When did you get started with Common Cause?
It goes back quite a ways, I have been volunteering since 1998, 19 years. I had been a member of Common Cause back all the way to the 1970s. When I started to work on a part time basis, semi-retired, I thought that might be a good time for me to become a little more active and associated with the causes of this organization.

What do you do as a volunteer?
We contact our members as best as we can via tele­phone and urge them to take an action. Sometimes it is as simple as making a call to their members of Congress, or getting together to deliver a petition to an individual representative. We have participated in demonstrations like a few years ago when the FCC was considering get­ting rid of net neutrality. We won.

What’s your favorite memory with Common Cause?
One that really stands out right now, we were cam­paigning for McCain-Feingold. We went up and down the streets around Congress with signs. It was such a satisfying experience to join up with people.

Why is the work you are doing right now with Common Cause important?
The current climate has coalesced everybody’s attention on the dangers this country is now facing. It has caused us all to renew and enhance our energy and efforts to­wards preventing some catastrophic event or events from destroying the basic concepts of this country. Doing something, even as minimal as volunteering is, it gives us a feeling that we’re doing something to prevent the catastrophic.