people and real pain caused by the current slashing of our systems. Some of the stories are emotional enough to need tissues.

The Town Hall was brilliantly planned and produced and, inadvertently benefitted from the absence of Senator Moran, who was invited but did not respond.

Kansas is farming country, typically voting Republican and voted for Donald Trump 57.1% in 2024. One of the first actions of DOGE was to shut down USAID which employed 14,000 people disbursing $60 billion in aid around the world but also buys billions of dollars of grain from US farmers. These hard working Americans are now in turmoil and prompted this town hall gathering.

The Virtual Town Hall process developed by

Laura Mead

and Dave Kendall was inspiring and could be replicated across the country. The design of the town hall kept it focused and moving as the articulate and passionate speakers told their own stories about their worries and concerns and about how their families and neighbors were being hurt by actions of Trump/Musk.

Here are the highlights of the design:

• used Zoom and streamed to YouTube. (I just checked and 11,387 viewers watched this Town Hall on YouTube. There were also 152 comments.) If you want to be on their mailing list, email info@prairiehollow.net.

  • One of my favorite comments: Watching from Southern California! Great job Kansas. This coup affects all Americans and we must stand up against this blatant disregard of more than 250 years of democracy. Stand up against corporate and billionaire welfare. The people standing together can do it! Thank you all.

• invited Senator Jerry Moran to attend and listen to his constituents.

• invited people to share a short (3 minutes or less), respectful message to Senator Moran.

• people were asked to submit a written version of their planned talk (presumably to achieve variety … all were accepted without edits).

• Senator Moran did not reply. Therefore, the moderators set up an empty chair with Senator Moran’s name on the chair. As people read their messages, Senator Moran’s chair was briefly shown on the screen. Periodically, the moderators addressed the missing Senator Moran and invited his reply.

• viewers who wanted to attend the town hall but didn’t want to speak were able to do so and leave comments in the chat. Several hundred people viewed the meeting on YouTube.

• the meeting was recorded in order to send it to Senator Moran and the media.

• it will also be edited into shorter versions to be widely shared.

• Laura Mead and Dave Kendall are also on Bluesky and are on YouTube as Prairie Hollow Creations.

What you can do to be part of saving what we and our ancestors have spent almost 250 years building.

Join Together — that’s the #1 thing I hear everywhere. The actions going on in our Executive Branch are too big for anyone person or organization to take on alone. This is the time to build community.

Attend town halls — listen to what your neighbors are saying and worrying about and share your own concerns.

Join a local group — democracy is more than a form of government. It’s a principle that holds that all people count and our voices should be heard.

Stay informed — lack of accurate information has been a factor in our getting to this point … share information with people and be willing to listen to their concerns. And, take time to think about what your trusted information sources are.

Amplify information that relates to your perspective and the situations of your friends and family. If you like social media, Bluesky is a great place to share and receive current information. Just liking and sharing relevant information is being part of the resistance.

Speak up — you don’t have to argue but you can let people know that you see things differently.

Rally — if you can, show up at local, state, and national rallies. People pay attention to numbers. Even showing up on zoom can make a difference.

Donate — if you can, support organizations which may be most at risk.

Town Halls are happening everywhere.

Please let us know if you’re going to do a Town Hall or event … I will try to amplify everything I know about. Stay strong. We have survived other challenges. We will survive this one, however, it’s going to take all of us who believe in democracy working together to live up to our ideals of opportunity and equal justice for all.