Year of Despair Antidotes

Join me in a year of action to fight our despair and advocate for those most affected by the new administration.

If you're anything like me, Monday, January 20 is filling you with dread. I feel furious as I watch the oligarchs get offices in the White House, destroy DEI programs willy nilly, and proclaim we need more masculine energy. I feel dread when I imagine what collateral damage will be wrought on the already vulnerable in this country.

I wonder how many white women who marched in January 2017 ended up voting everyone's rights away. The resistance of 2017-2020 is exhausted and deflated. And if we just give up and do nothing, they win.

As someone who has always been driven by a passion for justice, it's hard not to panic about what's happening in this country. I feel completely helpless.

I also realize I'm operating from a place of privilege. The biggest risk for me, a cis straight white woman, is that I could lose my health care. The risks are devastating for so many others, and I feel especially for refugees and immigrants, who are in a heightened sense of panic.

As I was SWAYING, I decided yesterday I need to DO something in my own little corner of the world. And I remembered one of my favorite quotes from one of my role models:

"Action is the antidote of despair." --Joan Baez

I'm embarking on a year of despair antidotes, focusing each month on a group or area that has been belittled, insulted, or targeted by the new administration.

Each month I will donate money to and amplify this focus group. I will try to attend events centering this group and do everything I can to bring attention to each historically and currently excluded community.

I'm starting out with undocumented immigrants, since that seems to be the largest threat starting this week. Because they plan to start in Chicago, today I donated to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Would you like to join me in my activism? If so, please email me. I will create a special email list and we can share our efforts together! (I promise not to spam you or share your email without your permission, and also to limit emails to once or twice a month.)

Together, let's fight despair and act on behalf of those who will be most affected in the next four years.

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