Hope is what we become.
{ a few thoughts on courage & resistance }
My greatest fear for a second Trump presidency is that it becomes a catalyst for collective panic, despair, and apathy rather than a galvanizing force for resistance and community care.
Among my friends and close family, visceral responses swirl like a shaken-up snow globe after Tuesday’s news: shock, rage, withdrawal, numbness, grief, disappointment, helplessness, tears, determination, regret, disbelief, fear… how many of these and other exhausting emotions have we experienced in succession, or perhaps simultaneously, over the last 48 hours?
By all means, dear ones, be gentle with yourself in these trying days. Take time to name, honor, and feel your feelings. Process your rage, cry your tears, withdraw to your bathtub if that’s what you need. Rest if you’re weary. Care for your soul. Retain your humanity.
But do not – I repeat, DO NOT – get stuck in the apathetic muck.
(Dear reader: if you’re not yet in a headspace to consider practical steps toward hope, please bookmark this post and come back to it next week. It will still be here. Take care of you first.)
The best antidote I know for hopelessness, paralysis, and despair is not rotting in bed or rage-posting on social media or consuming endless quantities of other people’s opinions or pretending it’s business as usual… although these can be extremely useful and important coping mechanisms for a short period of time.
I am firmly convinced that the best way to cultivate hope is to DO SOMETHING — even if you don’t FEEL particularly hopeful at the time.
Hope, in other words, is an outcome, not an input.
My personal formula for hope goes like this:
local justice work
+ other invested people
+ issue(s) close to my heart
+ community need
= DEFIANT HOPE
Admittedly, I am a fortunate woman. I get to spend every day alongside the “helpers” Mr. Rogers told us about. I am surrounded by tenacious and courageous people who are doing the admirable work of making my community more equitable, more livable, and more just for everyone. And I realized yesterday that one of the reasons I feel grounded & resolute in the aftermath of Election Day 2024 is my proximity to the helpers. They have become the hope I need.
They are not giving up.
They are not going away.
They are not quieting down.
Neither will I.
Will you join us?
Perhaps not today… perhaps not tomorrow… but will you commit to choose action over apathy once your snow globe has settled?
Maybe you’ve been sitting on the proverbial sidelines for months or even years, watching the news or doomscrolling social media with a knot of anxiety in your stomach, wondering if there’s any point in setting foot in the shitstorm. Maybe you’ve struggled to decide which among the many critical challenges facing your town, your county, your state, or your family is actually worth your time. Maybe you’re worried that you don’t know what you’re doing and you might mess up (welcome to the club). Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed and you can’t imagine adding another thing to your plate. For the sake of your sanity, can you afford not to?
What if you tried just one small, courageous act?
What if that courage gave birth to hope, strength, and resolve?
On behalf of the helpers, the organizers, the movement architects and the visionaries – we are going to need your courage in the months and years ahead. We are going to need you to show up and say, over and over again, in as many ways as you can, in as many places as you can — with your voice, your vote, your money, your time, your heart, your guts, your skills, your particular passion — that *Trump’s America is not an America we will tolerate.*
It will be up to you, and up to me, to hold the line for ourselves, our loved ones, our kids and our neighbors who WILL be affected by bad policy and brutal autocratic priorities. There is work to be done, and WE CAN DO IT, friends.**
The key is to find your people (if you haven’t already) and start practicing your courage together. It’s okay to learn as you go.
This is how we galvanize a movement.
This is how we become the hope we are searching for.
Not sure where to begin? That’s ok.
Start by listening carefully to the people closest to you. Chances are, they already have ideas on simmer.
Here is a VERY incomplete, off-the-cuff list of suggestions, just to get you thinking:
Are you horrified by the miseducation of America? Go to your next local school board meeting and listen closely. Who is speaking, and who is silent or absent? Ask to see the budget. Are there parents advocating for a comprehensive US history curriculum that tells the truth about our rotten national roots? If so, join them. Oh, no one is doing that? Start talking about it, and other like-minded parents and students will find you.
Worried about access to reproductive health care? Listen intently to the women in your life about their fears & concerns. Walk into or call your nearest Planned Parenthood and ask what they need. No PP close by? Research the laws in your state that govern abortion access: how far would a woman in your family or in your community have to travel for a lifesaving D&C? Pool resources and start a local reproductive health fund to help women cover those costs. Find lawmakers and allies who want to enshrine reproductive rights in state law, and help them do it. Your people will find you.
Concerned about the folks you love whose lives would be devastated by cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and/or SNAP? Ask them what they’re most worried about. Listen with compassion. Catalogue what you learn. Encourage them to share their story with their elected officials and help them prepare a script or an email — or ask permission to share on their behalf. Join a local mutual aid network. If your community doesn’t have a mutual aid network, start talking with your neighbors about starting one (and call me first). Connect with your local AARP. Collect funds to support vulnerable elders. Schedule meetings with the leaders of social service providers in or near your community that are doing work you admire, and ask them where the gaps are. Your people will find you.
Questioning the future of democracy and free speech? Call or walk into the political party offices closest to you and ask who is running in the midterm elections in 2026. Research each candidate’s platform — meet them in person if you can — and check their values against yours. Find good folks and work like hell to them elected — then hold them accountable. Feeling extra feisty? Run for local office. Your people will find you.
Still not sure? I told you this wasn’t an exhaustive list! Create music. Make art. Write an op-ed for your local news outlet. Talk to your local public librarian(s) about book bans. Cook delicious food for queer high school kids and let them be loud in your living room until 2 am. Research the state of childcare in your town. Investigate that thing that’s been bothering you for years. Call up that organizer you know and say, I JUST WANT TO HELP.
You don’t have to be an expert. You only have to begin – with that first courageous act.
Welcome to the resistance, my friends. Hope is what we become.
+ + +
**This work is not just for the rabble-rousers, prophets, and activists. We need sages and mystics, artists and healers, teachers and worker bees, elders and social mavens and innovators and creatives. The movement ecosystem is vast, and everyone has an integral part to play… that includes YOU, beloved.
Who has become hope for you in this season? What stirs in you when you think about becoming hope for someone else?
Thanks for writing a thoughtful way to think through what the next four years might need to be in order to lighten the heart from anxiety and try to remain hopeful and not despair.