Be a hero like Percy Jackson

I’m not just a global health nerd. I'm also a huge fan of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series. This week brought some VERY exciting news to fans of these books.

How is this advocacy-related? I’m getting to that, just hang tight. 

In 4th grade, these books helped me calm down when I was stressed about my new school or about to lobby my members of Congress, like in this photo from my mom!


Rick Riordan, author of the beloved book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians (plus so many, even more awesome spinoffs) announced on Twitter with his wife Becky that Percy is coming to Disney+! This is especially exciting because the Riordans will have a lot more input, hopefully resulting in an adaptation faithful to the books.

The title of this post is misleading because we already know Percy Jackson is a hero. This post is actually about taking inspiration from the fans of his story.

Putting it diplomatically, the first attempt to make Percy Jackson movies was a disappointment to readers. Riordan agreed.

Found on the fan page https://thesevenhoo.wordpress.com/


Fans never stopped calling for a more successful reboot, though. Through social media posts, letters, and a general fandom-wide commitment to persist, the pressure was on.


And now we have this amazing news, thanks to so many people (especially the target audience of middle schoolers) making it clear what they wanted, and getting progress thanks to an influential ally, the author himself.


Once I calmed down from my fangirling, I noticed that this narrative is a lot like political advocacy.


We notice a situation less than ideal: 
The House Phase 4 bill for COVID-19 relief has no money for international development! Nothing. This is disastrous because around the world...




We build momentum to change things: 
Everyday people speak up, demanding a more just response. Organizations like RESULTS start connecting experts and volunteer advocates.


A UNICEF Club lobby meeting


We pressure those with decision-making power:

By writing letters to the editor in local newspapers, we call attention to this issue and mention members of Congress by name. We follow up and hold lobby meetings on Zoom with Congressional aides.


We are persistent:

We understand that Congress is busy during this time, but we keep in touch with aides, giving them no reason to expect us to go away. Like the middle school book clubs who kept asking for a better movie, middle/high school UNICEF clubs can keep asking for a better pandemic response!

Letters from my school's UNICEF Club. These days, I'd recommend emails over handwritten letters, though, for safety.


We gain allies for our cause:

Congress isn’t as cool as Rick Riordan, sorry to say. Nevertheless, the progress we’ve made in international development funding (except for recent events) is possible because of Congressional champions who work with us to introduce letters and bills, getting things moving through the legislative machine. For example, Representatives Barbara Lee and Martha Roby led a bipartisan letter last month, calling for an additional $1 billion in funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria as part of the emergency response.


This letter gained 105 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, which was very cool! Perplexingly, this same group just passed a coronavirus relief bill that ignored the rest of the world. Yet the Lee-Roby letter gives me hope that if advocates double down, we can work side by side with our Congressional allies to correct recent mistakes.

8th grade Halloween, when I considered myself too old to dress up but 14 is an acceptable age to "cosplay" instead.


So, that’s the parallel I’m seeing between my favorite books getting a TV show and a crazy week for global pandemic relief funding. When a lot of people show that they care enough, our leaders can get those changes made.

Moral of the story? Don’t give up. After all, a few years ago we thought a Percy Jackson show would never happen. Today, the news about global health funding getting sidelined is very discouraging, but I’m hopeful that it can turn around if everyone takes action right away.

Here’s a handy tool to help you get started by writing a letter to the editor with RESULTS: https://results.org/volunteers/action-center/?vvsrc=%2fcampaigns%2f72606%2frespond

Good hunting, as the Hunters of Artemis would say!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to lobby a member of Congress

Image
Lobbying is one of the most intense and effective advocacy actions! And it's no wonder- a face to face conversation with your member of Congress gives both parties the opportunity to be heard and understood, and speak in depth on their positions and room for compromise. There’s an idea many people have in their heads of a cartoonish, fancy-suited man with a briefcase sneaking around Capitol Hill and bribing politicians to represent his interest. I, too, think of that image with extreme distaste. Yes, there are paid lobbyists, but that’s not what I mean by a "lobby meeting" with volunteer constituents . “Lobbying” as a general concept gets its name from people who used to wait around in the lobby of the office building, hoping to snag a few minutes or even precious seconds of a lawmaker’s time to promote their cause. [A panorama taken while my family waited to meet with Senator Blunt. My mom appears three times in the shot, among the crowd waiting in the lobby.] These
Read more

Advocating with a Sensory Processing Disorder

Image
So, I have a sensory processing disorder (SPD), and it makes me really sensitive to touch and sound. Sometimes, this greatly affects what kinds of advocacy actions I can and can’t do, so I wanted to talk a little bit about what having sensory issues means for my experience with advocacy. Like, this school event? (photo is pre-covid) No. absolutely not. Even if we’re not in a pandemic, you will not see me in a crowd like this. [A cheering crowd forming Ws with their fingers runs onto an indoor basketball court, celebrating a win. Signs in the background say "Bomber Territory"- our school's mascot is, unfortunately, a bomber plane.] First, a little explanation if you’re not familiar with my SPD: loud noises, unexpected noises, and certain types of sounds put me in a fight-or-flight state. So does physical contact with other people. Sometimes, I get sensory overloads when it’s all super overwhelming, and my brain feels so scrambled I can’t recognize what’s happening around m
Read more

What we can do, because Black Lives Matter

Image
"Do more than just sharing an Instagram post. Don't be a performance activist." A student I follow on Instagram shared this on her story, along with a screenshot of  https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ . You can find places to donate, petitions, and other resources there to take action.  Another advocate's Instagram story, in a different state. Let's look at some of those actions! Since you're reading this, I assume you've already decided to stand against racist acts of violence and the widespread complacency and apathy that lets them keep happening. So this post will focus less on the why , because we already have that from our social media feeds, and more on how  we respond. Fundraising, online advocacy, and protests aren't my usual tactics, personally. I usually stick to  volunteering in election campaigns or lobbying members of Congress directly over months and years. But that's when I'm looking for a long-term, legislative response.  Tod
Read more