First off, a thank you to chapter1 - it was his essay on delurking that motivated this post.
I've been writing as a sideline to my day jobs since 1985, and I'm pleased to report that everything I've written for pay has sold - and I've sold quite a bit.
So it is no small measure of personal irony that I've written so little at Daily Kos. It's largely because I've been awed and humbled by the quality of the posts here. There are many of you who lack professional writing skills, but didn't let that stop you - you simply write from the heart, with powerful results.
But there's another thing that has made me hesitate - the inability to participate on a person-to-person level, such as at Meetups. Online discourse is all fine and well, but there's no substitute for meeting people and organizing for action.
I do what I can on an individual basis - contacting Congressmen on the issues, partnering with hearing friends to canvass neighborhoods, drumming up support for Dem candidates, voting, contributing to campaigns, etc.
I raise awareness among my deaf friends and encourage them to vote (and vote progressive) but there's a lot of apathy and a lot of education needed. There is a core of deaf Democratic activists, and I'm one of them. Joseph Rainmound (This Dem's Deaf) is another. But that's a pretty small pool of people, and I'd like to have an impact beyond that.
Problem is, networking personally with hearing folks requires an interpreter, and they don't come cheap. I can't afford one on the scale needed for Meetup-type events, and I'm reluctant to ask groups to assume the cost.
So what to do?
I have one solid talent - the ability to write - and a passion to see progressive candidates elected to public office.
There are many of you who are working with Democratic candidates on every level - local, county, state, national - who could use a writer. Press releases, speeches, ads, radio spots, persuasive essays, magazine articles, interviews, and so on - I can do these. I live in Central Florida, if that's helpful.
Samples of my work and personal scribblings can be found here and here. The commercial writing is nearly all related to the deaf community; the personal stuff is mostly science and progressive politics.
Writing for candidates isn't the same as enjoying the personal contact with organizers and activists, but it's what I can do - and I want to do what I can.