This community seems to be very creative and far wittier than I am so rather than doing all the work on this myself and having it turn out just ok, I want you guys to help me make it great. Well as great as anything CAN be when my husband and I are both out of work and not getting a paycheck because Congressional Republicans are holding our jobs hostage over something that none of them can quite remember or articulate anymore.
I'm taking up a new sport in my unemployment. I'm calling it Congress-shaming. It's been pretty low key so far - mostly daily letters to my Congressman, the Honorable "Hike the Appalachian Trail" Mark Sanford asking him how he feels about wrecking the lives of hard working American families like mine in his district. I like to ask him what he's up to each day while we are doing something new like registering for unemployment or signing our kids up for free and reduced lunches at school.
But this weekend presents a new opportunity as another milestone passes - payday. This upcoming federal payday is the first one that will include $0 dollars for the first four days of Oct thanks to Congress. So I want to share with my Congressman what this means to me and several hundred other federal and contractor employees that he has put out of work in his district.
Here's the plan so far: I'm going to print up some Monopoly money type coupons containing my Congressman's dashingly handsome photo and email address. I was thinking of adding a short statement like "I wish I could have patronized your business today but Congressman Sanford thinks playing politics is more important than my family getting a paycheck. If you think otherwise, please let him know."
Since I have several hundred colleagues in the same boat, I will get as many together as possible on Saturday morning and set up canvassing areas for teams. We will then embark on a Saturday morning shopping spree to distribute Sanford Bucks to businesses throughout his district. A tip to the media may also occur as I'm hoping the Bucks are very photogenic.
So please help me out - design advice, writing advice, business targeting advice, legal advice and PR/marketing advice are all welcome.