Three Things We Can Do for America Right Now

Years ago, I helped a friend move. After we'd gotten all the boxes, crates, bins, and coat hangers into his new place, he stood immobile at the door, paralyzed by where to begin. It was impossible to imagine this chaos ever becoming a comfortable little corner of the world to call home.

In Greek mythology, chaos was the origin of everything, what Ovid described as the unformed state of the universe. Later, Jose Saramago would describe chaos as "order merely waiting to be deciphered." In other words, chaos is the raw material for what could come next.

So where to begin in this chaos we find ourselves?

No need to try and solve everything, all at once. We have yet to hear of someone successfully boiling the ocean.

Instead, we can try the Arthur Ashe approach: "Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can."

Here are three concrete steps we can start taking.

Grocery Shop for the Food Pantry
A dear friend takes two lists to the supermarket: one of things she needs and one of things her local food pantry needs. She buys as much as she can, and when she has a full bag of tomato soup, grape jelly, canned pears, brown rice, she drops it off at the pantry.

We know the number of empty bellies is likely to grow. And this is a little something that, if we're able, we can do each week to ease hunger in our community.

Diapers! Diapers! Diapers!
Family safety nets like SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) and WIC can't be used for diapers. And as any parent knows, diapers are pricey. Too many families have to choose between dinner and diapers, and that predates this moment we're in.

Plenty of communities have diaper drives; check to see if yours does. And if it doesn't, here's how to host one.

Sam's Club, Costco, or Walmart seem to be solid spots to find diapers a little less expensively.

Vote Local
American government splits power between federal (D.C.), state, and local governments. And the closer the layer of government is to our back yard, the more influence we can have over it.

State legislators and town councilors have far fewer constituents than U.S. Senators and can be more immediately responsive to voter needs.

Here are three high-impact steps we can take:

1. Find out when the next local election is in your town. Check your town's website or give the town clerk a call, they administer elections and can give you all the intel. These elections usually have minimal turnout, but can have maximal impact on the quality of our lives - like school quality, water quality, street and transportation quality, and much more.
   
   
2. Start building an email list of folks in your town. I have a distribution list of a few dozen people in my town that I notify when an election is coming up. It's easier to create the list over time than in a mad scramble right before the election. Plus, building that list is something we can start right now.
   
   
3. Send Your Voting Recommendations. With the gutting of local news, most folks have no idea what's on the ballot or how they should vote. I make a good cup of tea and spend the time it takes to drink it reading up on the issues. Right before early voting starts, I send that distribution list a friendly note with details about what's on the ballot, how I'll be voting and why, and when/where to vote. Given how few people turnout for these elections, a few dozen more votes could make a real difference.
   
   

Over at Oberlin College, there is an Environmental Studies Professor named David Orr. And he's got a line that rattles around in my mind when my hope is in short supply. "Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up. Hope is always busy trying to change the odds."