About Us

Our Story: A letter from the Steering Committee

Hello neighbors and fellow North Carolinians,

We’re glad you found us. We are the Steering Committee of Indivisible Polk Foothills, and this is our story.

The outcome of the November 2024 presidential election was a devastating shock — not just for us, but for millions of Americans and for our long-standing allies around the world. How could this have happened a second time? How was it possible that so many Americans voted for hatred, bigotry, misogyny, racism, the dehumanization of the less fortunate, and a course aimed squarely at destroying what is most quintessentially American: our democracy?

With the inauguration in January 2025, the damage began to take its course. This is not overly dramatic. This is not a conspiracy theory. We are not overreacting. We have just lived through one of the most stressful years of our lives.

 We are watching a government follow its playbook, Project 2025, much as Adolf Hitler followed his in the 1930s, leading Germany into the darkest chapter of its history — World War II and the Holocaust.

We talked with one another. We attended local political meetings. We drove to Asheville, Hendersonville, Rutherfordton, and beyond for rallies and town halls. It felt good to know we were not alone in our pain over the destruction of our country, and in what we were already feeling in our own communities. But it wasn’t enough.

We decided that it is our responsibility to do more, here at home. Values and great ideas mean nothing if they are not followed up with action.

We are not interested in being heroes. We don’t think we are better than anyone else. The truth is that we are scared, and some days we fight off the feeling of being overwhelmed. But we also want to be able to meet ourselves in the mirror and know that we did not look away. Women are threatened. Immigrants are threatened. Healthcare is threatened. The poorest among us are threatened. Our birthright to freedom, safety, and prosperity is threatened.

The warning signs were there for a long time. Both parties failed America — and we, the citizens, failed it too. A democracy is only as strong as the citizens who actively participate in it.

America is a wonderful country, with magnificent beauty and enormous potential. We look back on some very dark chapters, and also on a history of powerful grassroots and civil rights movements. For America, and for every community in it, to be great, we have to embrace all parts of our history and learn from them.

It’s our turn now — our turn to join forces and transform this country’s democracy into the vision our founders truly held for all of us, not just a privileged few.

That is why we formed Indivisible Polk Foothills. We are a non-partisan organization, and our doors are wide open to everyone who wants to be part of civic activism in Polk County, to save our democracy and make it stronger.

Let’s be a community of positive change.

— The Steering Committee, Indivisible Polk Foothills