Over the months leading up to the November mid-term elections, Third Act CT will continue to urge members to consult our dedicated Defending Democracy Actions Portal. The portal is a regularly updated, one-stop source of information and guidance on how to take part in a range of election-related activities, including protests/rallies, legislative advocacy, canvassing, phone- and text-banking, post carding, poll working and letter-writing.
The portal is the centerpiece of an ongoing Defending Democracy effort designed to make it easy for TA CT members to join the fight to support individual participation at all levels of government — and to help preserve a functional and transparent democracy. A permanent link can be found on the “About” page for Third Act Connecticut.
Third Act CT’s Defending Democracy team is led by Carole Tenny (Storrs), Eric Goldberg (Storrs) and Bill Silva (West Hartford). Each brings to the effort decades of awareness regarding societal equity and environmental preservation — and a commitment to the idea that, as a nation, we can do so much better on those critical fronts.
Carole Tenny’s activism first emerged when she was a freshman at Brown University, joining campus protests – complete with building takeovers – against the Vietnam War. Her activism was re-ignited in the first Trump Administration and was focused on climate issues until around the 2024 elections, when her focus turned toward democracy issues. “Third Act is a perfect organization for me,” she says. “It’s all of us who probably have been a little bit on the streets since the ‘60s.”
Eric Goldberg also was animated by opposition to the Vietnam War, as a high school student. “A strong sense that this society wasn’t equitable has been a focus of mine since adolescence and the climate crisis motivated me to get more actively involved,” he says. “Now, with Trump, we’ve had to fight on two fronts, democracy and trying to make some progress on climate.”
Bill Silva started volunteering for political campaigns in high school – “I remember working very actively for George McGovern in ‘72, a cause that of course worked in Massachusetts but really nowhere else.” A turning point was reading Bill McKibben’s book, “The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon” (the two Bills are both alums of Lexington, Mass. High School). “At the book’s close, McKibben points out that many of us are coming to a stage in our life where we’ve had careers, we raised families. And now, the question is, what can we do?” As the 2024 election approached – and with a grandchild on the way heightening his concern about what we owe to those who follow us — “I thought, I need to do something,” Bill says. His next step was joining Third Act CT’s democracy efforts.
For Bill — a former high school and college teacher and high school administrator – recognition of the unrest that “fuels not just our politics, but also our social and cultural life” will remain a major motivation. “The stakes are enormously high, both on the democracy front and the climate front,” he says.
When it comes to the climate, “what kind of a world are we leaving for our grandchildren?” says Carole, who has been a teacher, a computer systems analyst and a publications manager for UConn’s linguistics department. “It’s imperative, at this point, to try to do what we can to minimize the damage going forward.”
For the Defending Democracy team, the work is about not just mitigating the dangers but also embracing the positive opportunities that we still have.
“What I think is really at stake is the opportunity that this country has to move forward and realize its values,” says Eric, a former school psychologist.
“There’s so much more that this country could do to advance the values of equality and opportunity that we have on paper, but that we’ve never realized as a nation. Are we going to move in a direction where, more and more, we’re fulfilling the promise of this country?”
For more information on the Defending Democracy work, Third Actors can contact Carole Tenny (carole.tenny@gmail.com), Eric Goldberg (epgstorrs@aol.com) or Bill Silva (billsilvact@gmail.com).