Putting Up A Flare - Calling In Our People

I don’t know what this guy is the picture is doing, but I totally get it. It feels familiar.

It’s a picture of a guy on an unnaturally created hill surrounded by grass who’s waving around a flare… in a sea of smoke. Or fog? It’s not clear which. It’s also just not clear… because that’s what happens in smoke and fog.

I get it.

I don’t know if this guy’s with a bunch of other people and they’re all waving flares and that’s why it’s so smoky… or if he’s trying to raise a different color of smoke to catch attention and stand out from the rest. I don’t know if he’s working with others to raise alarm or to bring needed attention. I don’t know why all of the smoke is around in the first place… or if it’s an emergency… or if it’s a protest. Could by any or all of that.

The picture feels like this time up in these unstable United States. It’s not clear where the smoke is coming from. There’s a lot of it. Are we making it worse by trying to put up a flare? Is it better to try anyway? Can anyone even see us? Do we even have other options than waving a flare?

I get the obviously furtive, urgent attempt to raise a signal like the guy in the picture; even in the midst of so much other smoke and fog and noise.

I get the overwhelm.

What do you even do? What do we even do? And don’t we have better tools than a flare? Sometimes we don’t. Some days you’ve got to work with what you’ve got.

I keep writing on Substack because I want to get signals up to break through the fog, too, but I don’t know what it will take. We’re not writing enough here yet at Shift the Country probably to get a signal above the fog. Yet.

We’re intending too, though.

Because here’s why…

We’ve got an idea that we can navigate all of this rising instability, revitalize the US democracy, and change our trajectory.

We’ve got an idea that we can champion and fight differently for the country we wish to see in the world; for the shift we want to see.

We’ve got a 5-part approach set up to help us build the kind of well-coordinated movement that’s been proven in other countries to counter authoritarianism.

We can counter fascism, hate, bigotry, intolerance, and extremism while we’re at it.

Because what’s happening up in this country is bullsh*t.

It’s not okay.

We’re watching the loudest and the meanest people drive the public narrative, drive more hate, and drive public policy — right down to the school board level. And that’s just today. It won’t be long ‘til we see what happens when the lawless, reckless, colleague-threatening, pro-coup, anti-woke, hate-pushers are running the US House of Representatives come January.

They’re collectively targeting everyone but straight, pale, males for harassment and hate.

They’re getting rid of books and science and public health and vaccines that we all need to live and flourish and thrive. They’re weakening public education. They’re emptying government and destroying institutions built over decades and centuries. They’re spreading lies. They’re spreading hate speech, incitement, and stochastic terrorism. They’re inspiring targeted shootings of specific groups who don’t fit their model of the future they want to see right out in public in the communities where we live — at churches, at grocery stores, at big box stores, at bars, and at social gatherings. They’re arming themselves to the teeth. They’re standing around being armed, anonymous, and intimidating in our public spaces. They’re threatening humans and events meant to spread diversity, inclusion, and evolution. They’re scheming coordinated take-downs of our electrical grid.

How is all this building a society we can get excited about; where everyone has a chance to thrive and flourish? Do we expect our economy and our businesses to succeed, innovate, and compete globally when this is the future we’re heading toward? Fast? Like a bunch of lemmings?

None of all of that is decreasing, getting diffused, or being disarmed.

It’s continuing to ramp up — and it’s pushed by countless politicians and several major media and social media networks.

We’ve got no huge, major, well-coordinated opposition to all this hate and extremism.

We do have about a zillion groups that are fired up, fighting against all of this, and/or doing some kind of good somewhere. People are fighting. People have been fighting.

This is not a new fight — but it is fast-evolving. We need to evolve, too.

What could we do if we fought in bigger coalitions… and in more well-coordinated ways? What if we set about creating a better coordinated movement, intentionally driving the public narrative in new ways, and bringing economic and business pressure like we’ve not ever tried at huge scale? What if we get out front with our moral courage and our big vision about the country we want to live in and bring about?

Yo. We could seriously shake some stuff up. That’s what we could do.

So, like, let’s get going.

Here are the Shift the Country 5 Things we can to do together change our trajectory. It’s basically the same stuff just mentioned:

• Thing 1:  Connect With People.

• Thing 2:  Do More With Community & Coalitions.

• Thing 3:  Involve Businesses Through Partnerships & Pressure.

• Thing 4:  Champion Vision, Values, & Moral Courage.

• Thing 5:  Drive the Narrative, Create a Buzz, & Spread It Everywhere.

We’re getting into this shift by starting daily brainstorming and shift-building calls to get started. Those calls will start momentarily, but there’s more we can to do get started while we wait for the Zoom calls to start.

We start by asking you to talk to the people you know — and sharing this possibility. By talking about the threats. By talking about the country we want to build, and that we want to fight for. And that it’s not what the loudest, meanest people are pushing right now.

We need you to help us talk this shift up.

The whole thing starts by us leveraging our personal connections. By talking. With tough — or easy, or awkward — conversations about what’s happening up in this country, what we want, and how we have ways to go about getting fighting for it that are different than what we’ve tried before. What better time than winter and holidays? Ha!

Winter or not, we’re going to need to talk lots more folks into getting more engaged, taking new risks, thinking in different ways, keeping the faith in each other and in our democracy, and in believing we can pull this shift off.

Because we can. We’re awesome, for starters. And fun. And inclusive. And smart. And wickedly, brilliantly creative. We have all kinds of game to bring. We just need to bring it — at every level, and in all kinds of new ways.

We’re also the majority.

That’s what’s supposed to count, in a democracy. We need to make it count. We need to make this democracy work.

We can.

Talk to your people. So we start with our personal networks… and then we get going on all of the groups, communities, and social networks we’re all involved with. Just imagine how many groups we’re all in! Online and in-real-life! We know people. And then we’ll get going on the businesses we can pressure.

And on it goes. We start with humans; with the people we know. We work out from there.

Share stuff. Pass this Substack post along. Share our Shift the Country stuff wherever you share stuff — online, and in-real-life. We’re on Substack, Post (new!), Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter (maybe not for long), and Eventbrite.

Engage in our spaces. Join in the new mobile app Substack chat for Shift the Country. Comment on Substack posts. Help bring folks in. Let’s start growing community — that’s a huge key to whatever we build next, and how we do it. It starts with building connection; with growing relationships.

Use this work as an excuse to reach out to people. For now, the talking, sharing, and engaging is a fabulous place to start — especially given the weird time of year we’re in. Plus, it can even be a good excuse to reach out to folks who might be in serious need of some connection and community during what for many is the trickiest, most challenging time of the year. We need humans. This work here can help us connect to more. There’s opportunity here. We don’t all have to feel so alone — and we’re not. Let’s get more connected.

Bring your brain. This shift isn’t going to be like other political or change work. Partly because we’re going to ask you all to get involved to help us create and grow it. Partly because we’re all going to need to bring our very big brains, and to get those brains together to get this shift going.

We can’t fight unprecedented threats by doing the same stuff we’ve already done. It’s well past time to iterate. This is a place for that — for big creativity, big synergy, big courage, and big ideas. Everywhere.

What’s next. Shift the Country is starting online brainstorming & teamwork conversation calls to get us going… just as soon as I get better recovered from some health drama. I keep promising that these online Zoom calls will start any day but life hands you lemons… and you gotta roll with the lemons. Semper Gumby. Always flexible. It will work when it works. We’ll get these online active brainstorming call things started as soon as I can pull it off.

In the meantime. Let’s ramp this shift up. We need talkers, we need networkers, we need subscribers, we need sharers, we need volunteers, and we need funders. Check out our website, which is also in this conveniently printable PDF guide.

Sign up. Have the talks with your people. Reach out to others. Get some ideas. Invest time in relationships. Get some hope. Do something to keep yourself inspired.

We’ll build from there.

We can turn this country around. It’s not going to happen in an instant, and it’s not going to happen by waiting for someone else to save it all. It’s going to take big strategy, and big coordination.

We’re up. It’s time.

We can do so, so, so, so much more than we’ve already done as a country, and as a majority coalition. And we’ve done a lot together. Let’s do more.

Suit up. Get ready. This is gonna be good.