There are many ways to give to the movement. Find the ways you, personally, can make the most difference.
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The country is holding its breath, waiting to see if the Trump administration’s defiance of court orders and other gambits that run counter to constitutional guidelines will hold. Will immigrants continue to be deported to other countries without benefit of due process and against direct court orders? We’ll see. Meanwhile, here’s a new list of small things you can do to make a statement against the anti-democratic actions of Trump and his cronies.
1) Buy your goods anywhere other than Target, Walmart, or Amazon.
After pledging not to spend anything at these large anti-DEI retailers, I got a personal lesson in how hard that is in reality. Here’s what happened: My child lost her lunch box. For a week we made do with a plastic grocery bag, but that wasn’t a long-term solution. Normally, I would hop on Amazon, click on my previous orders, and get a replacement in two days for $14. Instead, I decided to try a brick-and-mortar store, despite knowing that lunch boxes aren’t really in stock in March. My best bet to find one would most likely have been Target or Walmart. But I held firm.
So I tried Publix and Walgreens; no dice. Then I got creative. On my lunch break, there I was, striding in my work heels across an old mall that is now half hospital, praying that one of the old department stores still in business there — with their escalators and in-store makeup counters and circular racks of clothing and very few shoppers in sight — would have an errant lunch box leftover from the start of school.
I tried JCPenney, Dillard’s, Hot Topic, Box Lunch (you would think a shoo-in, but no), Spencer’s… nothing. Finally, I told a nice lady at Belk about my quest. She told me the same thing the other stores had: Lunch boxes only came in during the fall. Desperate, I asked if they might have anything that would work? And she took pity on me. She went into a secret backroom and came back with the one lunch box they had left.
Yes, principled boycotting can be very inconvenient, but it’s in the sacrifice that you truly feel you’re making a statement. Plus I had a nice adventure, kind of.
2) Use your skills to connect people in disparate areas.
As a journalist, I know how to massage the media landscape. When the goal is media coverage, I know whom to talk to when you need a reporter or an editor, and which section of the publication or platform you need to appeal to. I know how to find the relevant contact information, and how to write and format an attention-grabbing email. I know whom you should call, and whom you should text. All these details present access barriers to those not working in this field. Which makes it really hard for a regular person to even try to get media coverage for public protests and demonstrations.
So, I took the information I had about local leaders and media figures, and I formatted a contact list for local activist groups. This will make it easier for them to get coverage when they hit the streets. Because public actions in a vacuum aren’t very effective. It’s the exposure to a wider audience through media coverage that builds the movement. Everyone has their own set of skills and knowledge that can help other people take effective action. Start using your own skill-set to support the resistance.
3) Attend Tesla Takedowns.
I went to the Tesla Takedown in my city, one of many across the country. More than 100 people were there. Plus four counter-protesters, one decked out in cosplay black bloc that I think was literally made of Rollerblade pads. Okay, bro. According to someone who talked to them, they did not know what the NIH was. So there’s that.
But they are not to be underestimated. These Tesla Takedowns are working, and they’re ongoing. We have one every week here, like many places in the US and around the world. Tesla’s stock has dipped, and Trump even did a car commercial for Elon Musk at the White House to try to bolster the company. Musk supporters are getting antsy and more volatile. Be wary. This week, there is a counter-protest planned for the same spot, inviting a clash. Be careful out there.
4) Sign up for phone banking for upcoming special elections.
Far from an overwhelming political mandate, the GOP majority in the House of Representatives is whisper thin. With Trump’s picks for his Cabinet, the seats now open, if flipped, would give Democrats a majority.
That makes Florida’s April 1 special election very important. The two progressive candidates running in this state — Josh Weil and Gay Valimont — are running in ruby-red districts. They don’t need money (although more is always better). They need boots on the ground. They need people out there convincing non-voters to cast a ballot. Convincing cynics that maybe, this one time, their vote will make a difference.
I signed up to phone bank for Josh Weil for District 6. If you want to phone bank, you can do it from anywhere. Sign up here, and attend a short training, and then start calling. Here are some tips I learned that the training didn’t teach me:
- Do not wait for someone to say hello. The system took so long to engage that I didn’t hear their greeting. So just assume they said hello and, as quickly as possible, ask for the person whose name you’ve been given.
- Sound human. Do not read a script.
- Give them your name. Create at least that much of a bond.
- Tell them you’re an unpaid volunteer. Otherwise, they might assume you’re being paid, which is a turn-off for some people.
- Ask specifically, and quickly, Are you voting for so-and-so in the name-the-date election?
- Let them steer the conversation. Listen and let them make their point, instead of rushing to speak at the first moment of silence.
- If they give you any human interaction, pretend they’re your friend. In another life, they could have been.
5) Sign onto the ACLU’s transgender passport lawsuit.
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the government over accurate gender markers on passports. This identity issue is an important line in the sand. We’re talking about who people are and whether they deserve the right to affirm their own identity. The only ethical answer is yes. Sign on here.
6) What phone banking for a candidate you believe in is really like.
After signing up to phone bank, the day came, and, to be honest, I greeted it with trepidation. I don’t like calling people who don’t want to be called. I have to do it a lot for my job, so volunteering to do more seemed like a hard chore. But because I believed in the cause, I spent 90 minutes calling numbers on a preformulated list that autodialed for me. Here are the results:
- 9 hangups.
- 5 people talked to me briefly and were not rude.
- 5 didn’t answer the phone.
- 3 people refused to answer the question of whom they’re voting for.
- 1 person mimicked me word for word, everything I said. Thanks a lot, lady.
- 2 people had moved out of state.
- 2 people were already voting for him.
AND…one person was not voting for the candidate, because he is so disillusioned about all politicians and late-stage capitalism and the American public. I managed to keep him on the phone and talk to him about how I feel the same way and even though it probably doesn’t matter, what’s the harm, and maybe one of these small things we do will make even a tiny difference.
He and his wife are going to vote blue now.
7) Help the unhoused when you can.
Pulling into a gas station to fill up, I shivered in my winter coat and wished I had gloves. It was unseasonably cold, nearly freezing, and, in my part of the world, it’s usually warmer by now. The local shelters for the unhoused had their cold night plans in place. In March! In Florida!
While filling the tank, I saw a man sitting against the store wall in a thin blanket, hunched over to be as small (and as warm) as possible. He asked me for some change. Usually, I’ll give some singles, if I have any, but I gave him the $20 I had on me. A lot of people look down on this; they say you should give people going through homelessness food or other necessities. But maybe he doesn’t want food right then. Maybe he wants shoes in his size, or cell phone minutes, or, heck, I don’t know. Maybe he wants alcohol or drugs.
The way I look at it is this: I’m not going to assume he’s making poor choices, and I’m not going to judge whatever choices he makes. Once I give him my money, it’s not my money anymore. And I’m not going to tell him what to do with his money. The end.
Never underestimate the power of generosity. It doesn’t have to be money. It can be time, it can be skills, it can be connections. Any time you contribute in any small way to making things better, you are being generous, and that counts. And you are not alone in this. Every small step becomes a bigger step when we come together. Remember that. You are important. We all are. See you next week.
Past weeks of “One Small Thing” can be found here.
