Do What You Can And Then Accept That It’s Enough

Every role is important in this fight

Not all of us can be on the front lines of this fight, and that’s okay. You don’t need to make excuses. You just need to do what you can do because every bit of it is necessary.

That means if all you can do is share posts on Facebook, it’s enough.

If all you can do is make phone calls and send emails to politicians, it’s enough.

If all you can do is donate $1 to your favorite cause or activist or artist or writer, it’s enough.

This also means the judgment needs to stop. Marching is great, but not everyone can march. Protesting is great, but not everyone can protest. Donating is great, but not everyone can donate.

There’s this trend lately of people complaining about the armchair activists who only post on social media and never go out to march or protest, but that armchair activist may very well be differently abled in some way. They may have physical limitations that make going out and marching and protesting impossible. They may have mental illness that makes going out and marching and protesting impossible. This judgment against people are doing the absolute best they can in the moment is bullshit and it’s divisive and it’s discouraging, and those are the last things we need when we’re faced with the destruction of our democracy.

We need writers and artists and journalists and social media activists just as much as we need front line marchers and protesters. The woman sitting at home making phone calls to politicians all day is doing something just as really as the woman who stands in the freezing cold to protect water. Both are needed. Both are doing what they can do.

This is not a fight that’s going to be won overnight. We have to be in it for the long haul. Do what you can, when you can, and when you can do more, do more.

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