It's Not a Perfection Thing

Hi Friends,

Welcome to the Rooted in Change, Together newsletter! I'm so glad you're here with me. Please share widely so others can subscribe.

We must take wisdom from wherever it comes. Multiple times a day, I have been finding myself saying "It's not a perfection thing." I said it when I was teaching my friend to make bread. I said it when my kiddo was helping me make their bed with clean sheets. I said it when another kiddo caught me mispronouncing words (as my perimenopausal brain fog makes happen more often these days).

I have also said it to myself as my household has been challenged with illness or medical needs pretty continuously since mid-November, and while this hasn't been life threatening or serious, has been a slow drain on my energy and time that I had not anticipated and that is hard to accept as part of our lives right now, another layer that I do not have (much) control over.

I am encouraged by Lily Zheng: "When it all gets to be too much, remember that being informed is not the same as being flooded. If we are genuinely working to build a better world in the face of overwhelming harm, we have the urgent and enduring responsibility to use the tools at our disposal to be grounded, to be well, and to be in community." And by Michelle MiJung Kim: "Stay rooted. Stay clear. Know your why, pick your lane, and clarify your commitments." (thanks to Nicole Cardoza for links to both)

If your lane is K-12 education, consider Garrett Bucks's thoughts about how to support our schools (as parents or community members). He wrote a long list of many things we can do in these difficult times. He also wrote this week about the movement of infinite love and care that we can all belong to. Jen Harvey also wrote about love and care and breaking versus breaking open.

If you want to make phone calls, do so, they matter. If you don't like talking on the phone (like me!), the tool 5 Calls (you can download the app or use the website) makes it really easy to pick your top issue and make the calls in five minutes.

If you're struggling with how to stay informed without drowning, Lara Witt at Prism offers the guidance they use for evaluating news sources and whether they are worth their time. She says, "Our media diet should enhance our capacity to love and care."

Indivisible continues to be a powerhouse of calls to action, distilling the chaos into clear next steps focused on where and how to reach our elected officials. If you're looking for inspiration from what others are doing, check out the Resist List on Bluesky. The Catalyst Project shares "A Troublemaker's Guide: Principles for Racial Justice Activists in the Face of State Repression." (PDF)

There are some really interesting economic boycott and strike opportunities being organized right now:
- There's a General Strike effort gathering people to commit to a future general strike once enough people sign up.
- The NAACP has issued a Black Consumer Advisory recognizing companies that have recommitted to DEI and those that have abandoned it.
- The Latino Freeze Movement is asking people to hold off making non-essential purchases, and when they do purchase, to spend at one of the companies on the approved list.
- Tesla Takedown efforts have impacted Musk's wealth. (Please note that targeting individual Tesla owners is not part of this effort, nor should it be.)
- Choose Democracy has a Boycott tracker if you're interested in learning more.
- Here's a way to subvert the intention of something. The government has posted a form that allows people to report "illegal discriminatory practices at institutions of learning" related to "divisive ideologies and indoctrination." Feel free to flood it with examples of what the current administration is doing.

There is power in collective action against wealthy business owners and the companies themselves. These boycotts have motivated me to stop shopping at Amazon and Target. AND. I believe that each of us will make the best choices we can under the circumstances we find ourselves in, for any actions we choose to take. Our core households/families must come first and must be stable enough in order to move outwards into our communities and beyond. We will each have different capacities at different times and we must respect each others' lived realities and not demand perfection in this or anything else from ourselves or from each other. Grace, generosity, welcoming, and compassion.

Whitney Parnell's February update for Service Never Sleeps highlighted movement wisdom from past movements that can clearly be applied to our efforts today. Another hopeful piece of movement wisdom is the idea that participation by 3.5% of the population of a country is enough to bring about meaningful change. The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook has some great strategies for building solidarity in response to the administration's flood the zone strategy.

I have really appreciated Rebecca Solnit's new newsletter, Meditations in an Emergency, for a smart perspective and a good balance of being informed and being moved to action. For example, she writes "we are in a moment when we need to find common ground and move toward powerful coalitions. In my dreams, we see ourselves as citizens, not just consumers, see in each other future allies, not people who made different choices in the past. We remember our power and we exercise it. In this emergency, I think it likely that we are going to need to pitch a very big tent and invite everyone in who doesn't want to live in a dictatorship, who wants the rule of law, the checks and balances, the Constitution to still be in effect, everyone's human and civil rights protected, who wants to protect the vulnerable."

I attended a virtual call hosted by an organization locally that supports union organizing efforts. It was so meaningful to hear their guest, the leader of a local union, talk about how important it is to welcome everyone, not to rub someone's choices/votes in their faces, but to understand that it will take all of us to fight what is happening right now and we must not turn anyone away. We must start living the world we want to live in, treating everyone the way we want everyone to be treated, taking care of each other, supporting our communities.

Let us find ways to advocate for the things that matter to us, to build community connections, to be kind to each other, to rest, and to have compassion for ourselves and everyone. Seek out joy where you can. Step away from the news and be gentle with yourself. Let perfection go. Break open with love and care and know that you are not alone.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow. In Solidarity.
Rooted in Change, Together.