It’s an understatement to say that today’s political climate is overwhelming. I’ve spent much of the past few years feeling discouraged, anxious, and hopeless. We all want to do something and it’s hard to know where to start. Particularly when the day-to-day demands of practicing law, caretaking, and the unglamorous tasks of adulthood leave you with limited bandwidth. When I heard about the book Democracy in Retrograde with the tagline “How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives,” I knew I had to pick it up.
Written by Sami Sage (co-founder of Betches Media) and Emily Amick (woman lawyer, former aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer, and the “Emily” of the Instagram account @EmilyInYourPhone), Democracy in Retrograde reframes civic engagement as a form of self-care. The book is full of ideas and practical steps for how to get involved in light of your individual strengths and personality, your current season of life, and the time you have to give. Democracy in Retrograde advocates for civic engagement as a sustainable daily habit. And for those of us who grew up devouring teen magazines, the book even has a quiz to help determine your “civic personality”!
A takeaway that I did not expect—and that filled me with gratitude—was the book’s emphasis on the importance of community. That is, human connection is a crucial element of both our individual life satisfaction and the health of our democracy. An early chapter discusses Harvard public policy professor Robert Putnam’s book Bowling Alone (2000), which tracked the decline of face-to-face social interactions using the precipitous decline of bowling leagues as a microcosm. In addition to bowling leagues, participation in clubs, having friends over, and even family dinners have sharply declined as well. And this represents an overall shift towards individualism, isolation, and detachment—the antithesis of civic engagement. Advocacy starts by showing up and using our strengths and talents to care for the people around us. Some of the low time-commitment suggestions for civic engagement are as simple as getting to know your neighbors, attending school board meetings, helping friends and family fill out their ballots, and taking your children to a community event or protest.
All I could think when reading this was thank goodness for the CWBA! For the last several years of my life, CWBA events, discussion groups, and meetings have occupied the same space a bowling league might. The CWBA buoyed me during the pandemic, provides a regular source of inspiration and support, and has given me the opportunity to hear from others about their passions and perspectives. It is all the more meaningful to spend this time with others who value advancing women as leaders in the legal profession.
Another central thesis of Democracy in Retrograde is that action is the antidote to despair. And the CWBA provides opportunities to act. The Public Policy Committee is the most direct way to plug in to political advocacy. We work with a team of lobbyists and advocate for the rights of women and children at the Capitol each legislative session. Before joining the CWBA, I was not particularly knowledgeable about how Colorado state laws are made. Now I’ve seen firsthand how important it is for people to participate in that process—especially those who are knowledgeable and reasonable. A highlight of my time with CWBA was the first time I testified at a committee hearing on behalf of the CWBA in support of legislation to revamp Colorado’s judicial discipline system. I never thought I would do anything like that, and CWBA gave me the confidence to use my voice to advocate in the political sphere. It also fills me with pride to know that the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act began as a word document on one of our member’s computers and has now become a model for the rest of the country, with similar pay transparency provisions being adopted in New York and California.
We enjoyed celebrating CWBA’s tremendous public policy impact and spotlighting local leaders our recent Cheers to Democracy fundraiser! If you would like to join the public policy committee, you can register for the next meeting here. We could not do this work without our amazing lobbying team from Meridian Public Affairs. If you would like to contribute to our lobbyist fund, you may do so here.
Our other committees offer opportunities to take action as well, whether by interviewing short-listed judicial candidates as part of our judicial endorsement process, planning programs that allow our members to hear from local leaders and changemakers, or even volunteering to mentor a young lawyer. Community building—the fabric of democracy—is at the heart of everything we do.
Cheers to each and every one of you who is making changes big and small for the benefit of our community!
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Emma Garrison is an Assistant Attorney General in the Tax Unit at the Colorado Department of Law, where she represents the state in tax disputes and advises on tax policy issues. Emma has held many leadership positions in the Colorado legal community, including Chair of the Colorado Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and Senior Vice-President of the Colorado Bar Association. Since joining the CWBA in 2014, she has served as Co-Chair of the Convention, Membership, and Judicial Committees, and also as the CWBA Secretary and the host of On What Grounds, CWBA’s virtual leadership café.