Act Now. It Matters.
Harry Rhodes asked a good question about what we can do to stop the slide into a police state. If an election, the traditional remedy in democracy, is no longer likely to resolve the challenge, then your essential question remains. While there is no single answer, some thoughts below.
First, we must be sure we diagnose the problem accurately. Just as Tylenol is not an appropriate response to a cancer diagnosis, neither is hoping that the 2026 election will stop the dismantling of democracy in America.
At an individual level, we each must adopt or revive a mindset of empowerment. We must push back against the propaganda that would have us see ourselves as powerless. In our own heads and hearts, we must believe that we have efficacy. Because we do.
With the privilege many of us enjoy comes power. Many of us are educated, articulate, and connected in myriad ways to tens, hundreds, or thousands of people. Whether through an alumni group or our Facebook followers, whether at a work meeting or a cocktail party, we cannot be mute. Words matter. We must speak the truth as we understand it. There is vast space between silence and argument.
Silence begets silence. Sharing creates relationships.
At the level of community, we must remind ourselves of the groups of which we are already members. That goes well beyond geographic communities, property associations, and so forth. But it does also include the police precincts within which we live. Go visit the local police station, empathize with the challenges they face. Make clear that we support local policing, not federal power grabs. Lots of police stations have community relations officers.
Most of us work, have professional affiliations, and are maybe part of a society or an association. Go to a meeting. Express your thoughts and feelings about how what is happening politically is going to affect work, life, and culture. Wear a t-shirt, hold a sign, get a bumper sticker.
Of course, none of those individual actions will matter; that’s true. But collectively, citizens showing other citizens that they have each other’s backs is incredibly important. It is the power of citizens groups that change the world. In Boston, “we the people” had a Tea Party. In Selma, “we the people” marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
And still, that is not enough, I know. Times are different; the media ecosystem is not what it was. Will the second ‘No Kings’ march planned for October 18 fix the problem? Of course not. But facing united state and city leadership, strong legal push back, and citizens preparing to unwelcome federal agents, Trump did back off sending troops into Chicago. At least for now.
While many of us may be largely insulated from the day-to-day horror of ICE snatching people off the street, make no mistake that our world is changing minute by minute. The culture, the arts, the public spaces we take as a given, like the national parks; how we teach, where we travel, the stories we tell our children; our mental health and sense of security are all in flux.
And this is only the beginning. Decisions in years past about whether to get a flu shot are going to look namby-pamby as we witness the disintegration of the entire scientific basis for public health. The violence done to language, the hateful speech that echoes across society, the intentional lying, extortion, and gaslighting surely affects us all.
So, there is not one thing to do, but if every one of us did one thing, it would make a difference. Would it ‘fix’ the problem? No, but it could mitigate some of the damage.
If you’re an accountant, volunteer to help a local nonprofit work its way through the collapse of traditional funding sources.
If you’re a zoologist, host a monthly potluck to share what you know about how other species manage isolation, and what we know about the importance of communications.
If you’re an arborist, make sure you read the most recent scientific literature on communications between trees and share it across your company or with your clients.
You get the point.
What’s your profession or passion or special skill?
