Multiply your voice locally.

Too many of us feel helpless and hopeless in the face of the assaults on democracy. You can help others get past that feeling – and help yourself at the same time.

Here are some things you can try if you want to support a friend in taking action:

• Just check in and see how they're doing. Ask and listen, more than talk. Share what you're doing but don't judge; we're all dealing with a difficult time in different ways.
• If they take part in demonstrations, suggest a meeting time and place so you can go to the demonstrations together. Standing up with friends can be easier than standing up alone.
• If they send emails to legislators, suggest a time and place to meet for coffee/tea, bring computers or tablets, and send emails together.
• If they have voiced an interest in taking action but hesitate to jump in, suggest a way to take action together. It could make all the difference to them.
• If they are concerned but paralyzed, send them a link to this web site. Suggest they take a look at the pages on Why taking action matters or Looking more deeply.
• If they're drowning in depressing news, doomscrolling or just unsure who to believe, suggest they take a look at our News sources page.

If you have two friends who don't know each other, bring them together for a demonstration, or an email-writing session, or just for coffee or tea and companionship. That's how we build community, one person at a time.

And invite them to join this community by subscribing to our free newsletter, and by checking back on our home page frequently.