Hope to Transformation: Pending an Upheaval

Red, blue, or purple, our politicians and systems will fail us. Not me or you, but US.

Family, neighbors, jobs, civility, and financial systems could be erased.

It's no time for optimism. Now is the time to have your options at the ready, options to turn hope into communal action.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, “Optimism is the belief that things will get better. Hope is the faith that, together, we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue; hope is an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope.”

I've scoured the internet for action steps so you don't have to.

From hope to transformation, a list in progress.

Communication: 1. Listen to opinions you don't agree with 2. Build trust, make small talk 3. Tell your story, share the stories of others with integrity 4. Learn from people abroad, understand global trends 5. Don't fall for preemptive conditioning 6. Stay angry when it's called for 7. Don't call everyone that doesn't agree with you a fascist or racist, but know when you are dealing with one 8. Refute lies, uphold facts 9. Listen to young people 10. Recognize false emergencies 11. Listen for dangerous words 12. Create safe spaces for peaceful dialogue 13. Don't mindlessly scroll 14. Scroll for only information that helps meet goals 15. Tell the story, if you don't someone else will 16. Share good news as much or more as bad news 17. Keep private things private, reduce internet use 18. Use comedy, laugh, it creates change

Political action: 1. Vote 2. Teach peace 3. Flood immoral hotlines 4. Protest 5. Replace fascist and other propaganda 6. Build educational systems and programs 7. Do not compromise on things like human rights 8. Defend a free press 9. Call out leaders who don't follow the law 10. Run for office 11. Get out the vote, help others vote 12. Educate on dangers of extremism 13. Physically resist 14. Protect tolerance 15. Organize around inspiring visions 16. Defend democratic institutions 17. Resist suppression 18. Resist authoritarian demands 19. Map corporate landlords 20. Contribute to good causes 21. Defend freedom to choose 22. Defend bodily autonomy 23. Maintain focus on policies 24. Codify state and local protections 25. Join https://indivisible.org/ 26. Build coalitions 27. Know rights of minority party in Congress 28. Learn about identity politics

Personal health and safety:
1. Know your rights
2. Secure safety exits, plans of escape
3. Protect your home
4. Be aware of intermingling of armed groups
4. Don't be manipulated
5. Don't let anyone exploit you during an emergency
6. Recognize false emergencies
7. Know or exercise your 2nd amendment rights safely
8. Take personal safety classes
9. Be aware of your surroundings
10. Rest
11. Put your health first
12. Make healthcare a human right
13. Build physical and psychological resilience
14. Get outside
15. Build muscle
16. Drink tea
17. Care for body, mind, soul
18. Listen to music for self care

Household:
1. Collect cookbooks from times food was scarce
2. Have alternative energy sources
3. Put your energy towards making your home your sanctuary regardless of the chaos outside world

Market and trade:
1. Don't sell your home to LLCs or corporations
2. Leave big banks
3. No Amazon, Amazon owns Whole Foods
4. Reduce shopping, boycott
5. Barter system
6. Stay away from HOAs
7. Pay cash whenever possible
8. Make food a right
9. Don't pay unsecured debt
10. Fight immoral expenses
11. Boycott businesses that oppress workers and freedom of others
12. Switch from petroleum to electric
13. Strike
14. Join a general strike
15. Freeze or lock your credit report
16. Support free information, don't share links to info with pay walls

Inclusion:
1. Include local languages, with inclusivity
2. Promote accessibility for disability
3. Protect rights of women, immigrants, BIPOC, people with disabilities, elders, veterans
4. Physically engage with diverse communities
5. Listen to Black women
6. Share how abuse of power impacts vulnerable people
7. Hire unjustly fired people
8. Uphold the ADA
9. Support BIPOC businesses
10. Fight colonization
11. Support Drag shows
12. Bring awareness to neurodiversity

Community building:
1. Community gardens, feed a neighbor
2. Build a tool borrowing library
3. Book club
3. Hold memorials for people killed by extremists
4. Remove signs and symbols of hate
5. Know your neighbors
6. Meet new people make new friends
7. Provide red cards to neighbors https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-rojas
8. Get a library card
9. Neighborhood cleanup
10. Join anything, dart league

Frame of mind:
1. Imagine the world you want, not worse case scenario
2. Keep hope always
3. Be proactive not reactive
4. Forgive someone and show them to create change
5. Don't live in denial
6. Don't let hate grow
7. Don't give away your power
8. Challenge the status quo
9. Find independent ideas
10. Don't read/listen to sources that amplify bad actions
11. Don't give your energy to political theater
12. Distance yourself from mainstream rhetoric
13. Don't let your attention go to distractions or things meant to confuse or alarm you
14. Watch what people do, not what they say
15. Build resilience by showing up
16. Remain calm
17. Be courageous
18. Pledge to stand for something and name it 19. Define your enemy, know the definition: In his historic report to the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International in 1935, Georgi Dimitrov gave the following definition of fascism as “the terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialistic elements of finance capital.”

What to read, who to listen to:
1. Constitution
2. Bill of Rights
3. MLK, Where Do We Go From Here
4. Carrie Newcomber
5. John Paul Lederach https://www.johnpaullederach.com/2024/07/pocket-guide/
6. Jean Chrétien
7. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
8. Toni Morrison
9. Bishop Budde
10. Canadian MP Elizabeth May
11. Robert Reich
12. Paul Krugman
13. Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
14. Barbara Smith Conrad, When I Rise
15. Wired.com

Science fiction with democratic messages:
1. Ursula K. Le Guin
2. Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future

Know true history: 1. 1776, David McCullough
2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Airmen
3. A People's History of the US, Howard Zinn
4. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown

Better news list from Michael Moore:
Read it. Watch it. Listen to it:
ProPublica.
The Guardian.
Ha’aretz.
CBC nightly news “The National.”
Labor Notes.
John Oliver. Current Affairs.
BBC NewsNight.
The Chris Hedges Report on Substack.
Ayman on MSNBC.
The Bitchuation Room.
Drop Site News.
A Closer Look on Seth Meyers.
The Lever.
Hammer & Hope.
More Perfect Union.
The Katie Halper Show.
Night School with Marc Lamont Hill. “Citations Needed”.
Jewish Currents.
Al-Jazeera English.

What's on your list? You are invited to comment below.