Confessions of a Reluctant Volunteer

I like my activism like my exercise – extremely low impact. Leaving the heavy lifting to others, I’m more of a write-a-check-kind of guy. Make a donation. Like a Tweet or Facebook post. Put a sign on my lawn. But that’s about it. Donate and spectate, fighting the good fight without breaking a sweat.

So it’s odd that I’m going to drive eight hours from my New Jersey home to North Carolina to spend a week helping Rideshare2Vote drive voters to the polls. Not only that, I’ve called in nearly every favor earned in 35 years of friendship and badgered a trio of college buddies to join me. My wife isn’t sure who she’s married to anymore. But the reason is pretty simple: sometimes the game is so important you can’t stay on the sidelines. Sometimes, as Ellie Wiesel wrote, you have to interfere.

I believe in equality, justice, democracy, science, decency, normalcy, truth and facts. These are not outrageous positions, yet they’re all under siege. Darkness doesn’t descend all at once. It occurs step by incremental step, nips and tucks, a little de-legitimizing here and a touch of de-humanizing there, until the long slouch towards autocracy and perhaps worse is complete. Those are the stakes. And the idea of what America could become, and the thought of me having no good answer if my future grandkids asked me what I did to try to stop it, is enough to get me out of spectator mode.

Elections are how we settle our differences in America, and the seismic 2020 election is where our side must stand its ground. Rideshare2Vote’s impressive mission is ensuring everyone gets the opportunity to vote, especially those marginalized or effectively disenfranchised. Transportation issues deprive over 15 million people from voting, according to studies, a staggering number of voters losing the most American of rights simply because they can’t get to the polls. By providing rides to these voters, R2V is literally supplying the wheels of democracy: refranchising those who’ve been truly silenced and ignored, letting every voice be heard, and helping drive a turnout massive enough to dropkick the darkness back into oblivion.

It’s time to break a sweat. I’m excited to be part of Rideshare2Vote, one of the many cogs helping turn the wheels of democracy.

From volunteer Matt Maranz, Rideshare2Vote Driver 2020