Editors Note: The Rev is always excited by local grassroots media covering our community. We tune-in for all of Better Together’s Podcast. We wish them all the success moving forward. The Rev founder Jacob Richards earlier this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IHbuP-qxS4&t=750s
The Revolutionist: What is Better Together?
Better Together: Better Together is an organization dedicated to empowering local people to take collective action for a better world. We believe in the principle that “when we all do better, we all do better.” Our focus is on issues that directly impact our community, local, populist concerns that often get overlooked. These include projects like saving the Orchard Mesa Pool.
We celebrate community. Right now, Better Together operates as an interview and political analysis show. We feature conversations with local elected officials, union leaders, journalists, and community activists. Our goal is to educate people about the levers of power and how they can access them. Power belongs to the people, they just need an opening to claim it.
TR: Where is BT headed? Where do you see BT in 5 years?
BT: Better Together will evolve, exactly how remains to be seen. In my organizing experience, trying to predetermine an exact outcome can sometimes hinder growth. What matters most is having a vision. Our vision is to become a fully functioning, member-led, employee-owned organizing cooperative with paid staff and the resources to take on meaningful campaigns.
It’s essential to fight climate change and challenge Citizens United, but it’s also essential to organize around practical, everyday issues, getting a stoplight installed, fixing a pothole, and saving a community pool. Our goal is to show people that their government can work for them, not against them, and that they have the power to make change happen.
TR: Better Together is very local focused, why is that?
BT: Because local organizing is the most direct way to show people their power. National movements are important, but when we only focus on big-picture goals, we miss the opportunity to engage new activists who haven’t yet realized their own influence. Working on local issues that matter to people, what they want to organize around, connects them to the process and builds confidence that they can create change.
TR: What power is there in acting and organizing locally?
BT: That’s where real power lies. Tight-knit, locally focused groups have always been the foundation of big shifts in society.
Even in an increasingly digital world, people crave real connection. Organizing locally brings people together, and when you stand alongside others, you can feel that power in your bones. Humans have always survived and thrived through cooperation. Local organizing creates opportunities for neighbors to work on something tangible that improves their lives.
Take the Orchard Mesa Pool as an example. While its future is still uncertain, the organizing efforts around it have repeatedly kept it open. Every time the community comes together to save it, they strengthen their bonds. That’s the power of local action.
TR: What do you each of you (Nick and La’hua) bring to the show?
BT: I’m thrilled to have La’hua as part of the team. They bring an essential perspective to both the community and the show. La’hua has deep knowledge of organizing, both in theory and in practice. Their work guiding people through decolonization is inspiring. Their interviewing skills and unique insights will make our conversations richer and more expansive.
TR: These are trying times, what can people do?
BT: Start organizing. That doesn’t always mean taking to the streets or planning a boycott. It begins with building relationships, getting to know the people around you: your coworkers, friends, family, the barista who makes your morning coffee.
Once you connect, you start to find shared concerns. Maybe you and a colleague are both struggling with childcare costs. That conversation can lead to more conversations, and eventually, a group of workers might come together to demand better support for working families. That’s organizing, it’s about turning shared concerns into collective action.
TR: How can people get involved with Better Together and the community more broadly?
BT: It’s easy! The simplest way is by joining our Patreon, membership starts at just $2 a month, or you can contribute labor toward building Better Together. Members get early access to upcoming guests and advance notice about organizing efforts.
You can also follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay connected and informed.
TR: If you could interview anyone, living or dead, who and why?
BT: Octavia Butler, without question. She once described herself in a way that has always stuck with me:
“I’m a 48-year-old writer who can remember being a 10-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an 80-year-old writer. I’m also comfortably asocial, a hermit in the middle of Los Angeles, a pessimist if I’m not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.”
I also love her work. In one of her last series, she wrote about a dystopian America ravaged by climate change and fascism, led by a Christo-fascist president campaigning on the slogan “Make America Great Again.” She wrote that in 1998. I’d want to ask her what she saw coming, and what she sees in our future.
Follow Better Together at:
https://www.facebook.com/NickForD51
https://www.youtube.com/@Nick91092
Support Better Together via Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/BetterTogetherGrandJunction
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