The kids are back in school, summer is winding down, and hopefully we all took a beat in the summer to catch our collective breaths and get ready to roll up our sleeves—because we have work to do. Note, I said WE have work to do, because whatever happens next here in the United States, whether it is our survival or demise, it will be a group project.
I have to be honest: I am a little worried because what I am seeing and experiencing and hearing from others is that a lot of well-meaning and caring people—the majority of whom are white and who do care about the future of the country—are becoming so overwhelmed that they are pulling back.
In the past couple of months, I have seen a steady stream of people unsubscribing from my Substack and Patreon and while for some it is a financial decision, for most it is the feeling that their inboxes are flooded and they are overwhelmed by bad news. While I personally and financially hate to see it, the greater issue to me is that people are pulling back from showing up.
That is what I am hearing directly from organizers, activists, and others in movement spaces in both Maine and Massachusetts—and we are alarmed.
People will show up for large actions or protests, as we saw this summer in Maine in the aftermath of the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford. They may even show up for weekly protests on corners and bridges across the country. But they aren’t showing up for the deeper relational building that is vital to actually creating change. Instead, it is the same handful of people in communities who are already stretched thin and trying to create the foundational work that can make a difference. It is the same people who are supporting mutual aid campaigns and working to build relationships with BIPOC and immigrant communities.
But the same group of people and the same number of folks showing up without more folks joining in (and worse yet, people dropping back and doing less) is not going to save us—or even cushion us much if things go completely to hell in this country.
Here’s the thing: There is plenty of work for everyone to do something, at a level that meets their individual situations and conditions.
As we head into the midterms, whether we believe voting alone will change the tide or not, we all can be a part of making a difference. Yes, people need to vote. But have you thought about what you can do in your community to ensure that voting happens? The administration is working overtime to make sure our votes either don’t happen or don’t count and we cannot naively think that our work stops at just voting; there is work to do beforehand.
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson (activist, organizer, and first Black co-director of the Highlander Research & Education Center) recently published a brilliant piece on Medium titled “What to do during a Coup.”It is a must-read. Read it, save it, and share it. While much of Ash-Lee’s work has been based in the South and may not feel applicable to my Maine and New England folks, I think it is a piece to make us think wider than our current reality. We need to think expansively and see what inspires us in our local communities.
Are we orgaizing and making sure that people can get to the voting polls? Can we help people go vote early? Do people in our communities need rides or childcare in order to vote?
Here in Maine, Republican candidate for governor Bobby Charles told a group that he was going to ask his friend, Tom Homan—the same mumble-mouth oaf who happens to be the federal administration’s border czar—if he can send some federal agents to Maine to watch the polls. Yes, it is illegal and unlikely, but have we learned nothing in almost two years with this administration? Especially since while writing this piece, I checked my phone and saw a piece in The New York Times that FBI Director Kash Patel suggested he is open to sending federal agents to polling places. Prepare for the unlikely and illegal because laws are simply suggestions to them.
So, if you are in a community that has even a chance of federal agents showing up, what are you planning to do to ensure that there is no voter intimidation? If naturalized citizens want to vote, how can you support them? Who in your community can support them?
Speaking of voting, my friends, a lot of Trump supporters are starting to realize they have been bamboozled and as tempting as it is to taunt them for their past (and any remaining current) ignorance, it is actually time to build bridges with these people.
I didn’t say you need to make ‘em your besties.
But remember, our collective survival is going to be a group project and, well, in this case we need as many folks in the group as possible. This task is for my white folks here; if you cross paths with or have Trump supporters in your life, check in with them. How are they feeling about the ways things are going? If they are disgruntled and feeling that Trump has let them down, now is the time to suggest they vote blue (or at the very least don’t vote at all to support the current regime and its enablers).
Look, these people are probably never going to be social or racial justice types, but we need to get as many people voting blue as possible. Seek common ground, right now. Some of that common ground is sky-high gas and grocery prices and for those of us in parts of the country that heat our homes with oil, that is also common ground. Today’s oil prices in Maine are running between $5.370 and $5.799 a gallon. Minimum delivery typically runs 100 gallons and 100 gallons of oil doesn’t go far in these old drafty homes up here. Oh, and fuel assistance is down thanks to this administration and the Big Ugly Bill. Bond with them over shared pain and push them to make a change. Especially since with the ongoing war with Iran and the situation in Saudi Arabia, no one is predicting a drop in fuel prices—just more increases.
Which brings me to another point: We can’t afford to see our activism as something separate from our “regular” lives. It must be a part of our lives. We all deserve downtime and as someone who recently took a month off work because I was burning out, I understand the desire to step back. That said, we can’t afford to disconnect and unplug completely (or even for very long) just because we are overwhelmed. If too many folks do that—and that is what we are seeing happen right now—how exactly are things going to change? Or more importantly, how does that stop further escalation? I am sorry to say that it doesn’t. It just leaves fewer people in the trenches as we are seeing here in Maine. As I have shared before, immigrants are being detained in ever-greater numbers but now that the mainstream media has moved on and the large-scale protests have ended, it has simply meant fewer people to do much needed work—and increased vulnerability for already-vulnerable populations.
Yesterday, I sat in on a meeting with a number of groups in Maine that are working in immigrant defense and security, and it is almost criminal how little of what is happening now is being covered online or on-air or in newspapers and magazines. I shared recently how organizers of Project Relief, a community mutual aid group that is run by young volunteer immigrants of color, is running on fumes due to the level of unprecedented need and insufficient support.
Listen, money is tight for a lot of people but as a Black woman who grew up in a Black community, I come from a tradition that we show up regardless. We might be passing that same $20 around but if we have it today and we know we aren’t going to lose our roof and have food on the table, that communal sense of community is that we support one another. The uncomfortable truth is that the majority of white-bodied people in this country still have more economic privilege than most BIPOC people. Even in hard times, that uncomfortable truth is reality.
Also, mustering up financial resources can be a group project as I shared in a recent post about the ice cream sandwich makers on the little island where I live. A recent story about a group of inmates at the Norton Correctional Facility in Kansas went viral after 30 inmates raised over $4,000 to cover student lunch debt at the local school district. Inmates whose work doesn’t exactly make good money—a quick Google search says prison pay rates can range from pennies to a few bucks per hour—showed up. Do you know how much intentionality those 30 men had to raise over $4,000? Never mind the fact that in choosing to donate to cover student lunch debt these men chose to forego some of the creature comforts that could make their existence a little more tolerable, like treats from the commissary.
When we see ourselves as part of the same community and allies in a common struggle, giving when things aren’t abundant becomes less foreign to us. Many of the men who participated in supporting the community school said they were motivated to do so because of their own struggles with food and economic insecurity.
Often when I suggest actions that people can take, people will mention they are calling and writing their elected officials. Look, I am not going to tell you not to do that, but as a Maine voter represented by Sen. Susan Collins, let’s be real. Those calls and emails are going nowhere and we know that, so we need to do everything we can to get her out of office. Just today, Collins was the tie-breaking vote to advance the nomination of Judge Matthew R. Byrne, a member of the Federalist Society with a concerning record when it comes to women’s reproductive health. At the same time, Collins is running commercials suggesting she is pro-choice. Yeah, right.
What would be better than calling her (and her staff has a habit of ignoring calls and she has a habit of ignoring constituents) is working on the campaigns of candidates we do want in office. In Maine at the Senate level, that’s Troy Jackson. Especially since there are former Graham Platner supporters who feel unsure about Jackson, we cannot assume people understand the assignment. So, we need to be having the conversations. Not everyone understands that in the general election, the goal is harm reduction. We are not voting for a partner or bestie. We do not have to like these people; we just have to know that they share enough of our values that if they win, they will hopefully work to make our lives a bit less stressful. Troy Jackson absolutely fits the criteria and comes with a track record from his time in Maine politics.
We also have to brace ourselves for the fact that the GOP is willing to do anything and everything to retain their position and legalities be damned, which is why a massive blue wave that can’t be denied is our best effort. By the way, I know many people like to mail in their ballots. Personally, I am a vote-in-person gal. Though I live on a small island, so in-person voting isn’t really an ordeal for me. I won’t tell you not to vote by mail, but with the lengths this administration is going to suppress votes, this really is a vote-the-day-of at the polls or vote in person when early voting begins in your area kind of year.
Lastly, the “overwhelm” that many are feeling is real and it is intentional. Early on, Trump sycophant and hype man Steve Bannon told us that the goal was to flood the zone and I daresay that they are succeeding at it. We were told that they were hoping to keep us so overwhelmed that we would give up, and every time we decide it is too much we become complicit in furthering their agenda.
That said, we do not have to doomscroll for hours on end every day; in fact, I highly suggest that you don’t do that. Personally, on days when I am not working or writing, I limit my intake of the world and news. On those days, I want just enough news to know that missiles aren’t headed our way and that I can unplug or go light. Most days, I still refrain from gorging on misery, but I do want to hit the feeds long enough to know what the hot issues are and what schemes the regime is up to.
As for subscriptions, the nature of my work as a writer requires many paid subscriptions for sources as well as writers I learn from, but I don’t read them every day. My primary inbox is currently sitting at 114,067 unread e-mails and that’s okay with me. I scan every morning and deal with what needs to be addressed and leave the rest. I also have an inbox for my day job as well as two inboxes for BGIM Media and related work. I have learned to accept that emails exist and, well, emails live there. It is not unusual for me to catch up on readings later when I have capacity. I have also learned that deleting without looking is also not a good thing, so I have had to unlearn my tensions around a full inbox. At the start of my August break, I planned to clear out my inboxes but after clearing out around 12,000 emails, I realized that wasn’t how I wanted to use my time and that resting was a better option.
Seriously, though, it is imperative that to survive this moment that we create downtime in whatever form provides us with nourishment and rejuvenation. Personally, I like reading anything not related to my work. I gave my permission to read for fun during my month off and I finished six physical books and started a few others. I watched things to make me laugh, I made nourishing meals, and I indulged in almost daily naps. Coming back into my work life in September, I have committed to making most Sundays my day to be mostly unplugged and to be present and seek community.
To look away and disconnect in this moment is a privilege that many don’t have and if you do have that privilege, how-ever do you expect a less privileged person to trust you at this moment? How can a less privileged and maybe even targeted person feel comfortable enough to be real with you? I recently wrote that we all should bear witness in this moment and I received a little pushback about the harm of constant content consumption to mental health.
If you see the act of staying generally abreast of what is happening as mere “content consumption,” you need to be real and ask if you are ready for deeper resistance work. Families are being ripped apart and harm is happening daily because of this administration.
These are real people’s lives, more harm is coming, and if we see this information as mere content, we need to check ourselves because our true values may not be the ones that we say they are.
The bottom line is this: It’s action time, and we need all hands on deck. Are you in or are you out—and do you have a plan for what you will be doing?
PS: As an independent writer, as much as l love your comments and sharing, your financial support is what keeps my writing viable. Become a Substack subscriber today, or if you are interested in my more deeper and personal writing with an anti racism lens, become a Patreon patron. Or if you just want to show your gratitude for this piece, consider Buying Me a Coffee.
Image by Nico Smit, obtained via Unsplash
