Little Braveries

Madame:

Welcome back.  Your second paragraph so accurately reminded me that I need a get away to do that very thing.  My last two vacations, while interesting and enjoyable, were not renewing, and I believe it is for all the reasons you have so ably stated.

Your third paragraph may have hit a note as well.

There is an adage that for every person who speaks up bravely, 9 more often agree with him or her but were afraid to speak.   Many people think that brave means being “big” brave—fearlessly confident and bold.  Only a few people are like that. Most people have in them though the capacity to be a little brave—to say what they are thinking and then return to listening mode. 

It is often the little braveries that coalesce together to make the biggest difference.

That Roseanne clip was superb!  While disturbing that it is 20 years old and yet just as timely today, it is what the working class and middle class should internalize.  Not just as protection against slimy demagogues and their blindly plutocratic-serving ideologies, but as a movement for change.

Those who say they don’t vote because they are tired of trying to choose the least bad of two bad candidates:  Don’t fail to vote, because choosing the least problematic or least destructive of the choices IS a choice—the alternative is to choose MORE destruction.    Sometimes of course, there are independent or 3^rd or 4^th party candidates one can vote with a clearer conscience for—and more enthusiasm—and while they may not win, if you keep voting in enough numbers, eventually the sides will start adopting some of the positions.  If the race is going to be very close between the two “established” candidates, you will have to make a judgment call whether to possibly inadvertently help the worst candidate by denying your vote to the other.

Whatever you decide, after the vote is over, get to work on change.  Real change comes at the local level.  Get influence to make a change.  How?  Influence who the primary candidates are, who are the rule makers, etc.  You will be surprised how often how small the meetings often are, the groups are, that start to choose who candidates are.  If the party or parties of your choice aren’t getting you the candidates you want, there is where to begin to change that. 

Of course, the established status quo is counting on that you don’t care and won’t care enough.  Yet when thoughtful “ordinary” people start to take that kind of interest, parties begin to change.