April 13: Resisting and Recharging

Dear Friends: 

As I write, today (Friday) is the end of the 5th week of our Rush Hour Resistance and, for the first time since we started, we were not on the Fairlington I-395 bridge today. It’s a little too cold and rainy, but we’ll be back on Monday (4:30 – 6:30 pm). We’re in this for the long haul. 

Getting worn down by negative news and this Administration is a huge danger to each of us and our democracy. A neighbor told one of our group members that what we are doing is “useless”. Our friend responded “At least I am doing something! What are you doing?” Doing something is far better than doing nothing. History shows that successful democratic movements are persistent and repetitive with their public protests. They are peaceful and pull in people. And, those movements need involve only between 3% and 4% of the population to be effective.

We’re doing our best to persist and bring in more people. At the very least what we do makes hundreds of people happy each weekday, gives people heart, shows they are not alone, and makes them smile. Many passers-by tell us how good it makes them feel to see us there, and it makes us happy too. Not bad for a couple of hours a day. This is something we can keep up. 

The events keep coming around the country. Locally the Tesla Takedown on S. Glebe Road is a good regular event every Tuesday afternoon (4:00 – 6:00 pm).  Looking forward,

Indivisible is gearing up for another large national day of protest on Thursday, May 1. I listen to their weekly calls and will update my readers as I learn more, but you might get that date on your calendar. I think this will again be coordinated with many different organizations.

I saw this list of good recommendations of easy actions to take on Mastodon from MLK Jr’s daughter. Mastodon provides me with a lot of good thoughts and articles I do not see other places. You can read about it on my website along with a short list of who you might follow to start (including me, of course. 😊 https://mastodon.social/@libbygarvey)

All this said, I hope everyone will take some time to enjoy the Spring flowers and unplug a bit from the news. This is a time of rebirth both in nature and many religions. It’s important to keep perspective in tough times. There are lots of ways to do that:

• Walks outside to contemplate nature and the universe are always helpful.

  I’m reading the Bible a little each night and am reminded that people have been bemoaning horrible leaders and evil people for thousands and thousands of years.  Humans don’t change much.

• I also enjoy historical fiction, especially about similar times in history. It gets me mentally out of this time, but shows how some people have survived, and even thrived, in tumultuous and difficult times. It’s our time to go through this cycle and stand up for what is right.

• For when you want news, I recommend Rachel Maddow’s nightly news summary. She covers things in a detail many other outlets do not, both showing how very bad things are (worse than you might pick up from the usual sources) and how much good is going on (more than usually covered). I like the way she covers what regular people are doing and  finds some humor in the mess we are in now. 

• And, of course, Steven Colbert, John Oliver, Jon Stewart and the Tonight Show and others are great for more humor. It’s really good to laugh.

If you haven’t had a chance to explore my new website, Libby’s Local List, I encourage you to do so for Events, Blogs, the Library section and more. The site is meant to inspire, inform, and empower individuals and communities to engage with and strengthen local governance and our national democracy. We update many of the tabs regularly and have several ways for you to give us feedback.

I hope you find these blogs helpful and welcome comments. If you like what I’m writing, forward this to a friend or two and spread the word about my website and what is going on. But whatever you do…do something!   

Thank you,     

Libby