The Time Is NOW: Get involved.
- Indivisible Sumner
- Nov 19
- 4 min read
Community organizers and activists have long faced the problem of burnout. It's what I was warned about when I got into this work. In this 2025 era of constant assaults on humanity and democracy, that burnout is in crisis level. Unfortunately, it's not just that the onslaught of damaging actions at the hands of the Trump administration is constant; it's also that too many people are not engaging in meaningful ways that meet the moment. ( IF YOU ARE READY TO TAKE ACTION NOW, YOU CAN SKIP THIS WHOLE BORING BLOG POST AND SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE. )
You see, after the inauguration in January, I kept hearing about the Indivisible Project. I heard people like Stacy Abrams saying it was a good organization to join. I watched my first weekly Indivisible "What's the Plan?" call. Then, I waited and waited for someone to start an Indivisible group near me. And it kept not happening.
Then I got the opportunity to join a Tennessee statewide Indivisible call. On that call I distinctly remember Vice Chair of the TN Democratic Party Nathan Higdon saying, "It's up to us. The courts are not going to save us.". That particular call took place back in February, before I had any idea of how true Nathan's statement would turn out to be. One thing was for sure: we all had to do something. That "we" included me.
So I did it. I started Sumner Indivisible. On that statewide call was a woman by the name of Kathy Austin. She shares Congressional District 6 with me despite living in East Nashville. With generous guidance from Kate Briefs (the strategic brains behind the current Aftyn Behn campaign for District 7), Kathy and I organized the first action we lead together. It was our Hands OFF Social Security protest outside John Rose's office. When a client at the (very conservative) gym I worked at handed me a copy of the local paper with me on the front page, I knew my days of trying to blend in here in Sumner were behind me. Honestly, it was liberating as hell.
Everything snowballed very quickly from there. Soon we were joining forces with Jennifer Brinkman to get Nashville Indivisible up off the ground. I made connections so quickly even though I was a very green organizer because....well, the organizer world is small. Which is a great format for making connections, but a very poor format for splitting the workload.
Which is why you find me here on this soapbox today. During this year of day-in-day-out organizing and activism a clear pattern has emerged. Pick a place, any place. A county or a city. In that place, there are a handful of organizers. And that handful is doing too much. They are engaged with their local democratic party, and their local Public School Strong group, and going to library board meetings, and managing Indivisible groups, and members of Moms Demand Action, and working with local immigrant rights agencies, and the list goes on and on and on. I can assure you it's not just a "me" thing. I have heard it from many different kinds of organizers in many different places throughout the state as well as experiencing it first hand. It's the same 5, 12 or 20 people doing everything wherever you go.
In some ways, this is the way it has always been. In this moment, it registers as a different level of unsustainable than before. There are too many fires. With the rate we are spreading ourselves thin, our efficacy in putting them out will start to diminish. And that is something we cannot afford in this moment. Not when we are fighting a battle for the heart of our country. Not when masked douche bags are beating people to the ground and whisking them off to concentration camps.
I assure you, organizers do not have more bandwidth than you do, nor more hours in their day. They have jobs, families, and are fighting to keep friends and hobbies. People power is the greatest resource we have, and also the one we have the least of. It's time for more people to step up and get in where they fit in. I promise, there is room.
SO HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?
The easiest action you take right now is to hop on a phonebank or door knock for Aftyn Behn. We have a real shot at flipping a TN congressional seat blue, and that is a chance we CANNOT pass up. If you really want to make an impact right now, consider canvassing in Clarksville. You do not need to know everything about everything- you'll get briefed on talking points. And remember, most voters are just people like you. They know what you know and care about what you care about.
Sumner Indivisible is also working on several actions involving advocacy for the local immigrant community. In the past 48 hours ICE activity has ramped up significantly in TN. The video below shows an incident that happened on this past Tuesday, November 17th, inside the Sumer County courthouse. Two gentlemen were arrested: a citizen and the friend he was accompanying to a court date, who was not a citizen. Both were taken into ICE custody. The man in the video has since been released, but his friend is remains in ICE custody.
We have several ongoing projects and a few news ones that we want to get off the ground quickly. For safety reasons, we cannot share all of our actions openly, but there are still ways you can get involved. If you would like to learn more and get involved, please email sumnerindivisible@pm.me . We also encourage you to sign this petition that calls out Sumner County's Sheriff for signing on to collaborate with ICE.
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