Tag: involved

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A Quick Dose of Inspiration

The hits just keep on coming, don’t they? Most days I wake up and check my standard list of news organizations for the morning status report. Inevitably I get an overwhelming feeling of doom. BUT, I do my best to squish that feeling and decide which topic to focus on just for the day. Where are my efforts best applied?

The ongoing Muslim Ban, the reinstated global gag rule, the re-initiation of work on the Keystone pipeline, the continued fight to keep cartoon super villains out of the Cabinet, and now the nomination Neil Gorusch to be a Supreme Court Justice…it all makes my head spin. Thank goodness for the comedic stylings and wise words of Jon Stewart. Jon visited Stephen Colbert last night and did a dead-on impression of the 45th president reading a few of his upcoming executive orders. And there in the midst of the ridiculous costume, the jokes about narcissism, and off-script banter, came the words that settled me. Jon was speaking in the third person as DJT, so I cleaned up a few of the pronouns to make it easier to understand. Here is what he said:

It is going to take relentless stamina, vigilance, and every check and balance this great country can muster to keep DJT from going full Palpatine… We have never faced this before – purposeful, vindictive chaos. But perhaps therein lies the saving grace of [Trump’s] presidency. No one action will be adequate. All actions will be necessary. And if we do not allow DJT to exhaust our fight and somehow come through this presidency calamity-less and Constitutionally partially intact, then [Trump] will have demonstrated the greatness of America…just not the way [he] thought he was going to.

Yes, we have a really hard road ahead. Yes, it is going to be exhausting. But when you think about these words, and when you watch people from all walks of life coming together in protest, and when you see the support of organizations all across the country and around the globe…you can use that warm and fuzzy feeling as fuel to keep pushing forward. Keep resisting!!

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Well, THAT Just Happened! Now What?

How can you be an activist when you’re busy working and raising your kids and maintaining a freakin’ house?

That’s what I’ve been asking myself since November 8, 2016.  I had been floating along in my tiny bubble of liberal privilege, when BAM, I ran straight into a giant angry red cactus.  My first reaction was “Holy crap!  This is the end.  This will be the extinction level event that starts out as a slowly burning ember and ends with multiple nuclear missiles being fired at once.”  I’ll admit, I am prone to hyperbole…especially when my anxiety is being triggered…continuously…for tweets at a time.

Now, I’ve had 2 months to calm down.  I’ve spent 2 months paying closer attention to the news than I have in my entire life.  I’ve tried to educate myself on the backgrounds and ideals of the new players in this administration.  I’ve done my research on the social issues that I’ve always supported, but never gotten to know at a deep enough level.  And now, with my 2 additional months to digest and to learn, I’m thinking that I need to forget that whole “slowly burning ember” thing and jump straight into nuclear missiles are going to fall from the sky.

In all seriousness, this isn’t a matter to take lightly (although I will try and add some comic relief, because we will all go crazy without a little bit of levity).  There are deep, far reaching, long lasting consequences that will be felt by every American if we continue to sit back and let the incoming administration run roughshod over every human right we’ve fought for in the last century.

That is why I’ve found myself asking how I can release my inner activist when I spend my days in a cubicle and my evenings raising a family and running a household.  It is becoming increasingly clearer, with every new headline, that I would be doing my daughters a disservice if I didn’t figure that out.  And so, I will not use the I-simply-do-not-have-time defense and I will get out there and do something…anything…that I think might help in any small way.

This blog will be a small step in my plan.  I need an outlet for all of the disbelief, fear, anger, and sometimes hopelessness that I feel when I think about what could be.  And I know there are other women and men out there who feel just as helpless as I do.  They want to get involved, but think to themselves “What can I do?  This problem is too big.  I don’t have the resources to help bring about positive change”.  As individuals, it would seem overwhelming.  But as a COMMUNITY working together, we have all of the resources we need.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.  –Margaret Mead

To begin my journey as an activist, I’ll be marching with my sister at the Women’s March on Washington this weekend.  Our plan is to talk to as many people and get as many stories and perspectives as we can.  Next week, I will share with you what we learn and begin to make a real plan for juggling everyday life and SMASHING THE PATRIARCHY.  Um….I mean, coming together as a community to effect positive change in such a dire political climate.  Join me, won’t you?