Take Action
The multiple converging emergencies that threaten to overwhelm our world are not your fault or mine. But if we don’t take responsibility, who will?
Thankfully, more and more people around the world are waking from the trance of “business as usual” and finding ways to speak out and work for change. It turns out that regardless of success or failure, working together in a worthy cause is inspiring, invigorating, and deeply fulfilling. And there are literally millions of ways to plug in, from small groups to large organizations.
In this space I will offer a sampling of options for contributing your time and energy where it is needed most – or at least dipping your toe into the current of change. I concentrate my own efforts on three particular areas (listed below), but I contribute to many others by signing a petition, showing up at a rally, making a donation . . .
Every issue is vitally important, and for each, one or more citizen groups has formed to work for fairness and sanity. Pick the one that calls to you and give what you can. Time, money, energy, creativity – it all counts.
To learn more, read my essay “The Community of Hope” here.
To plunge right in without further ado, check out the suggestions on the right-hand side of this page. Below you’ll find links to my own particular issues of priority concern.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
THE PRESIDENT IS NOT A KING. George Washington declined the invitation to be a king, setting the precedent of an elected leader who is subject to the law like other citizens. Donald Trump has promised to be a dictator, and the Supreme Court has broken 250 years of precedent to give him the powers that Washington declined. But before he takes office, Congress has the opportunity to overrule the Justices by passing the No Kings Act, stripping the presidency of immunity from prosecution for breaking the law. Read and sign a petition from Daily Kos here demanding that your representatives in the Senate and the House vote to pass this bill mandating that the U.S.A. remains a democracy.
NO AD REVENUE FOR ANTI-SEMITIC X. When the media watchdog group Media Matters published screenshots of ads from major corporations appearing next to neo-Nazi hate speech on Twitter (now re-branded X), companies like Apple, Disney, IBM, NBC-Universal, Paramount, Fox Sports, Warner Brothers, and The Discovery Channel immediately pulled their advertising. Elon “Free Speech Absolutist” Musk responded by suing Media Matters – and then re-posted anti-semitic tweets with his enthusiastic endorsement. Read and sign a petition here from Inequality Media Civic Action demanding that other high-profile advertisers stop supporting X, starting with Walmart, the National Football League, and the Washington Post.
(And remember, signing petitions is not enough!)
Photo: Jason Leung from Unsplash.
Photo: Lorraine Fontana
Take Action and Learn More
Our political, social, and environmental concerns are all connected at the root. I have concentrated my own efforts on the three areas listed below, Every issue is vitally important, and for each, one or more citizen groups has formed to work for fairness and sanity. Pick the one that calls to you and give what you can. Time, money, energy, creativity – it all counts.
Stephen Wing
Poet, activist and author Stephen Wing lives in Atlanta with his wife Dawn Aura and assorted pets. Read more about him here.