This OTYCD entry originally posted in January 2017.

 

A lot has happened since the inauguration. Too much, really. And that’s just what Trump and his minions have done or tried to do–that doesn’t even get into the misinformation that’s been floating around, and the various calls to action that are well-intentioned but wrong.

 

You can’t stay on top of everything. It’s physically impossible. Don’t beat yourself up for not being able to stay on top of everything. (Can you imagine all the stuff we at OTYCD have to let go, in the interest of limiting ourselves to one post a day?) You need to conserve your energy for what you are best-equipped to fight.

 

You need to sit down and figure out which three things are most important to you.

 

Is it fighting the effects of climate change?

Protecting access to abortion?

Pushing back against voter suppression?

Upholding the rule of law?

Defending net neutrality?

First Amendment issues?

Keeping public schools strong?

Defending laws that safeguard our air and our water?

Supporting protestors?

Doing your damndest to make sure that black lives matter?

Sheltering and assisting immigrants?

Protecting LBGTQ rights?

Stopping the government from selling public lands for a pittance?

Upholding the Paris agreement?

Standing up for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities?

Defending Obamacare?

Resisting cuts to Medicare and Medicaid?

Fighting attacks on American muslims?

Defending and extending mental health care services?

Protecting the rights of the disabled?

Undoing the damage of gerrymandering?

 

…those are just some that leap to mind. We cut eighteen more, and we probably didn’t name at least three dozen that matter to you.

 

But that’s the point. It’s worth sitting down and list as many political topics as you can. Then go through them and figure out which three matter most to you.

 

Embrace those three. Learn all you can about them. Become an expert.

 

Do something every day to advance at least one of the three. Rotate through them so that your attention to each balances out over time.

 

Trust that others will step up and cover the rest of the things that matter to you.

 

Fight for your three things as doggedly as you want others to fight for what you had to relinquish for sanity’s sake.

 

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