Wasted Effort - 5 Mistakes to Avoid

You know, one of the things I wanted to talk about is the fact that a lot of people believe that if they sign a petition or if they protest, that they're actually going to get something done. I'm really struck because our kids at school are attending a walk-out as many kids are regarding the gun violence and the events that happened in Florida a little while ago. And what's interesting is you can have a lot of people walk out, get together, protest, hold signs in solidarity and hope that that's really gonna make a difference. But the interesting thing is that unless it's picked up by the media and then which, which can happen. So here's what happens. The media will pick up on it, play it on the news, show you that people are doing this, why they're doing it. But in reality they're not changing.

And I'm making this up. They're not changing H.R. 2137, they're not changing. Senate bill 235 and those are the specific bills that might not those specifically. I'm just making the numbers up. But specific bills and bill numbers are what the senators and the members of Congress look at when they say, "Oh, we want to get something done." They're talking about a specific, law that they're trying to push forward in the legislative body, whether it's at the state level or the federal level, it doesn't matter. I mean that's one part of it. So it's on the legislative side, you have that. And on the second part of this is you know, the enforcement part, like did the authorities actually follow the laws and get stuff done. And often that doesn't happen either. So you end up in a situation where people are coming together, they're in solidarity, they have signs and they're protesting, they have a clear general message.

They don't have a specific message necessarily, but they haven't looked at the framework that's required to get all those pieces pulled together. And that's what the law makers are looking at. So when they say, hey look, we don't want to sell guns to anyone under 21, that's one part of what the issue or the bill might be in terms of putting a framework together. And do you agree with that or not? Or do you have opposition to that, which in many cases the NRA or other organizations are saying, you know, that's restricting Second Amendment rights. So in order to look at this and have a clear sense, I think people have to have a really a framework to go forward and know exactly what the pieces are on a specific issue and then work through that, build a coalition and have a way to move that forward and I think without that you end up with this generalized anxiety that we need to have gun control or gun reform or change the laws or something along those lines and often that doesn't work and what you end up with are special interest groups who come in, deal with Congress, deal with the law makers and they say, "Hey, we know specifically what you're trying to get done and this is how we would approach it. "

So that's really a message to folks who are spending their time and energy getting on buses, flying, demonstrating, protesting, signing petitions. What I'm saying is, in a sense, it's kind of a waste of time, you know? Yes, you get media attention, but you don't get down to the specific thing that you need to get done and that's what's going to change the whole equation.

This is John Thibault. If you'd like to learn more or get free training, come visit us at www.iLobby.co . See you there. Thanks.