“Action Conquers Fear”
This is what a wise friend of mine told me yesterday when I said I was calling my Congressional representatives to register my opposition to the new administration's war on everything I hold dear.
I’ve found that doing this small action helps me feel less overwhelmed, less hopeless. It also helps not to forget to tale in the good news along with the awful.
It’s been heartening to see:
Trump voters showing up at town halls to let their Congressional reps know they’re not happy with the president’s failure to lower prices as he promised and how DOGE is decimating the federal agencies they rely on
Attorneys general across the country suing to stop the insanity and judges issuing rulings to do just that
Nonprofits working collectively to advocate on behalf of their constituents
Street protests calling on Musk and Trump to end their assault on democracy
Economic boycotts against companies aligning with the administration
The list of victories grows longer every day and is starting to show impact
Awhile back, I wrote about how critical it is to hold fast to our deepest values. In "Your Anchor in a Storm," I was talking about basing career decisions on what we care about most. The same is equally important in the current context. We must behave in ways consistent with our values -- even when our actions seem inconsequential.
Such beliefs as, “What can I do to make a dent in this situation? I’m just one person against all these powerful interests” can stop us from showing up for what we believe in. In my view, we cannot afford to succumb to cynicism and apathy now. The president and his cronies want us to all just shake our heads, give up and let it happen.
We need to stay strong, practice the best self-care we can, build our hope muscles, come together and remember: We are not alone! When we all show up for what we care about, change happens.
It Also Feels Good to Lift Our Voices & Own Our Power
My friend Amy Prosser shared the following inspiring story in one of her "Daily Prompts" emails that list little actions to take to live our values. I’m reprinting it here with her permission:
“On Sunday I stopped by my mom's to help her with a couple of tasks. She was feeling glum, helpless and hopeless about our current situation. Powerlessness is something I think we can all relate to right now. Add to that my 80-year old mom's inability to drive anymore, stand up for long hours at protests, her invisibility as an elder in this society, etc.
”I had an idea. I grabbed my cell phone and the scripts in Jessica Craven's Chop Wood, Carry Water and called our Senators and my Representative. I introduced us both and launched into a tirade about the dismantling of Social Security, then handed the phone to my mom. She spoke emotionally, eloquently and powerfully, completely impromptu, about what these cuts will mean to her and demanded that our Reps ‘STOP ELON MUSK!’
”The Congressional staffer paid close attention to what my mom said and wrote it all down. (It didn't hurt that my mom said she had a crush on this politician when she was younger, a fact the staffer said she would definitely pass on.)
”Within 15 minutes, my mom and I were both laughing, listening to the playback of our impassioned messages before sending them on and high-fiving each other. My mom went from despair to triumph in just a quarter of an hour. Afterward she said emphatically, ‘Let's do that again SOON!’”