What Can I Do?

One of the things that led to me wanting to start this group was that I was having conversations with people both before and after the election. About the erosion of our civil liberties, the war, a president who was chosen by Supreme Court Justices, rampant voter fraud, the concentration of more and more media in fewer hands. And the people I was talking to kept saying at some point: But what can you do?
Well, I thought, maybe they need a list.

Here is as good a list as any I've seen:

Be a drop in a bucket. One of many. No single drop is a flood. The difference you make may be far more than you'll ever know or measure. Find a cause and put your efforts into it. Something that makes you passionate.

Educate yourself. Fifteen minutes to a half hour a day. At least five days a week. For a long time. How long? How long do you want to live in a republic? The rest of your life? A necessary part of educating yourself is learning how the media manipulates all of us, and developing your critical thinking skills. Another part of educating yourself is to then expend the energy to watch listen to or read any media critically. It takes a lot more effort and is a lot more fun than sitting there.

Put your monty where your mouth is. Vote with your dollars. Buy from companies that support the policies, candidates, and values you say you value. Maybe even pay a tiny bit more or walk half a block farther once in a while.

Donate. Give money to organizations who are working towards causes you believe in. The value of even a few dollars is far beyond what you might think it is if you donate to nonprofit organizaions. This is because they can go to institutional funders with your relatively "small" donation and have evidence of community support. Just a thought.

Educate others. Talk to the people you know. This is a very important part of how you make change happen. Educate them and let them educate you. A major part of why you are reading this at all is a phone call from a friend alerting me to some problems he saw our country was not dealing with.

Volunteer. Do it. Get out of your routine. Parents: bring the kids along. Set an example. Choose what you do carefully. You'll be amazed when you find yourself having fun along with the hard work. Beats the heck out of any time I ever spent watching television.

Vote. You don't just have to vote for Democrats and Republicans. You can vote for a third party candidate, you can use the write in vote. You can use jury nullification. You can also vote with emails and letters to representatives, companies, media. You can sign petitions. (To give youserlf that extra incentive to vote click on votergasm.org.)