Uncategorized · July 21, 2025 0

What to Do In Difficult Times

 

Carole Levine           July 21, 2025

Difficult times make everyone uneasy.  Whether it is in meetings that I am chairing or attending, webinars where I am only a listener/observer, casual conversations on the street while walking the dog, or a special lunch with a dear friend, I find myself being extra cautious about what I say and how I say it.  Why is that?

I have struggled with this question for a while and I have some sense of what does not cause this caution and unease. 

  • I’m not that great, kind person that doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings!  I have always been OK with telling others things I know they do not want to hear (in a kind way).
  • It’s not a fear of being told that I am wrong. I have always welcomed different views and perspectives and know that my opinions are not always right. I can even change my mind.
  • It’s also not that I want everything to focus on my views and perspectives. I know that I have strong opinions, but, from the time I began teaching young children, I have placed great value on each person developing a sense of self and with that, a perspective and their own positions and opinions.

I am beginning to think that my unease comes from what I am seeing, and what I am not seeing, in our current leadership and government… on both sides of the aisle.

I have been an activist from a very young age and part of that activism was based on figuring out which people and institutions I could trust.  Trust, or the lack of it, becomes key in what generates how people feel and what makes them act. Right now, we are living in times of great mistrust.  Solutions do not seem to be a part of many folks’ discussions and conversations.  And solutions are sorely needed.

What can the ordinary citizen do in today’s overwhelming situation?  Each day brings a new challenge to be added to the list of things that need to be addressed and changed.  There is no rest for the weary these days.  As soon as we think that we have a handle on one issue and a lower court upholds our position, we find that Trump’s Supreme Court, via its Shadow Docket, quickly overturns that decision.  While the lower courts have an amazingly good record of upholding Constitutional rights, this Supreme Court’s record leans toward upholding the positions of President Trump. Fortunately, the Supreme Court cannot hear every case, leaving many lower court rulings against Trump in place. But, using the Shadow Docket (which allows the Supreme Court to make quick rulings with limited, if any, explanations) the Supreme Court has granted emergency relief to the Trump administration.  According to Supreme Court expert and law professor at Georgetown Steve Vladek:    

The court has allowed the administration to fire tens of thousands of government workers, discharge transgender troops, end protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants from war-torn countries and fundamentally shift power from Congress to the president — often with scant or no explanation of how it arrived at those results.

In the last 10 weeks alone, the court has granted emergency relief to the Trump administration without explanation seven times, according to Vladek’s tally.

So, what are we to do?  Many of us turned out for the “Good Trouble” Rallies this past week to commemorate the civil rights work of Congressman John Lewis and build momentum for the work ahead.  But despite the wonderful theme, and large turnouts in hundreds of rallies across all fifty states, there was no consistent list of actions to take.  Speaker after speaker deplored what was going on, but few offered directions for next steps. This was disappointing as I think people were searching for directions and ready to join in and take action.  The fact that we came together was a first step.  And we were ready for the next step… but it did not come.

I do not have the wisdom of many who lead the movements I follow. I am a rebel, but not (yet) a revolutionary, although that could be coming.  I have accumulated some ideas about what may work in making change starting at the most basic and most individual level.  And since I did not walk away from these rallies with that “to do” list, I will share a few items from mine, and some that I have culled from others and ask that you also add to it.  In my early consulting days, I used what would now be called a meme that said:  Change Is Hard…You Go First.  It seems highly appropriate today.  So, here’s a few simple things that anyone can do to make change:

  • Join something! Pick one issue that rises to the top of the things that concern you and find a group or organization that works on it.  Join them.  You don’t have to be their leader but maybe attend a meeting or join a committee.  Make a difference on that one issue.  Sometimes doing something is better than just bemoaning the state of things.
  • Talk to people about what you are seeing, reading, doing. Share perspectives that seem on target with others (via social media, in casual conversations, in settings where folks are gathering – the park, playground…).  You don’t have to be the expert…  just ask if they saw what someone posted or wrote and what do they think? Even if their perspective is different than yours, it is best to have it out in the open and to put your thinking out there.
  • Call or email your elected officials. They work for and represent you and need to know what you think.  They also need to know when you like what they do and when you are unhappy with their positions!  Tell them what you expect of them. Do this often.  Again… they work for you.
  • Find things to do that “fit” you and your lifestyle and timeframe. Whether it is writing postcards from home; going to a meeting on a local issue; learning about candidates running for office; volunteering for a phone bank; door knocking to inform your community about a change that will be on the ballot; registering people to vote in the 2026 primary and election… and the list can go on and on…
  • Do something and find one or two others to join you… or encourage them to bring others in…

The list of actual actions will vary with the issues.  You might want to organize a webinar or a food drive or a dance party for kids so their parents can attend a meeting…  Creativity counts!  And while we are living in serious times, making sure that people feel good about what they do has never been more important.

We, and our elected officials, have to learn from all that is happening around us and build our actions on this.  How will we know and then know what to do? Writing for the Contrarian on July 21st, Jennifer Rubin put together a list of what voters (especially Democratic ones) seems to prefer and respond to these days. She wrote that voters:

  • Respond to fighters (e.g., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Corey Booker, Gov. Gavin Newsom, or Gov. J.B. Pritzker) who do not hold back in attacking MAGA extremists.
  • Prefer fresher voices expressing righteous anger rather than old fogies acting as if opposition is futile.
  • Favor politicians who pledge dramatic change, not more of the same.
  • Understand that corrupt billionaires are ripping them off (e.g., taking away healthcare to fund enormous tax cuts).
  • Reward plain-spoken messengers regardless of ideology (e.g., Zohran Mamdani or Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky).
  • Favor a secure social safety net.
  • Reject the notion that securing the border and deporting dangerous criminals necessitates a police state that disappears their hardworking neighbors.
  • Recoil against power grabs, lawlessness, corruption, cruelty, and corrupt oligarchs, even though abstract appeals to “democracy” leave them cold.

I may not yet be a revolutionary in my choices of actions, but this list certainly provides some guidance and guidelines for what I want my leadership (and me) to be prioritizing.  And this cannot wait.  Actions are needed now.  This is a list to be shared widely and that I intend to use in conjunction with my own suggestions. Jennifer Rubin also captured my thinking in an earlier column on July 17th:

We are in this together, and when we ignore injustice, suffering, and cruelty in downtown Los Angeles or in the Florida Everglades, we invite it everywhere. “For many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny,” Dr. King said on the steps of the Lincoln Monument in 1963. “And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”

In short, if you are fatigued, depressed, or demoralized by the flooded zone of lies and outrages flowing from the Trump regime, get up off the couch and out of the house anyway. Take up the responsibility of citizenship in a democracy. We do not have the luxury to wallow in despair. Our fellow Americans are counting on us to engage in the spirit of Lewis’s good trouble; to peacefully protest, engage with politicians, organize, and vote.

When we rallied and marched in the 60’s and 70’s the slogan was “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”  I still have my button with that on it! Perhaps it’s time to wear it again…