The Big Question: What Can I Actually Do?

Maybe you’re like me and countless others who find themselves stuck in the same perpetual cycle.

I scroll through my feeds.

• I see masked men violently kidnapping people off the streets, at their legal immigration hearings, and from their cars — sometimes in front of their children.
• I see war being declared on American cities with people being slammed to the ground, sprayed with chemical weapons, and recently, shot with live ammunition.
• I see reassurances that no amount of violence from Police, ICE, or Military will be prohibited, but instead will be encouraged.

Then, I see it. I’m running late for my next Zoom meeting.

And if you’re like me, perhaps, as you sit there, you find yourself wondering, as I often do: what are we going to do?

Are we just going to sit here, going through the motions while all of this unfolds around us?

So maybe, like me, you resolve to do something!

“I’m going to post online!”

But gosh, that surely doesn’t feel like enough. I certainly can’t stop this with my clever little posts.

Besides, when I do that, I know I’m either…

1. Posting into my own little bubble that agrees with me.
2. Starting up an argument with a troll, bot, or interlocutor who arrived in bad faith.
3. Shouting into an algorithm that may ensure no one ever sees what I have to say.

Then, I wonder: am I risking being punished by the government for what I say?

“I’m going to protest!”

I wonder if there’s one scheduled today? What if I show up to City Hall and no one is there?

Also, today isn’t great because I have 2 calls and I need to pick my kids up from school.

Besides, what if I show up to City Hall and everyone is there?

• Will I get tear gassed?
• What if I get hit in the face with a rubber bullet and lose my vision?
• What will happen to my family if something happens to me?

If I go there’s a non-zero chance I get arrested even when I’m there to peaceably assemble.

“I know! I am going to withhold my taxes!”

That’s it! I’ll contentiously withhold my taxes!

• I don’t want my money going to fund genocides abroad and military action against citizens back home.
• I don’t want a portion of my hard-earned money going to tear families apart who came here looking for a better life.
• Besides, we don’t even get healthcare and our retirements are dangerously close to being taken away.

And when I think about it, I know they will eventually come for my taxes. I’ll probably have to pay penalties.

They may even use it as grounds to arrest me. I can’t risk that since they’ve shown a willingness to deport citizens to foreign concentration camps.

Would anyone even remember me? Would they be able to get me back or would everyone just move on?

It seems as though everything I think of means putting myself in serious danger.

This isn’t Pessimism

It’s a natural and valid reaction to everything we are seeing around us.

If you relate to anything above, you need to know, you’re not lazy or apathetic…you’re scared.

And that is by design. The videos and images we are seeing are doing what they’re meant to do: scare us into passivity.

But we do actually have tools to fight back.

The Reframe

If you’re like me, it’s really easy to fall into a pattern of thinking:

I have to be careful, I have so much to lose.

I look at my family, my lifestyle, and my stuff. It’s natural to want to protect all you have.

It can also be helpful to think of those same factors from a different perspective.

What is it you have to fight FOR?

Deciding what to do

I’d like to offer a framework that I’ve been using.

It’s not a framework that will tell you what to do.

It’s a framework that helps you decide what you can do, that’s right for you.

1. Do a Power/Leverage Audit

This is something I’ve been working on with Christina Blacken in her New Quo Learning Community. It’s a monthly community where, among other things, we discuss effective strategies for reaching socially impactful goals in today’s complex moral landscape. This is where I first heard of the power audit concept — outside of my own superhero work.

It goes like this…

Think about all the assets that you have: the skills, the platform/network/reach, the access, and the resources.

You need to know what you can bring to the fight.

Knowing what levers you have access to can help you formulate a plan for where you can actually affect change.

2. Identify who you can help

Nearly everyone has some sort of privilege that they can use in defense or support of others.

• Maybe you can donate to the ACLU or groups doing work to fight for reproductive rights.
• Maybe you show up to town halls or make phone calls to your reps on behalf of those being targeted.
• Maybe you offer pro-bono work to those the system wants to dehumanize.

3. Keep checking in about what courage means to you

Courage is not static. It ebbs and flows with the world around us. It can even change day to day.

But it’s important to keep checking in to know how far you’re willing to go to stand up for what’s right.

Do one More thing

All of this is deeply personal work and no one can tell you the right way to do it.

I hope you’ll go through all of this. But just as importantly, I hope you’ll do one more thing.

1. Maybe it’s going to a city council or PTA meeting.
2. Maybe it’s speaking up when your friend or colleague says something that should be challenged.
3. Maybe it’s making one donation, even if it’s small.

Then, I hope you’ll do one more thing after that.

Because that is the big secret that gets lost as the size and scope of the problems get bigger. It’s that little things are what will add up in this fight.

It’s tempting to throw on your Batsuit and save Gotham. But that’s the system making your important day-to-day actions feel insignificant.

The truth has always been that every single small action is significant.

Don’t forget that.