To Do List*:
Labour and Greens must get consistently louder - on Te Tiriti, on public health, on all of the things that are being deliberately dismantled.
All National/Act-Lite™ policy plans and talking points - bin them. Bin them now.
If you are a Labour or Greens voter, write to them. Tell them they must get louder.
Tell them that silence is acceptance - and that it says everything.
Tell them that your vote will be dependent on their actions as well as their words - and your donations will be, too.
Write to media editors to tell them to include expert, lived experience and Opposition responses when reporting.
Call out imbalanced articles. Cancel subscriptions - and subscribe to those doing journalism vs. those repeating talking points verbatim without critique or context.
Read. Read widely, read those who see our future with clarity because they are living it now.
Recommendations include Sarah Kendzior, A.R. Moxon E-tangata, Rebecca Solnit.
Find the writers, the activists, the experts, the lived experience voices.
Listen to and amplify them.
As Sarah Kendzior has said, make a list.
Make a list of the things you value, everything that you love.
Make a list of the red lines, the things you will not lose, the things you will not do, tolerate, accept.
“Never lose sight of who you are.”
- Sarah Kendzior
Listen to those who are noting clear opportunities for corruption that need to be plugged - urgently, now, today.
The lines that we will not cross, and the activities we will not tolerate are getting blurrier by the day. Sharpen them.
Understand that the rot will spread.
It’s contagious.
It’s also deliberately, consciously being funded to grow.
Understand that there are thousands of answers and thousands of actions to take to prevent the spread - it’s not inevitable or hopeless.
Understand that there will be a choice to make around resistance.
Understand that people who seek to control rely on compliance in advance.
Be the elephant.
Understand that knowledge is power and balance is everything.
Absorb what you have the capacity to absorb, and then go outside and touch grass.
You never know what action, large or small will make a difference, and there are many taking action even if it feels like there’s not.
Understand there’s power in actively listening to those on the frontlines of impact who are blessed and cursed with seeing the future - and in action.
There’s power in understanding how much there is to lose, and, with the capacity you have, helping to hold the ground steady.
*A short, incomplete list of tangible actions that will only grow from here.
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