My husband and I work with several social action groups. We write proposals, we seek justice. We talk to other hard-working people. We get things done. Our friends describe us as doers.
Right now the True Crime Writing Community is one of the most important doer groups in your community.
It’s easy for some to dismiss COURTTV watchers as lazy junkies, sitting on the couch all day eating Doritos and wasting time. This has not been my experience.
The Wisconsin River Stabbings case, for example, and the Crumbley case are just a few of the important cases that everyone should have been involved with. The True Crime Writing Community is on top of these and other cases. You can see discussion groups online helping others figure out what everyone else could be doing to avoid this from ever happening again. I was vocal on this issue: knives and alcohol should not be allowed in the same place.
When I was a college professor, I used the example of the heating pad tag: “Do not plug it in and take a shower.”
We need laws that protect us from each other and our stupid mistakes.
In both cases many feared the Stand Your Ground MAGAS would get their way. It didn’t happen. The good people of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan saw through this.
One glaring frustration with attending open meetings vs. a subcommittee is everyone is entitled to attend. It’s nearly impossible to throw someone out of an open meeting these days. And not too long ago it was much easier to tell someone who showed up at the Soup Kitchen only to passive-aggressively mock the other volunteers or the homeless that his volunteerism was no longer needed and he should go home.
Since Trump took office, MAGAs have shown up in big numbers simply to attack members and honestly, at these meetings, nothing gets done. Well-meaning people are afraid to say anything or don’t want to waste their energy. If you live in a small town you might see this person at the grocery store. This fear of retaliation is real.
The same is true of volunteer groups. We need good volunteers. We need people who show up and get things done.
The simple truth is that people who disrupt meetings or volunteer events have been this way for a very long time. That same mean boy or mean girl—now a mean girl grown-up—has been this way since Jr. High School. She or he is the one who talks and talks during meetups. She dominates the conversation. He’s the one that zeros in on the person who’s working the hardest. She’s the one who makes putdown comments. The MAGAS love to sign up for volunteering so they can infect the system. MAGA loves to make fun of and embaress others.
Recently, out of ear shot, a wealthy elderly woman tried to get me and my husband to show up at her apartment and help her and her husband. She told me “Since you and your husband spend so much time helping others you don’t even know, I think you should help us too.”
~sign~
Disruptors like this woman can be the worst kind of people to try to deal with. No amount of engagement will change her mind. She won’t donate food. She won’t fight for justice. She’s taking up space. And she’s been playing this game for a very long time, getting others to come over and help her for free. Other volunteers pretend they like her so she will keep feeding them information so hopefully, they can legally remove her.
Not me. Not my husband. We’d rather write the proposal. Sit on the board. Read the book. Show up for the subcomittee meeting. Find the donor. Watch Court TV.
Mary Louise Penaz 
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