Image: Chatterina / ChatGPT.

Call one of your elected political representatives about a political, social, or community issue that you care about.

Doing this will also count as 1 volunteer hour towards the volunteer activity experiment in philosophy and as 1 event for the civic engagement activity experiment in philosophy.

Examples

Here are some examples that other students have done for their civic action:

• Calling their senator about a bill impacting the LGBTQ+ community.
• Calling their congressional representative to thank that representative for their stance on immigration.
• Calling their state assembly member about a proposed abortion-related constitutional amendment.
• Calling their mayor to address the lack of blizzard preparedness for their city.

Here’s What I Want You to Do

Here are some steps to follow for your civic action activity:

• Begin by deciding what your position is on an issue you care about.
• Visit https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/, enter your address, and identify an elected political representative you can reach regarding that issue. This should also give you their phone number.
• Prepare for the phone call by thinking about what you want to say. Jot down some talking points or write yourself a script if you’d like. Focus on expressing your opinion and persuading your representative to do something about your topic.
  • You can search online for “script to call your representative” and find many examples.
    • For instance, here is a website with scripts for progressive/left-leaning issues: https://5calls.org
    • (I cannot seem to find a similar one with scripts for conservative/right-leaning issues. If you know of one, please let me know and I“ll share it with the entire class!)
  • Your script should likely have something like the following form:
    • Hi, my name is…
    • I’m calling about…
    • I’m concerned because…
    • I’d like [representative] to… because…
    • I would like a response if possible. (Or something like this. The main thing to do is be sure to leave your address, which requires them to log your call.)
    • Thank you for your time.
• Make the phone call.
  • It is okay to speak to your representative’s staff member and leave you message with them.
  • It is also okay if you end up leaving a voicemail message that does all of the above.

After your phone call, do the following:

• Download a blank copy of the Civic Action Report.
• Fill out that report. In particular, be sure to include all of the following evidence of your civic action:

  A.	A screenshot of your phone’s call log. You can search for how to do this on your phone. Let me know if you cannot do screenshots on your phone and I will help you find an alternative means of documentation.
  B.	The name and position of the person you called so the phone number can be cross-referenced.
  C.	A two (or three) sentences summary of what you talked about with that person.

• Submit your completed report to UB Learns.

Here’s Why I Want You to Do It

I am having you perform this civic action activity because it has you…

• Identify an issue that you care about.
• Practice taking a stance on something and presenting a short argument in defense of it.
• Develop your abilities for professional communication and civic engagement.

As such, this civic action will help you achieve these learning outcomes for the course:

This activity may also push you out of your comfort zone, which is essential for your learning and growth!

Here’s How You’ll Earn Philosophy Experience Points

This experiment in philosophy is worth a total of 500 philosophy experience points and will be assessed based on completion. That is, if you complete your civic action and submit all its evidence (as specified above) on time, then you will earn all 500 points. If you do not do all this, then you will earn 0 points.

Using Philosopher’s Stones

You may exchange 1 philosopher’s stone for a 24-hour extension for completing this experiment in philosophy. Please note that this extension begins immediately after its original due date/time. Additional stones may be used for even longer extensions. Email me if this is something you would like to do.

Collaboration & Academic Integrity

Feel free to work with your classmates on putting together your script and even practicing what you want to say. However, please be sure that you are expressing your own views in what you are communicating. After all, the purpose of this is for you to talk to your elected official about your beliefs on an issue that you care about.

As a result, I expect you to make your own phone call. It is not a group activity. Let me know if you are struggling and I’ll gladly help!

Above all else, please be honest if you do receive any outside assistance or use the ideas of others. This includes using AI tools. In any of those cases, be sure to let me know what assistance you received, and I will let you know how to properly acknowledge that assistance in accordance with standards of academic integrity.

Image: Chatterina / ChatGPT.

Acknowledgment

This “Experiment in Philosophy” is based upon a similar “Experiment in Ethics” from Ramona Ilea and Monica Janzen. I highly encourage you to visit their website on Engaged Philosophy for much more!