Friends take their politics to the people

Aug. 29--DARTMOUTH -- Complaining over coffee won't change Washington, no matter who's in the Oval Office. So a few friends in Dartmouth decided to take action.

Self-described "pragmatic progressives" shocked at the election of President Trump, they formed a community group that started with 40 people in a grange hall and now has more than 300 members on Facebook, from Westport to Marion. Active members take part in issue-based "huddles," a model borrowed from the Women's March.

Huddles focus on health care and women's reproductive rights, protecting legitimate journalism and democracy, political action, the environment, and immigration.

In October, the group is bringing a tour of the internationally known Mountainfilm documentary film festival to New Bedford. And on Wednesday, Aug. 30, they will host an evening with U.S. Congressman William Keating at the UMass School of Law.

Seven members spoke with The Standard-Times on Monday about what brought them to the group.

Pattie Garrahy-Robertson grew up in Rhode Island in an Irish-American family interested in politics. Her father was asked to run for office. She recalls him saying, "Why would I do that? I can't be president," because he was born in Ireland. So he encouraged his American-born younger brother to run. That brother, J. Joseph Garrahy, eventually became governor of Rhode Island. Garrahy-Robertson caught the political bug and is one of the founders of Marching Forward.

Judy Jenkins went to college in Washington, D.C. in the 1960s and participated in anti-war demonstrations. She worked on Robert F. Kennedy's campaign for the U.S. Senate. And she says she's had to be tough to be a leader in a man's world, as an owner of a real estate development and construction company. She serves as co-leader of Marching Forward's political action huddle. "I felt I had to do something," she said.

Nancy Train Smith grew up in Washington, D.C. and marched against the war in Vietnam. Her father was the second administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the 1970s and later worked to expand the scope of the World Wildlife Fund. She cares deeply about the environment and climate change, and about the state of American democracy, she said. She is co-leader of the huddle on journalism and democracy. Although Marching Forward supports political candidates financially, Smith said it does not make endorsements, choosing instead to provide information so members can make their own choices. "I think we're providing a place where different people can enter at whatever comfort level they have, or whatever point grabs them," she said. "We're providing multiple entry points for people, because we want to be a big tent."

Susan Sargent, co-leader of the environmental huddle, has been active in conservation. She is responsible for bringing the tour of Mountainfilm to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The festival will include a kid-friendly morning show, followed by the main program. Tickets are available on the Whaling Museum website. Sargent got the idea when she was visiting Telluride, Colorado, where the permanent festival is held. Most of the $9,000 cost to bring the festival here has been raised from private donations. "None of us wanted to be sitting around wringing our hands," she said.

Bryan Robertson jokingly calls himself "the assistant" because he is Garrahy-Robertson's husband. He says he's relatively apolitical, but has done canvassing in Philadelphia and New Hampshire. After the election, he went to the Women's March in New York. "The sign that really got me said, 'It's so bad, even us introverts are out here.' As an introvert, I really identified with that," he said. He is a member of the huddle on health care.

Leslie Knowles, also a political introvert by her own description, is a mental health provider concerned about social justice.

Kate White writes the blog on the group's website, www.marchingforwardmass.com. "I was really searching for a way to turn my despair into some kind of action," she said. She supports the work of all the huddles, but one of her main concerns is what she considers Trump's disregard for civic and government institutions, she said.

Follow Jennette Barnes on Twitter @jbarnesnews.

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