The importance of showing up

We can't fix this without you

Sunday’s New York Times carried one of those settle-in-and-read stories about a New Hampshire town (Croydon) that was briefly ruled by people who embrace the notions of the Free State Project, and voted to slash the town’s education budget, among other questionable moves.

Croydon still embraces the New England idea of town meetings, but people weren’t showing up until they saw that not showing up was the pathway to dismantling a town until it no longer looked like home.

The message of the story wasn’t to chastise the Free Staters, but to remind readers that

“Showing up. That’s the big lesson,” said Chris Prost, 37, a Croydon resident who runs a small brewery from a barn at the back of his house. “And not just showing up, but also knowing what’s going on.”

On social media, I’ve lost track of the number of people who say they aren’t voting any more, or that they voted in 2020 and now look. I’ve stopped responding because that idea strikes me as the worst kind of stamp-your-Mary-Janes immature. We didn’t just get here. The recent horrible SCOTUS decisions (on eliminating separation of church and state, on removing a woman’s agency over her own damn body) have been years in the making. Throwing up your hands is emphatically not an option, goddammit.

I guarantee the right-wingers aren’t resting on their laurels. They’re already taking aim at other basic human rights. (And please, teenage Jesus, can someone remove Clarence Thomas from the bench?)

So get busy, all you righteous-types. It’s going to be a bumpy ride, but it is a ride that we must take.