What can we do about it? Hands off!

[thollandpe]

Two things I fear most are apathy and cynicism. For me, the antidote is action. It doesn't have to be a big action, some imagined knockout blow, but just any action. A move in the right direction.

Clumsy sports metaphor: in all the bike races where I did well, it was never some soul-crushing attack on the Cipressa or warp-speed descent of the Poggio. It was a series of small moves, being in the right place or making it the right place, and simply not giving up. And gradually that finish line came into focus and it was going to be my front wheel over it first.

Twenty years ago I took a job at a college consortium to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by designing and implementing infrastructure and building projects that paid for themselves. One of my frustrations was that even though they had money, there was little appetite to push the status quo and/or to fix things that weren't broken. But there was keen interest among faculty, staff, and especially students to fight climate change. So as a staff member, I joined groups with faculty and students, who had far more organizational clout than I did, to generate interest and action.

A colleague and I saw an event at Middlebury College, organized by Bill McKibben and Eban Goodstein, on how to organize around climate action. So one Saturday morning before daybreak, we crammed a station wagon and a minivan full of college students and headed for Vermont. As a friend says, all good adventures begin and end in the dark.

It was an amazing day, and it did not take long for those students to get their two colleges to sign the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (there are hundreds of signatories now). And several of those students now have successful careers in environmental science, sustainability, and/or activism.

One of Bill McKibben's latest efforts is Th!rd Act, and again I am looking for ways to do things that matter. One is Hands Off (!) a National Day of Action on April 5.

Please follow the link and find an event. I'm guessing that many of you are like me, either nearing or at the place where we get to start drawing out money we've paid into Social Security since we were kids. And maybe depend on Medicare or Medicaid or have friends and family who do (my Dad has Alzheimer's and is in a nursing home). Maybe bring a friend. Even ride your bikes. Show up.

I'd love to hear your story. Tell me if you're going. Introduce your friend. Post a picture or two.

https://handsoff2025.com/?SQF_SOURCE=thirdact

[thollandpe]

2. Defend institutions. Choose an institution you care about and take its side.

8. Stand out. (a.k.a. Take a pull.) Someone has to.

13. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.

Whaddya think?

[sk_tle]

TBH as a french I don't understand why half of your country is not on strike and already in the streets manifesting every week since january.

[Too Tall]

Bless the French and their generational embrace of protest. Fr. knows how to creatively and with humor protest, it is a right of passage I think.

America has lost the creativity and humor associated with peaceful protest. There are STRONG signs we will catch up to France and I thank Toddski for his unfailing attention to these matters.

April 5. I can do that.

[holliscx]

Living in Spain they will protest anything and everything. There are so many manifestations beyond the saturation point that the action loses any power in my opinion.

[thollandpe]

This is a test. Not like a test as not the real thing like a fire drill or a math test, but the real thing itself: a test as in all of us are being tested, as in "these are times that try men's souls" and everyone's principles. Who will stand up to the coup/constitutional crisis? Who has already surrendered? The coup is unfolding as an attack on the institutions and relationships and even facts that stabilize and sometimes protect and aid this nation and the world and people across the world, as a vicious attack on nature itself, and as an attack on the rights of individuals and the rule of law. It's a horrific nightmare of an era, and each of us had a choice in how to respond to it.

People Have the Power: Week Whatever of the Stupid Coup and the Pushback | Meditations In An Emergency

We are Spartacus.

[Tom]

After we collect the bags on our street for this iteration of the food drive benefiting the city's food bank we're going to go stand with the Schenectady group.

One cool thing happened today, I look for hope wherever it shows itself. Karen was at the grocery checking out and filling a couple of bags for the drive when the lady behind her insisted on paying for them. She happens to live in the neighborhood, we don't know her well but we pet her dog when she walks by. Karen's heading back tomorrow to fill a couple more bags.

[Saab2000]

Never miss an election. Yesterday we had local elections in Illinois. I used to not care about these but now I care deeply and never miss a chance to vote. I think turnout was lower than 25% locally so each vote matters even more. And these local officials will be running for congress as they progress in their careers. So it's important to get the good ones while you can. Vote always.