Maria Newman ’80JRN, Director of Alumni Relations at the Journalism School
I’m taking a stand for democracy, because our country needs all of us to participate.
Before I started working at Columbia almost four years ago, I was a journalist. Through my training, including as a student at the Columbia Journalism School, I was taught not to take sides but instead to look at social and political issues with dispassion, so that I could write about them fairly. I could never post signs on my lawn, couldn’t put bumper stickers on my car, couldn’t attend rallies in favor or against something, only if I was there to cover the story. That was okay. I had chosen the life of bearing witness to history, not one of an activist.
Since I left my journalism career, it has been a bit liberating, and even a little scary, to exercise my right as a citizen to voice opinions on issues, and even take actions. For me, one of the biggest lessons of the 2016 election is that not enough of us vote or speak up. Since then, I have been moved to get involved in issues.
I have called my congressmen to let them know what I think about certain policies coming out of Washington. I have been out on the streets chanting with crowds at rallies and marches every chance I get. And this fall I volunteered on several political campaigns. I even held a phone bank at my house one Sunday to call voters in support of one candidate in my home state of Texas.
It was very gratifying to read today in The New York Times, my old employer, that preliminary data shows that voters turned out in the midterm elections at rates not seen in half a century.
Our democracy only works when we all get involved. It’s been very rewarding to talk to voters who feel like I do, that we need change in this country, and that we hold a lot of power in our hands with our one vote.
