The Last Word On Nothing

I have a friend who is worried about our country. Haw haw. Who am I kidding? All my friends are worried about our country, every single one of them, even the Republicans I know. We are living through an incredibly bonkers and troubling moment: climate change is starting to actively bite us in the ass here in the United States, via intense hurricanes and wildfires; overt racism and fascism have come out of hiding to parade in the streets; children are being locked up in cages; and the rich keep getting richer while everyone else gets poorer—just to get the list started. My friend wants to do something about all this. 

Now, many of our problems aren’t new at all. Heck, our country was pretty much founded on racism, institutionalized genocide of native people, and the oppression and exploitation of women and the poor. The Capitol building was built by slaves. The man on our 20 dollar bill spent his time in office “removing” the indigenous inhabitants of this country westward in lethal marches. Being gay was illegal in some parts of the country until 2003. Women didn’t get the right to vote until 1920 and enrolled Native Americans couldn’t vote until 1924. And poll taxes, onerous identity requirements, and other tactics have been employed for 150 years to keep black people from voting. Anyone who shakes their head at the current state of affairs and says “this is not who we are” needs to read a few history books.

But the fact that the United States has always been shitty doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to make it better. For a lot of comfortable middle class white people, Trump’s 2016 election was a jarring wake-up call that the country wasn’t going to slowly but surely turn into a progressive paradise without us having to lift a finger. The arc of the moral universe might bend towards justice—as Martin Luther King Jr. famously quoted—but “The moral arc of the universe will bend toward justice only if we bend it,” as activist DeRay Mckesson says.

I am a reporter and a writer. Many who do similar work think they should stay out of politics so that their reporting work will not be tainted by bias. I respect that position and I am glad those people are out there laying out the facts.

I take a different approach: I believe my readers will be best served if they know my biases and if I am transparent about my political thoughts. Much of my writing is on the opinion side of journalism anyway—I write essays and op-eds and features in which I sometimes talk about what I think. I am not a beat reporter covering City Hall or national politics. So I am happy to disclose that I vote liberal, that I think climate change is real and a huge problem, that I think the income inequality in our country is a moral failing, and that I think white supremacy is evil and must be utterly annihilated. So there you are: cards on the table.

In particular, I am volunteering on two 2018 campaigns: for Taylor Tupper, who is the first Native woman to run for Oregon State House District 56, and for Jamie McCleod Skinner, who is running for Congress in the vast eastern Oregon district where I live against Trump toady Greg Walden. I do this for the same reason I give money to UNICEF each month and for the same reason I don’t punch small children or puppies. I think it is my moral obligation. Doing nothing in the face of all the cruelty and injustice in the world is just not acceptable to me. I protest too, but I feel protesting the bad guys and bad policies is only half the work. Getting better people (even imperfect but better people) in government is the other half. Should I have been doing more before the Trump election? Yes, I should have been. I have protested and volunteered for other campaigns over the years, but I’ve significantly upped my time and energy investment.

So back to my friend. She is, like so many, worried about our country and ready to do some arc bending. But, unlike me, she has never lived in Washington D.C., doesn’t follow political news obsessively, and has absolutely no experience volunteering for a campaign. She doesn’t want to talk directly to voters. But she feels that it is her moral obligation to do something. So she paints faces.

When the Klamath County Democrats have a booth at the county fair, she paints kids’ faces. When we have a fun run for Taylor Tupper, she paints kids’ faces. She’s really good at it, and it engages people. Parents can stop and talk with the political wonks at the booth while their kids are getting butterflies and pirate patches. My friend has found a way to use her skills and her passion to help fight for equity, justice, and the environment.

There are innumerable ways to help. The secret is to match your strengths with a need and go for it. There are only 47 days left until the midterm elections. What can you do?

If you like to write, you can write an letter to the editor in your local paper explaining why you support a candidate. If you have a front yard, you can arrange to have signs displayed. If you like to talk to people you can phone bank or knock on doors. If you like to cook, you can volunteer to feed people who are phone banking or knocking on doors. If you like kids, you can offer to watch your friends’ kids who want to volunteer. This is an extremely helpful way to enable those who are plugged into a campaign to get out there and do good work. If you are rich, you can donate money. If you have a car, you can drive people to the polls.

If you don’t feel like you have any time to give, give money. Or cut yourself a break in other areas. Feed the kids frozen pizza one night so you can phone bank instead of cook. I know a lot of people who turned inward after the 2016 election, controlling what they could control, making their own household a kind, environmentally friendly place. I absolutely understand that impulse. But–speaking to my fellow yoga moms here–we cannot completely turn inward. There are so many people out there who cannot fight for themselves. If you can, try to turn outward just a bit during this crucial time. It is okay to skip cleaning the bathroom or making a healthy dinner from scratch or yoga or soccer practice just once or twice for the greater good.

Call or email the campaign office of a local candidate you care about and tell them what you are good at. They’ll figure out how to use your talents. Or contact your most politically engaged friend and ask them if they need a babysitter or dog walker or a dinner cooked so they can get out there and do their thing. That totally counts.

Finally, there is one non-negotiable thing. You must vote if you are eligible. Check your eligibility  and registration ahead of time. Make a plan to get to the polls or mail in your ballot. I’m sorry but if you don’t bother to vote, you aren’t allowed to complain. That’s the rule.

Many people woke up the day after the 2016 election feeling miserable, confused, angry, and not a little hung over. I was one of them. Many of us promised ourselves that day we would fight back. Now is the time to fight. And yes, turning a kindergartner into a sparkly Kitty Cat at the candidate booth at the farmer’s market counts as fighting. Find your role and fight.

Images from the JustSeeds downloadable graphics resource. 

“Arise together” by Dave Loewenstein.

“We want to destroy white power” by Roger Peet.

“Don’t Mourn, Organize” byJanina Larenas. Part of the collection of images created by Print.Organize.Protest.