There Are Things We Can Do (To Stop ICE and More)
It’s so common for me to hear from people that they are upset about what is happening, but that they also feel powerless to do anything. This is sometimes summarized in the statement, “…but what can we do? There’s nothing we can do.” In these moments, I don’t always know how to respond. I know that there is so much we can do, but the person saying this to me does not usually seem to be looking for suggestions for what to do. I think, sometimes, the person saying this feels both powerless (or scared, or tired, or overwhelmed, etc.) and also ashamed or guilty for not acting. When someone says this to me, I often have the sense that they are seeking absolution or agreement.
I don’t want to make anyone feel worse than they are already feeling, and so usually I don’t disagree with people. I think that there are a million very valid reasons that people don’t take action—sometimes people are afraid, sometimes people are already oversubscribed, sometimes life circumstances don’t allow for it, sometimes people are too emotionally or logistically overwhelmed with something else, and sometimes people are so isolated from others that they can’t imagine being part of a powerful collective. In my opinion, all of these reasons can be very real and very valid reasons to not act. I, myself, frequently am not taking real and tangible action. When that is the case, I have my own reasons that I consider valid to that moment in my life. I want to respond thoughtfully to people who tell me they feel there is nothing they can do. Maybe if I think on it more, I’ll figure out the right way to respond. Mostly what I want to convey to people in these moments that I accept wherever they are emotionally on the topic of acting or not acting. I don’t feel judgement toward them, even though I also know that there are always things that we can do when we are internally and externally resourced enough to act.
Many people have studied and written about how social change happens, which is why I am sure that they are always things that we can do. I’m temperamentally oriented towards non-violence and am persuaded by the research that indicates non-violent social movements succeed far more frequently than movements that employ violent strategies. I have been looking for information about trainings for non-violent direction action, and I ran across these resources that I wanted to share.
In my opinion, these resources have not been updated well enough for the current information environment in which we all find ourselves (social media, the 24-hour news cycle, etc.). If I find materials more well-suited to our modern moment, I’ll share those, too. These resources also do not include some of my favorite non-violent strategies, such as culture-influencing (through music, art, film, poetry, etc.) and organized conversations (public debates, for example, or the one-on-one conversations that happen at scale during political canvasses).
I’m offering these to people who are contemplating action at some point in the future and haven’t yet come across any of the writing available from people who have studied how to resist oppressive systems and successfully effect change.
If and when we are ready, there are things we can do. If we don’t find that we are ever ready, I think we probably have very good reasons for that.