I already wrote one post here today, because this nonprofit here is doing a zoom in less than an hour so I’m sure we’ll get unsubsubscribes from two posts in a day but at this point I can’t be fussed about stuff like that. BTW here’s tonight’s zoom link.
I’m writing again because it’s well past time to get fierce and start acting like we’re in a crisis, and I am maxed out on people being in denial.
I listened to an ACLU-and-friends rapid response zoom late this afternoon that was set up for nonprofits; in light of things the administration did last week to threaten nonprofit foundations, nonprofits in general, activists, and free speech.
The administration is doing a huge push for fear; using levers they have available to pull fast. For example, direct threats and actions toward specific organizations, and a general executive directive that people/groups/businesses mistakenly believe has the weight of being actual law when it doesn’t.
I listened to this one-hour ACLU-and-partners zoom. I listened to lawyers and leaders with big alliances and well-established organizations absolutely in a position to be targeted by this administration.
They are the low-hanging fruit people. They are at least some of the out-front organizations.
What I mean is: these are some of the loudest speaking folks who are highly vulnerable to being targeted themselves.
And they spent an entire hour telling everyone on the zoom — over 6,000 people — that we need to keep standing up, keep using our voices, and keep being courageous.
They used different words but that was the point.
They talked about how various court decisions are holding; even when the US Supreme Court is problematic. But not all cases ever make it to the US Supreme Court, and they won’t.
They gave us resources. They gave us talking point “DOs and DON’Ts”. They announced more efforts, and a big planned alliance letter.
But mostly, for me, what they gave and what they showed is being fierce.
Being fierce isn’t about violence.
Being fierce is about going all in to advocate for what you believe in, for who you love, for your values, for what’s important to you, for what you want to see in the world, for a different future, for a world in which everyone has a chance to thrive and flourish, and so on.
Being fierce is about being out and doing the work — whatever it looks like.
It’s going to vary.
Anyway, I got off this fast-response ACLU-and-partners call this afternoon, and I cried. I cried because here are these people out in front being high risk and being vulnerable and they are not doing it for themselves.
They are doing it for all of us. They are doing it for people they love.
They are showing us how it’s done.
They are showing us that we have power.
They are telling us that we do.
I cried after watching and hearing them because what I keep running into is armchair activism, 900 million people posting scary articles and memes all the time on social media. I got emotional because I try to promote the events we’re having all over on social media (in free ways) but I cannot break through the absolute deluge every day all the time that is the scary news and the alarm.
I got emotional because there on the ACLU zoom were big groups being straight up courageous and dealing with hard reality, when I run into so many other nonprofit groups who are in no way ready to change how they do business to account for the fact that the entire United States and in fact the entire world order are changing fast and changing every day.
Why are we so hesitant to deal with changing huge risk?
Well I know the answer to that because I’ve watched in disasters and catastrophes as people work very hard to hold on to the idea that there is not in fact a disaster unfolding when literally disaster things are happening all around. And that’s just stuff like a giant wildfire, or a flood, or similar. This is so, so much bigger — and with less things burning down or being underwater. So far anyway.
It’s our default — denial.
But we need to pull out of it and to start having the awkward conversations and doing everyday life things differently.
It’s all changing and it’s changing fast.
So okay. Thank you for listening to my griping session this afternoon.
If you would like to get in on some conversations where we’re dealing with this fast change and building community to deal with it, join us. This work is super tiny so far but we intend to help champion ways through this whole mishegoss, and in fact to make change too as we go.
So hey. Get fierce with us.
And if this isn’t your cup of team or whatever metaphor fits (or doesn’t), godspeed to you as you find your way through this new era of big change.
For the rest of us, as my old fire boss used to say, “Let’s went.”
Onward, forward, and through — together.
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Zooms and other Fierce Community efforts are made possible by people who donate to this work through ActBlue, through Patreon, and through paid Substack subscriptions.
Vanessa Burnett is the director at Fierce Community. This nonprofit work promotes civic engagement through connection, community, creativity, leadership, empowerment, alliances, and resilience in an era of rising instability and societal disruption. It’s through-finding by countering fear. Vanessa is a social entrepreneur, advisor, and empower-er with a systems-level understanding of the pieces and parts that modern society needs in order to survive. She has over 25 years experience in resilience-building, civic engagement, coalition-building, critical infrastructure, systems thinking, big disasters, catastrophes, wildland fire, emergency management, incident management, land management, park rangering, homeland security, continuity of operations (COOP), continuity of government (COG), technology innovation, public communication, and disaster information sharing.
By the way - I got a follow-up email on this with resources if people need this. If interested, drop me an email to either shiftthecountry@gmail.com or fiercecommunityteam@gmail.com. - Vanessa Burnett