Am I Doing Enough In this Time?

Picnics are not going to do it. We CAN and MUST do better.

I, like many, have had a heavy heart these last couple of weeks, witnessing our neighbors, friends, kid's friend's parents, and community members being taken away. I want to remind me and you that THIS IS NOT NORMAL.

I was volunteering for AIDS Lifecycle and we landed in LA just after the ICE protests had begun. My friends were sending me worried texts about what was happening. We drove down to the peaceful protests outside of the federal buildings downtown to see for ourselves. They were small and determined and totally non-violent. Once again, the corporate media machine was churning out a narrative that simply was not true, trying to demonize protesters and scare people away from joining. Please question the narrative they keep serving up.

Right now, many people are asking if they are doing enough? Noam Chomsky said unequivocally, "No, none of us are doing enough." Our world is being taken from us right under our noses, our environment is being abused and decimated, and genocide is happening live on social media. We are all a part of this. We all have an obligation to do something.

I know that people want to do more but are unsure what to do.

I attended the local "No Kings" rally this past weekend and it was not enough, not by any stretch. Do not go home thinking you did your job because you attended one of these events. It was not clear what the point was besides getting people together with signs to picnic. I am not trying to shame anyone, but to get us to think this through a little bit. Stay with me.

Yes, it's good to be together. Yes, it's good not to feel alone and to get to be with others who care about the things we care about. It's good to make ourselves visible.

But is this effective organizing? No.

In Albuquerque, thousands gathered, and as much as I appreciate the stand that Melanie Stansbury has been taking in Congress, in her speech, she talked about being in our joy, and raw raw raw, and then at the end of her speech, when there should have been clear direction and an ask for all of these people who were listening, she just said goodbye.

No next step. No call to action. No vision.

This is so unacceptable at this stage in this precarious game. We are losing our democracy, people are being disappeared and detained without cause. People's lives are on the line. Every organizing opportunity to impact people and get them into action needs to be seized and exploited.

What do we need to be doing? We need to use our power and privilege everywhere we have it. We need to resist authoritarianism by showing up. We need to build human blockades to ICE taking people from our communities. White folks especially need to put our own bodies on the line. Black and brown folks have much more to fear and to lose. White folks with US citizenship need to be on the front lines and listening to BIPOC leaders for direction.

We need to be loud, bold and smart. We need to follow the guidance and direction of Black and Indigenous women especially. They have been in this battle for a long time. Please follow leaders who have a sense of what needs to be done right now. Read the tips Palestinians provide for staying safe, for survival. No one knows better than they do how to survive occupation. Our president is occupying our cities and turning our military, there for the purpose of meeting any threat to our democracy and constitution, on its own people.

Nothing about this is okay. And a parade with tanks, obviously meant to intimidate us, is a horrendous display of the patriarchal threat of violence.

If you got out there to speak your mind and be with the people this weekend, great, and now, what is the next best step you can take in your community? Because your community needs you. Who do you know? What resources do you have? How can you be part of the web of community and extended family that leaves no precious person behind?

What can you do to help people in your community this week? Are you getting alerts about ICE so you can show up to protect and support the neighbors they are targeting? Are you mobilizing the people around you? We got a lot to do. You are needed.

I am continuing to do my work and to lift up the women, queer, non-binary and gender expansive folks who show up to meet the most tender and powerful parts of themselves in this moment. This is critical, and absolutely needed. We all need to feel ourselves in our full power and that means diving down into our sexuality and what holds us back there, because we are oppressed and manipulated at the most core levels through our bodies and sexuality.

But I know this is not enough. Whatever you are doing in your life is a contribution to our world, AND there is more to do. We all need to show up extra and get uncomfortable right now. If we want to stop this authoritarian takeover, it will take all of us setting a clear boundary over and over. It requires our unified "NO!"

Finding your "no" means knowing where your "yes" is. One is only as powerful as the other. This week I am teaching a new masterclass: Desire as Medicine: Healing Your Relationship with Pleasure After 40 and you are invited. I've been hard at work on it and I am excited about the richness of this conversation. This will not be a run-of-the-mill class on just asking for what you want. Desire is deep and our struggles with it are real.

Join me Monday June 23 for this brand new class. I am offering it free of charge for my community this time around. I hope you will join me if it resonates.

Keep going. We need each other. Let's be about that. We are better than this. Don't let them steal your humanity.