Founded in December 2019 by Asher Zemmel (IV) and Sara Snyder (IV), Fieldston’s Political Action Club strives to bring together the diverse, and sometimes overlooked, viewpoints of Fieldston students in a respectful manner in order to engage with each other about controversial topics and take action in modern day politics. Co-founder Asher Zemmel states, “Sara and I started the political action club as an unbiased place where politically interested students could go to discuss their beliefs… [our goal is to] remove the hyperpolarization that we see in our lives, and sometimes see at Fieldston.” Co-founder Sara Snyders adds that, “Our main target is helping politically interested students at Fieldston take action in politics.” The leaders emphasize that as a club, they do not support one candidate or one common belief, as they want to create an unbiased environment for students to build respect for one another. In a call with both of the club’s leaders, they emphasized the importance of respect within the club especially when tackling different viewpoints and controversial topics. For instance, the club watched the Hilary Clinton documentary as well as the Mitt Romney documentary, and discussed in detail the differences between the politicians as well as what they learned from watching a documentary on someone who might not have been their candidate of choice. The club strives to provide opportunities for students to become politically active, including phone banking for the candidate of their choice, interning for a local politician, or organizing school wide events. A typical meeting for the club includes phone banking, discussing homework assignments, and brainstorming about new ways to be politically active.
Recently, the club has adjusted to the current pandemic environment we live in by leveraging the principals the club was founded on to engage in conversation about the pandemic. I asked both Asher and Sara the same question, “Due to the pandemic, how is the club adjusting to fit the current state of our country?” Their answers emphasized the key foundation of respect that the club prioritizes, and its heightened importance during the pandemic we face. Sara Snyder explained, “We’ve put phone banking on hold because people are having much bigger issues right now and as a club we are striving to create a respectful environment where politics isn’t the priority…we’ve spent our time watching political documentaries so that once we go back to phonebanking we can be more educated and we have also led discussions about the pandemic and the need to depoliticise due to public health.” Asher Zemmel states, “In times of a pandemic and national crisis, when we need to remove politics from the equation, I think that the kind of think tanks like ours are really important because we’ve already established a nonpartisan form of communication.” Asher also emphasized that while the club strives to be nonpartisan, it is important to adjust our conversations to analyze how the current administration reacts to the pandemic before us, and states, “While we have to respect everybody that supports the leadership of the United States, the club also needs to continue to have discussions about what is appropriate behavior during a crisis.”
Looking to the future, the club is looking forward to politically engaging in local elections as well as focusing on social justice issues. The club is also looking forward to creating school wide events that strive for a more open and safe political environment at Fieldston. However, with a future that is uncertain, the club will continue to create a safe and respectful environment for students to engage with each other on difficult topics concerning the pandemic.
