From Now Until November: Here Are Your Marching Orders:
1. Help register everyone around you to vote, help them get registered, don’t stop until everyone you run into, know, are friends with, neighbors, social clubs, etc. REGISTER EVERYONE TO VOTE!, every bar and restaurant and university and gathering place should have voting registration forms available. Bug everyone you know or run into or interact with to register to vote. Have lots of pot lucks, salons, and gatherings. THEN HELP THEM GET TO THE POLLS ON VOTING DAY!
2. Join a local political club. Leave a comment below if you need advice on where and what. This way you will have very energized like minded people who will help you organize and stay focused on what’s needed and you will be doing something instead of wondering what to do.
3. Keep calling your State and US Congress representatives. They keep track of phone calls. Write some letters too, but call call call and let them know that we must reunite children with their families asap and we must not allow Trump to nominate a Supreme Court nominee until AFTER the midterm elections.
4. Go to peaceful demonstrations, strength in numbers and you will feel better about doing something and showing up and get energized and connected with others.
5. Become a foster parent. There are already half a MILLION kids in foster care in this country other than the thousands of kids showing up at the border that need safe homes until being reunited. You don’t have to be rich, own a home, be married, or have a job to foster. In CA and many other States you can be gay. You have to have some trainings, get fingerprinted with the DOJ, take CPR/FirstAID, fill out forms, have a doc sign off that you are healthy enough, and have a home study and interview. Happy to talk to anyone/ anytime about this. We adopted our younger sons as babies out of foster care and our oldest son out of foster care when he was 15 years old. He had been in 13 different homes until he came home to us. Social workers are telling us of systems being inundated quickly with refugee kids – provide a safe home! Siblings can be in same bedroom. Babies can be in your room.
6. Donate to ACLU and RAICES and TEXAS CIVIL RIGHTS PROJECT, THE FLORENCE PROJECT, AL OTRO LADO, NETA, INNOVATION LAW LAB, FUERZA DEL VALLE, THE YOUNG CENTER FOR IMMIGRANT CHILDREN’S RIGHTS, WE BELONG TOGETHER, UNITED WE DREAM, KIDS IN NEED OF DEFENSE (KIND), ASYLUM SEEKER ADVOCACY PROJECT, HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST, LA UNION DEL PUEBLO ENTERO (you can find all of these on ActBlue) & PLANNED PARENTHOOD!!!
7. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER! Get an emergency kit, emergency food, water, cash, and supplies together. We are one blackout or one earthquake or one man made or natural disaster away from pandemonium and you don’t want to be stuck. If you have a car, keep your gas tanks full. If you are considering moving, move now. I went through the ’89 earthquake in SF and being surrounded by a lot of nervous people with no food or water or electricity or phones or gas to cook with is not fun. If you are in a major urban center you still can stash stuff in a closet and get a solar powered phone charger/radio because your internet will be down and a computer can’t help you with shit when it really matters. Get to know all your neighbors. Pooling resources when necessary is helpful. Stay healthy- stop drinking, stop drugging, start working out and get clear headed. Go to your local city council meetings and get to know your local leaders including police chief and city manager and city council. We will all need to have each other’s backs and know each other’s names.
8. DO NOT LOSE YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR- it’s a saving grace plus it will help with cortisol levels and balancing your adrenals. See #7- work out! get your heart pumping and your body sweating, it’s good for you.
9. Sing, Dance, Play music, write poetry, walk in nature A LOT- the arts are important and a good release and every dark time needs its artists.
10. This country has been through worse, others in the world are suffering greatly, stop whining and get off your ass DO SOMETHING! go back to #1, if that’s all you do (help register people) then you are doing A LOT! We have to take back the House and the Senate in November. Nothing less than turning it Blue will do!
11. SELF CARE- never feel guilty about self care. If you have to lay down and just be quiet for a while and not do a damn thing for a day or so then go right ahead. This is a marathon not a sprint so stay hydrated, focused, and centered. The far right and Trumpians are counting us getting overwhelmed with their shock and awe and divisiveness attempts. Don’t let the bastards win.
12. Have a back up plan. Get your passport in order asap. Get your kids’ passports in order. Get all your pets’ paperwork in order (rabies shots and proof, etc. they won’t be able to travel with you without their paperwork too.)
13. The GOP majority and die hard evangelicals who banked on Trump did it for one reason only- The Supreme Court- oh and one more reason- tax cuts and to cut what they call ‘entitlements’ but the Supreme Court is the #1 target that the far right has been chasing. They want to overturn a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body and they want to overturn marriage equality. Abortion rights and LGBTQ rights have been their bullseeye forever. We can’t let Trump nominate someone before November- and can’t let the GOP push that through while they control the Senate and House. We have to fight like hell to not let that happen.
14. Trump will nominate someone for the Supreme Court before November, he has to fast before he is indicted because he can stack the court to not allow him to get impeached or indicted or removed. Only the House can start impeachment and they won’t be able to until November because the GOP controlled congress are mostly filled with traitors and slime balls right now. the GOP will try to force through his nomination and be hypocritical given what they did with Obama’s pick (Garland). Trump has promised he will only nominate a pro life Justice so we are in some dark times but STAY STRONG and help those less fortunate than you. Be a helper, be a giver, be a fighter.
Jack Rednour-Bruckman founded and runs Bruckman Consulting Group LLC and is a Board Officer of the Lambda Democratic Club of CCC, writer + musician + long time SF Bay Area Community Activist