Social Justice Warriors Unite Like Voltron!

Subtitle: fighting back against the fascist, ego-maniacal, corrupt, lying, bigoted, fecal-fueled dumpster-fire that is, unfortunately regrettably depressingly confusingly infuriatingly disgustingly our new President of these United (for how long, who knows?) States of America.

As such, here's my starter's guide *PART ONE* to fighting back against this shitstorm with all the paper-towels at your disposal.

1. Follow and support organizations doing the front-line work of exposing the destruction being wrought and who are actively fighting back.

Start with local organizations in your communities FIRST! In my locale of the Bay Area, for instance, we've got... Jobs with Justice SF, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy and Bay Rising, 350 Bay Area, Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, AFT 2121, CAIR SF Bay Area, California Faculty Association, Causa Justa Just Cause, Chinese Progressive Association, Climate Workers, Forward Together, Hand in Hand, North Bay JwJ, SEIU 1021, SEIU USWW, Senior & Disability Action, Sunflower Alliance, United Educators of San Francisco, UNITE HERE Local 2, Young Workers United, Spectrum, and Black Lives Matter.

If you don't know the local organizations in your area -- GOOGLE IT! Get on that research. Do your homework. In the words of Mr. Fred Rogers: "look for the helpers."

Or leave a comment and I will, happily, find some reputable local organizations helping people for you.

These movements start from the bottom up as much, if not more, than from the top down. If we change our communities, then we can reach out to others in need and form a better, more perfect, unified front against our current homegrown Nazi Party.

Then, follow and donate to your statewide and/or nationwide organizations! I'm talking the: ACLU, NAACP, CAIR, ADL, Planned Parenthood, and so on. These are the people taking on Trump and his ilk at the national level, doing the hard work that only large organizations like these have the resources and infrastructure to do.

Remember: you don't need a lot of money to donate. $5 helps. Shoot, $1 helps! It's about pooling our collective resources, like all communities and civilized societies do, to achieve a greater end than we can do alone or in isolated groups. And if you just can't donate, no worries! Follow them anyways.

Next, follow and support the "alt" and "rogue" government personnel fighting back from the inside. I'm talking the National Parks Service, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the Social Security Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, the CDC, HUD, the DOJ, NASA, and so on. Here's the full list.

In the tradition of Former POTUS Obama's female staffer, we want "amplification." We want to amplify the voices of those on the front-lines, risking their reputations, their jobs, and their bodies, so we can have a freer world with -- and I know this is cheesy but it's also true! -- liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness for all.

We also want to show solidarity with them and each other. We need to know that we are in this together! We need to remember that no one is free until we are all free. No one gets justice unless we all get justice. No one matters until our Black, Brown, LGBTQ, Muslim, Poor, Immigrant, Native, Jewish, and Homeless people matter. No one matters until we start treating the people we've historically disenfranchised and oppressed like their lives matter.

So when these groups call for help, when they post specific actions you can take to support their goals -- our goals -- take that advice and go with it for however long or in whatever way you can. If you can't march, then call. If you can't call, then write. If you can't write, then sign. If you can't sign, then sing. If you can't sing, then speak. If you can't speak, then cook for our allies. If you can't cook, then open your home to our allies. If have no home, then cry out and I promise you... WE WILL HEAR YOU and WE WILL HELP YOU, to the best of our abilities, with all the strengths we possess -- even amidst our weaknesses, failings, and mistakes. We are not a small group of rebels a la Star Wars. We are not an underground resistance a la Red Dawn. We are this country. We are America now and we are America's future.

And remember, when in doubt about what to do, who to ask, how to help, what's happening, you only need to do one simple thing: GOOGLE IT!

Cheers