What do you do when “what to do” isn’t clear?

Sometimes, what we can do is clear. Join millions in a nationwide demonstration. Call your Senator to oppose a horrendous bill.

Now isn’t one of those times. The news is worse daily and even hourly, and there is no clear next step for those defending our damaged democracy. We’re all stuck. We’re waiting for what to do next.

We don’t have any secret knowledge of what else is being planned, but we do know things we can all do in the meantime. These aren’t things that will move the needle, but they might move us. They can keep building toward more progress and keep us sane in the process.

Here are five things you can do right now:

1. Participate locally. Lots of groups are taking action locally or scattered around the country. Some groups are staging Good Trouble Lives On events on July 17 around the country. Others have regular schedules of meetings or vigils. (You can find some links to national and local organizations here.)

2. Prepare to act. Some groups are offering training on political action, or on specific issues like immigrant rights. Others are sharing smart phone tools for specific purposes, like reaching out to elected officials when there are crucial votes or alerting your neighbors to ICE activity. Prepare now so that you can act promptly when the time is right.

3. Clean up your news feed. There is more bad and/or depressing information than ever out there. Take a few minutes to review what you read and hear. Delete (or turn off) sources that shout without informing, that preach without teaching. Focus on the critical few that really help you understand what’s going on and what’s important. We have some suggestions on our Stay Informed page. 

4. Reach out. Every one of us knows people who are feeling helpless and hopeless. Depression is real and serious. So is isolation. Think about everyone you know, pick out two people who are feeling that way, and just reach out to them. Reach out the way they’ll respond. Some will respond to texts, others to phone calls, others to emails or check-ins on social media. Some might even like that strange archaic knock on the door. Let them know they’re not crazy and they’re not alone. If you think this newsletter and web site help, share it with them. (Being specific helps: if they’re feeling they have no voice, share the Use your voice page; if they’re feeling overwhelmed, share the Coping with the stress page.) We’re not a huge group; we have a little over 50 subscribers to this newsletter so far. But if each of us reached out to two people, that’s a hundred isolated, depressed people feeling some human contact.

5. Take care of yourself. These are really hard times. It’s not just our democracy that’s under assault; as part of that, our sense of reality and sanity is challenged daily and sometimes hourly. Actions and events that would have ruined your whole year in the past take place several times a day, now. Each of us has to find our own way to keep it together. We have a lot of ideas on our Coping with the stress page. Please take a few minutes and check out that page. Pick out a few things that work for you. Take care of yourself.

Let us know what you do and what else you find that you can do in the meantime. (Email us any time with your suggestions for actions and resources, your questions or just to share where you are and how you’re coping.) When the next big action is clear, we’ll share it with you. In the meantime, practice what we all learned during Covid when there were so many limitations: focus on what you can do, not on what you can’t.