Hello and welcome back to A Better World. This is your host, Mitchell J Raven, and I'm very glad you're joining us again today. Today we're going to have another very interesting show. We have invited back my colleague and dear friend Sam Daly Harris. Sam is one of my heroes. I tell him that. I tell others that because I'm always talking about his books, especially his latest Reclaiming Our Democracy Now, Sam has very interesting background. I mean, he started off as a
percussionist. He was a musician, and he sure is now, I imagine. But his work has become focused on, earlier in his life, microcredits, and he worked with Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus in the microcredit conferences around the country and probably around the world, helping to fund small, small loans largely to women in developing countries, helping them get a leg up in a local economy. And he's done a lot of beautiful
work in that space. But he's also been a major activist and a Democratic activist, if you will, and he's written extensively about this. He's well known. He's a consultant in many different areas, largely around the environment and working with the issues of global warming, reducing the carbon footprint and empowering organizations to move forward in the political sphere and to be effective.
That's really what Sam does, better than anybody else I know, and he's always inspiring to me. Just a couple of other words about Sam and his background. He's the founder and president of Results. A good word for it, right? An international citizen's lobby dedicated to creating the political will to end hunger and poverty. Daley Harris is the author of the book As I mentioned, Reclaiming Democracy, Healing, the Break Between People and Government recently reissued to commemorate its 20th
anniversary. So that gives you a little bit of an orientation of Sam and Sam's work, and it's again, Sam, a pleasure to have you on a better world. Again, it's. Great to be with you. Thank you for having me. I'm so glad.
So your your motivation is for us to have a civic literacy, a civic intelligence and civic courage to use what is given to us, as in this case American citizens, and to exercise our franchise as citizens and let our representatives know what we think, know what we feel, and help them get educated about those meaningful subjects and take it from there. How do you do it? Does it work? Well, let me take it from how did I get there a little bit.
What was my journey? And I'm going to tell a little briefer version of it. But as you said, I was a musician. I played percussion instruments in the Miami Philharmonic for 12 years and taught high school music. And 44 years ago I founded the anti poverty lobby results. And a lot of times I'm asked music poverty lobby, what's the connection? And when I look back in my life, there's certain experiences that start pointing me in a different direction.
In 1964 high school graduation, I learned of the death of a friend a a year younger. Four years later, 1968 college graduation, US Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated right around that time. In both cases, it really got me to asking the questions of purpose. Why am I here? What am I here to do? What is my purpose? Nine years later, I'm still a
musician. I'm invited to a presentation on ending world hunger, put on by The Hunger Project, and I go to this event thinking, well, hunger is inevitable. What do I know? I'm a musician. I'm thinking, well, it's inevitable because there are no solutions. Again, what do I know? Because if there were solutions, somebody would have done something by now. But I go to the event and it's obvious right away. There's no mystery to growing food or clean water. I'm not hopeless about the
perceived lack of solutions. I'm hopeless about human nature. People, well Jeff, just never get around to doing what can be done. But there's one human nature. I have some control over my own. And my questions Why am I here? What am I here to do? So I get involved in a big way. This is the end of the story in 1978. Nineteen 79 I speak to 7000 high school students on ending world
hunger classroom by classroom. And before I go in the first classroom, I read some statements from Jimmy Carter's Commission on World Hunger and others calling for the political will to end hunger. So I asked 7000 high school students, what's the name of your member of Congress? I don't want to know if you wrote them. I don't want to know if you met them. Just the name out of 7000 asked Only 200. Fewer than 3% could answer correctly.
Over 6800 could not tell me. Over 97% could not tell me. The name of their member of Congress. And results grew out of this gap between the calls for the political will to end hunger on the one hand, and the lack of basic information on who represented us in Washington on the other. Wow, that must have been just startling and stunning to experience that level of ill education, if you. Will, yeah. And if I could share this other thing.
I've been doing this exercise where I've been taking a methodology that I teach on, writing a letter to the editor, find an article that's an opening to the topic you want to discuss, and then write the editor. But I've been finding an article that's an opening to reclaiming democracy, Cynicism, making a difference. And I write the columnist or the producer of the show, and I want to just give you a couple of titles from 2023 last year.
One was from the Boston Globe. You can name the Three Stooges. Can you name your three members of Congress? So it's like an example of we're we're just not very civically literate. Another column, it was in The Atlantic, and the title was Find the Form of Activism that Won't Make You Miserable. And he was basically saying plant trees, work in a soup kitchen, but don't do political advocacy. It'll make you miserable.
And then I wrote him about the the main thrust of the book, which we'll discuss in a moment, and he liked that idea one more. There was a a column in Salon where the a political science professor from the University of Pennsylvania was being interviewed. And the professor basically said it's really difficult to make a difference other than at election time. That's even true for a political
science professor. And I say no, no, elections are critical, but so is the time between elections and the book is all about, and we can go in detail in a moment, the difference you can make and how between elections, and of course elections are critical. Of course, these points are excellent, and I remember back long before my time.
But the idea of the citizen representative, which was the way things were back then, before we had professional politicians, career politicians who get into office. They gerrymander and Jerry Rigg to keep themselves in office, and it's impossible, nearly nearly, to overcome an incumbent. They have all of the tricks of the trade and they keep themselves in power.
Unless there is a scandal of some sort that's overt, whether it is theft or sex or, you know, their favorites, whatever it may be. But that's a problem because then the the citizen representative used to then go back home and resume his normal life as a citizen at home. Now we have a very different scenario.
So things have changed in the political arena, you know, But you I would like to hear because you, you make a difference in such a way through the education of these groups that you've had all over the country and beyond. And it's really been impactful in making a difference in legislation and why don't we start with that? Well, let me tell you the main thrust of the book and then how that works in legislation.
Most everyone, well everyone knows when it comes to advocacy, protests and people know transactional advocacy. They don't know the word, but transactional is like sign the petition Transaction complete. The book is about transformational advocacy and the idea there is when you are trained, encouraged, and succeed at doing things as an advocate you never thought you could do, like meet with a member of Congress and bring them on board to the your issue.
Or like, write a letter to the editor and have it published on an issue you care about. When you do those kinds of things that you never thought you could do, you see yourself in a new light. You see yourself as a community leader. And the subtitle of the 2024 edition is Reclaiming Our Democracy, Every Citizen's Guide to Transformational Advocacy. And so let me give you an example of a victory. In 2019, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was 17 years old, and it
had saved 38 million lives. And in 2019, it was up for a replenishment of three years. And President Trump called for a 29% cut to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. And other countries would take the US lead. Now, most people didn't even know about this. And if they did, most people would throw up their hands. What can you do? You can't fight City Hall. They won't listen to me. But the people I know roll up their sleeves and they get
involved. And they got hundreds of Republicans and Democrats to cosign, sponsor really resolutions in the House and Senate in support of the Global Fund. They signed letters to the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and to the chairs of the Appropriations Committee and the House and Senate in support of the Global Fund. And at the end of the the period, 2 Republicans and two Democrats stood on a stage in Lyon, France at the Global Fund replenishment and announced that
the Congress would increase the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by 16%, not cut it by 29% and that's an example of people making a difference. And two years later, the Global Fund announced that it had saved 50 million lives since its inception in 2002. And and and by the time of 2020-2021 kind of thing, it's. Such a good story. And it it it just speaks to how you and your work and writing have empowered people to get off. As we say in the old language,
they're taught us, yes. It's a technical term. It is a technical term, it's a political term. Yeah, yeah, you. Won't go into that part. But no, this is the part of your work that I have such respect for. An admiration. I mean, just this morning I wrote a letter, as I've written so many, to our dear President Biden, asking him to please resign because he is fomenting acts of war and criminality across the world and killing innocent children because of the
way we fund these wars. And it doesn't matter where they are. They're killing people. And I'm against that. I don't know what it is. I find it abhorrent. And I don't want my tax dollars to be going to that effort when we need so many things like the group that you just referred to, I'd way rather see our money going to fund an organization like that doing good. So tell me, how do you deal with deal with the thornier issues
that we face as a nation? How do you deal with, for for instance, the issues of increasing surveillance, increasing violations of our own constitution that most people don't even know is happening, increasing censorship that's actually originating in the White House, doing things that are completely against the 1st Amendment? I I'd love to know. Well, let me say, let me say it a couple of ways. I work with groups. Maybe it's the Quaker Lobby, FC and L Friends Committee on
national legislation. Their focus is various peace issues or I work with a group maybe Citizens Climate Lobby. Their focus is climate change and and the like. And so I'll be coaching them on being more effective. So let me give you an example of what someone should look for in an organization that delivers transformational advocacy. 3 things. Thing One, and there's two subheads under this one is recruitment and building
community. They're constantly bringing new people in and not like Make My E Blast list larger though. They're bringing new people in and forming them into chapters. That's the recruitment and then the building. Community. They have a monthly all of organization, not just for the leaders, all of organization webinar with guest speakers and Q&A and inspiration. So recruitment and community Building 2 training. They're training you. How do you get the meeting?
How do you prepare for the meeting? What do you ask for? How do you write a letter to the editor? How do you table at Earth Day or whenever to bring new people in? Three. The organization helps you have breakthroughs. There's a drawing in the book, your comfort zone in one corner, and then where the magic happens in the other corner.
And is it an organization that helps breakthroughs, helps you move out of your comfort zone over to where the magic happens, Recruitment and community building, training and encouraging breakthroughs. That's a kind of an organization we're looking for. Let me give you an example of, well, we don't find that much. And so that's because most organizations are afraid of making big asks of volunteers.
And let me give you an example of why that works when you do it. I was coaching this two years ago. I was coaching Mike Robinson. He was the leader of the Foundation for Climate Restoration chapter in Seattle and their focus was removing the carbon that's already in the atmosphere. And the the chapter was two or three months old, and they were getting ready for their first ever conference call, the whole nationwide first ever in February 2022.
And he told me that they had had four meetings with state representatives in Washington state and one was chair of the Committee on Energy and Environment. And the chair knew everything about climate change, but it barely heard of carbon removal. And he asked the new baby chapter if they would brief him and his staff on carbon removal so they could look for some legislative remedies. And I said, well, wait a minute. You have had four meetings with elected officials in two or three months.
Had you ever met with an elected official before? He said, no, this is my first time. I said, had you ever written an elected official before? He said, I'd never written, I'd never called. I'd never met with an elected official before these four. And I said, put that in your talk. If you don't tell people it was your first ever, they're going to think he's an expert. I'm not an expert. He could do it. I couldn't do it and really want to let people know tell the truth.
Yeah. And and let people know that you were a beginner and they can make a difference with this also. Maybe I could tell one other story that really drills deep on this transformational experience. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's it's amazing. So this is woman. He's she's amazing. She had a lived experience of poverty. Her name is Maxine Thomas. She joins a group called Circles for people who are motivated to move out of poverty. And this group realizes they
have a story to tell. So they googled where can we get help telling our story and they find results. The anti poverty lobby I founded in 1980 and she goes. She gets a scholarship to go to a results conference in Washington DC She has to borrow a suitcase. She doesn't own a suitcase. She goes to the results conference and she only goes to sessions on global poverty. She doesn't even go to any of the domestic poverty sessions.
But the night before their Hill visits, their visits with their senators and representatives, she learns that the Earned Income Tax Credit is about to expire. And she she's the Earned Incomes Tax Credit is for working people at low and middle income, and in 2020 they received 3100 on average for a family. And she has this meeting. I'm going to read what she says about her meeting with her
member of Congress, she says. The first Congressional meeting on lobby day was with Senator Dan Coats and brought Nuahas. He was there for the entire meeting. I can still feel it. I was a ball of emotion. It felt like an out of body experience. I was processing being in DC and now I'm in an exclusive meeting. We're all dressed up. It was high level. The volunteers were polished and sharp.
But I was scared and worried that whether whether I would say the right thing, that's that's all of us at the first meeting, Scared and worried. I think it was Lisa who asked me would you like to say anything? I thank the senator, I said. I learned last night why I'm here. I didn't know I could come from Indianapolis to talk with you. Someone who represents us and can help us.
I can't imagine what will happen when the earned if the earned income tax credit is taken away from families like mine. I'm able to take a deep breath and catch up on my bills because of the EITCI look forward to tax time because that's the only time I can handle all my financial burden. I like to take my kids to the mall to buy shoes without worrying if we'll take away from other bills. And then at the end of the day, after all of her meetings with Congress, she says. I was euphoric.
I was on this high and felt I was part of something revolutionary, and that's an example of the experience of transformation, I think earlier in the chapter, she says. I have a heart for service, but I didn't know anything for about advocacy, especially political advocacy. And then by the end, that's the transformation that I just told
you I'll. Tell you I I'm going to tell you a little story which is long ago I was considering medicine and I got wiser and I dropped it. I stuck with psychology but during that inter period I got a job at Columbia law School so I could go to Columbia Pre Med for that was they didn't pay you much of anything but they paid you in courses.
So I was working in Columbia law School and I saw all of these students first year, second year and 3rd year students grading all around waiting to be part of corporate America. That's all they cared about. And God, there's so much good stuff that could be done for the people who are in need beyond the corporate sphere. I mean, of course you want to make money. Everybody wants to make money. There's not a problem with that. But can't you think a little larger? And the people who really need
your work also? Anyway, I realized also that civic education was something that was far and few between. And so I developed a program that I gave to the Dean of the law school, where I came up with the whole curriculum to teach high school students that might not ever get to college about civic responsibility, civic obligation and just their own legal positions, lawful positions in our society. And he looked at it before he tore it up and said, well, nice
thinking. You know, I appreciate the thought. And exactly. Anyway. So I think that that experience when I was all of 22 or so years old has allowed me to appreciate what it is you're up to all the more. And. And I'm going to answer a question that I posed to you by listening to what you're saying. Sam And that is in the sense, it doesn't matter what the content of the subject is that needs to be dealt with.
But if you have the tools that you teach in your book and in your groups of how to be effective communicators, how to be community leaders, how to set up a meeting with a representative, House of Representatives or Congress or local, yes, you can use those skills for dealing with any matter at hand. Yes. Let me give you along that line some bad news and some good news. OK, found out.
It's on. Yeah. The independent sector did a study last year and found that 31% of nonprofits were doing advocacy, which was less than half the numbered percent doing advocacy earlier. Another study of from the Congressional Management Foundation asked advocacy professionals what their main offering was, and 79% said that it was online petitions. But only 3% of congressional staff said that made a
difference. So that's why it's all the more important for all your viewers and your listeners to find organizations that deliver transformational advocacy 'cause they can be few and far between. And the main, another main message for the group is this is a methodology that can help you make a difference and heal our democracy in the process. It's not the only solutions needed, but it's one critical missing piece citizens awakening to their power.
Hallelujah. God bless you, Sam Daily Harris. I totally, totally agree. It's it's a message of empowerment and it's a call to our own responsibility as citizens. I mean, you know, democracy ebbs and floats. It is not a guarantee. As Jefferson said, the cost of democracy is eternal vigilance and I think we need to really abide by that that old idea that is ever present. So Sam, thanks for your good
work. I want to continue to encourage you, and for all of you, I want you to really take all of what Sam had to say here to heart. Because while it's good to be part of an organization even if you're not, your voice is important. And I always say that one letter represents in their minds, their congressman or senators minds, at least 1000, if not a few thousand voices. So think that way. You are giving voice to people who are not willing or ready to share, but you are.
So on that note. Thanks again. Thanks. Keep up the. Good work. This is Mitchell J Raven for a Better World. Thanks so much for joining us again today and I look forward to seeing you all next week.