Ten Perfect Strangers

One door knock at a time, one phone call at a time, one volunteer shift at a time, Tim’s neighbors were building something. A grassroots movement. Mutual aid networks. A community. 

In just seven years, they'd reshape their neighborhood. They'd form nonprofits to give away free food, and create outdoor spaces that everyone can enjoy. They'd elect democratic socialists to nearly every local office, and then help build a movement large enough to put a 33-year-old organizer and State Assemblyman named Zohran Mamdani on the cusp of being elected the next mayor of New York. 

In seven short years, a movement would grow. Thousands upon thousands would get involved. And in Astoria, Shawna Morlock and nine perfect strangers standing in the park would blossom into fifty thousand volunteers knocking on doors across the city.

While they were building all that, Tim Donovan had retreated from politics entirely. A former freelance journalist who covered progressive causes for national outlets, in 2016 he left that world behind. For the next nine years, he'd mix cocktails in his neighborhood of Astoria, Queens.

This is the story of the people who built those movements — but it’s the story of people like Tim, too. Because it’s not just about the people who knock on doors three nights a week. It's not just about people who organize nonprofits. 

It’s about the rest of us.

It’s about the choices we make.

And sometimes, the ones that we don’t

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