Up and At ‘Em

From the peaceful round-the-lake rally against Trump in Oakland on November 13

Ok. Enough.

I have unfurled from my tight ball of misery over last week’s election results, slipped through the shock, dawdled in the dread. I’m ready for action.

I have no idea whether the following are the right things to do, or whether they make a difference. I do know that wallowing makes me feel powerless, and I refuse to feel powerless in the face of a Trump presidency. So here’s what I’m doing. If you have more ideas about how to move forward in a positive way, please share them in the comments.

Limit Facebook and Twitter

This is huge and difficult for me; I spend a lot of time on both sites because anyone who wants to be a published author is told to build their audience that way. I have a lot of friends and family members with whom I am connected, in meaningful and joyful ways, on social media platforms – how else would I know what my friend’s college ex boyfriend’s adorable little baby in Edinburgh looks like? (Hi Jonah! It’s me, Aunt Nancy!) I’ve used them to find amazing writing elsewhere on the web.

But in the weeks before the election and especially in this past week, it felt like opening Pandora’s Box every time I logged on – “what fresh hell am I going to read now?” to paraphrase St. Dorothy of Parker. Everyone’s shooting in a circle. People are raw, and need to express themselves. That is all fine and justified and right. I also know at some point, their pain paralyzes me. And I’m not helping anyone at that point.

So I’m taking a lot of the time I might have normally spent online to

Call My Representatives

On Monday morning I called the local offices for each of my California congressional delegates and told them the same thing: Thank you for your service. I know we are now the minority party, but as the Republicans taught us during the Obama administration, the minority party can always play the part of the toddler whose bones have turned to jelly and refuse to take one more step forward, thereby stopping the entire family in its tracks. I told them it is my hope that they not allow policies and laws to pass that go against everything that our great state – which by the way even WITH all our lefty liberal activist policies is the sixth largest economy in the world, and growing– stands for.

I’m also calling people like Paul Ryan and leaving messages. No, I’m not his constituent, and yes, his mailbox is full, so if anyone has his cell number hit me up. But I want him to know that he is the Speaker of the House, and that House belongs to all the American people, not just the 26% of eligible voters who chose Trump. I plan to keep filling up his voicemail for four years. I’m going to leave messages for Governor Jerry Brown (or, more likely, just run into him at an Oakland restaurant). Representatives need to hear what’s on our minds.

Read Real Things

If you haven’t read Sarah Vowell’s punchy, smart slices of American history like “The Wordy Shipmates” about the Puritan’s journey to America, or “Unfamiliar Fishes” about Hawaiian history, you are missing out on a writer who brings history alive with humor and an eye for the absurd. This week I pulled out and reread her 2015 book “Lafayette in the Somewhat United States,” about the French teenager who became a central character in America’s revolutionary war. I was trying to recall how she characterized George Washington as basically the Commander of Losing. Forget military triumphs: he spent most of the war figuring out where he could strategically lose against the British, with his ragtag and underprepared army, but still stay in the fight. It made me feel better about having asked our super talented new state senator, Kamala Harris, to basically please just stay in the coatroom for the next six years. There’s precedent, ok?

Just like there is precedent for a deeply divided nation (hello, Continental Congress) to create progress in spite of themselves.

NPR also has some suggested reading as a way to bridge the political divide. I’ll add “Strangers In Their Own Land” to Mount Nightstand.

Make My Dollars Do The Talking

Just made my first-ever contribution to the ACLU. Will re-up my Planned Parenthood annual donation at a higher level. Realized that our regular and ongoing contribution to an outdoor education program serving lower income students in Oakland has lapsed, so I’m getting that straightened out again.

I also downloaded GrubHub, whose stock has dropped since the CEO issued a memo to employees saying that if they shared Trump’s “nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful politics,” they should resign. That’s my food delivery app from now on (sorry Munchery, but you were getting later and later at deliveries as it was.) Also, I don’t like yogurt much, but I’ll be buying Chobani brand every week, maybe to use as a face mask. Their CEO makes a concerted effort to hire refugees at his plants, which made him a focus for a smear campaign by Breitbart.com. For more ideas on companies to support and avoid with your buying dollar, take a look at this list.

I already pay for subscriptions to the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times. If you want to support journalism that has a chance of holding the new administration’s feet to the fire, you might consider supporting publications that can make it happen.

Will continue to recoil if my hand accidently brushes an Ivanka Trump boot at Nordstrom Rack.

Pray for the New President

I am a person of deep faith, and deep doubts. I doubt that Donald Trump will be a good president for most of us. But I understand I am called to exhibit love to everyone who God loves, which means EVERYONE, NO EXCEPTIONS, which is really a pain-in-the-ass requirement of faith, tbh. So I am praying to God to help Donald Trump to be good at his new job. That’s the prayer. Be a good president, Donald.

I would be overjoyed if he conquered all my doubts.

I couldn’t pick just one song today, so I made a whole Protest Playlist over at TueNight.com if you want to check it out.