'You're more powerful than you think'
I know a lot of us are feeling another wave of grief and anger over the direction this country is going in, at least on the national stage. I woke up yesterday morning with a sense of profound incongruence between my life, which is full of frailty and tenderness and generosity these days, and what I know are the values and tenor of our highest office.
I’ll keep my eye soberly and distantly on all that Trump’s second tenor brings, but I also plan on keeping my attention and my energy invested very locally. Which is why I LOVED recording this episode with a self-described stay-at-home mom who wrote into our Slate show fearful about the direction the country is going and totally unsure of where to start to be a force for change. She is an introvert, a political minority in her Midwestern town, and not going to take it anymore. I loved it.
And I loved being able to bring in a friend and one of the most brilliant and whole-hearted civic thinkers I know, Eric Liu, to guide her through the first steps towards civic engagement. As he so wisely said:
“All of citizenship is about relationship. Presidents can break stuff from the top down, but only we can heal stuff from the bottom up.”
If you’re feeling down or lost or convicted but confused, this episode will help you grow some roots.
I thought I’d offer up ideas for doing something with your grief and anger:
Join the school site council of your local Title I school. These councils make sure the money is being spent well to ensure every kid is successful at the school and you don’t have to have a kid at the school to participate!
Find a local organization that you believe in and volunteer yourself to do childcare or bring food for meetings.
Sign up for a Barnraiser’s training.
Knock on your neighbors’ doors and invite them to a meeting at your home focused on disaster preparedness.
Make a map of the elders in your neighborhood (this might require some knocking, too!) and ask them what unmet needs they might have (companionship, rides, grocery shopping). Gather others locally who would like to support them, including teenagers, and be a matchmaker.
Read or listen to Eric Liu’s book You’re More Powerful Than You Think.
Get involved in your local mutual aid community.
Donate and/or volunteer at the public library near your house.
Donate and/or volunteer at the local parks department.
Figure out which direct service organizations are helping the unhoused in your areas and donate or volunteer with them.
Create a giving circle among friends that is themed around some urgent issue in your community - housing, climate change, educational equity etc.
Organize a small group of friends to watch and discuss The Week.
Create an All We Can Save circle.
Sign up to read to kids at your local elementary school or after school program.
Volunteer to play music at a community-based day program or memory care facility in your area.
Run for school board.
Run for city council.
Find a faith community that feels like it fits your values and get involved in their efforts to give back.
Volunteer to hold babies at the NICU.
Create a men’s group and talk about the impact of patriarchy in your life and your community, and seek out ways to collectively change it.
Send your kid to an integrating school. Join Integrated Schools.
Subscribe to and pay for media that focuses on solutions, like The Christian Science Monitor and Yes! Magazine.
Subscribe and pay for media that focuses on pluralism, like Tangle News.
Cut down on your time spent on social media and increase your time spent talking to real strangers in the real world.
Write a fan letter to a public servant who is doing an amazing job.
Read the Who Is Government? Series curated by Michael Lewis.
Join Moms Demand Action and organize moms at your kids’ schools.
Join MomsRising and do the same.
Join Hand in Hand and advocate that paid caregivers get treated fairly.
Look unhoused people in the eye when they ask you for money and respond directly, even if you choose not to give money.
Organize your local PTA to give a percentage of the annual money raised to schools with less capacity.
Read about and practice “intellectual humility.”
Research your roots and try to repair, however clumsily. Start with this film.
Pay a voluntary land tax and organize neighbors and friends to do the same.
Stop or reduce your ordering from Amazon.
Stop or reduce eating meat.
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Okay, let’s see if this community can get us to 47 ideas in comments! Please add yours.
Whenever and wherever possible, walk or ride your bike. Let's take back the streets:-)
help to get progressive laws passed on a local level! I recently helped a group of 8 people do community outreach and attend town hall meetings, getting a tenants law passed in my small town. It has been incredibly rewarding to be involved in local politics!