Do Something...Fucking ANYTHING. Right Now. Like NOW.

Author: Coonoor Behal

As I’m writing this, the clock is about to strike midnight and we’ll be only 45 days until an election that will decide our next president and which party controls the Senate.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg just died a few hours ago.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! And because of this, I’ll spare you my Woman of Color perspective on what should be “white people’s” electoral work (talking to Republicans, knocking on doors, and other annoying and/or dangerous stuff) and what everyone should be doing. 

Nasty Women, right now is not the time to internalize, analyze, light a fucking candle or do a face mask. That is valuable self-care, but it’s also too self-focused for what we need right now. A close friend was dealing with a lot of self-doubt and anxiety recently; yoga wasn’t helping, meditation wasn’t helping, eating and sleeping well wasn’t helping. I pointed out to her that all of those things are about HER. The one thing she hadn’t tried yet was externalizing and contributing something to the outside world, to something outside of herself. 

My advice to Nasty Women right now: Deprioritize your own feelings and discomfort and instead channel it into productive contributions. We don’t have time for you to figure shit out.

Now is the time to EXTERNALIZE your anger, rage, doubt, insecurity, fear, disappointment, everything. LET IT OUT. And do it in a way that helps others, especially those more vulnerable than you are.

Let the Nasty OUT.

I’m not a political or electoral expert, but I sure do give a shit about the country I have to live in for the rest of my life (probably, I keep my spare Canadian passport under my pillow these days), the country my nieces will have to grow up in, the country I have to run a small business in. This list probably isn’t comprehensive, but who cares, I don’t wanna hear it -- you have to DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!!! AND HERE IS A LIST OF THINGS!!! OMG HOW LUCKY ARE YOU?!?!

The Everybody Do Something Right Fucking Now List:

Phone Banking

Yes, I know this is tedious and talking to strangers is hard. Even as a teenager I hated talking on the phone. I personally don’t do phone banking. It’s okay to choose what fits best with your skill set and comfort level. But word on the street is that phone banking is the most effective thing next to door knocking. If you have the gift of gab PLEASE do this!

Places I know that are doing phone banking:

Text Banking

I fucking LOVE text banking! I’ve been doing it for over two years now and it is easy, fun, and even addictive. You can literally send out hundreds of texts to voters in a minute -- but don’t worry, cos only like 12 of them will ever respond! But it feels soooo good to get that many out there and then to go through the process of engaging them and directing them to the right action, be it GOTV, volunteering, ordering a sign, etc…If you are someone like me who loves the dopamine rush of accomplishing something, you’ll love text banking.

Places I know that are doing text banking:

Write Letters or Postcards to Voters

I’ve also been doing this for a long time and it’s also fun -- and doesn’t require speaking to strangers! And I get to use all the colored markers I overbought 7 years ago that refuse to run out of ink. Some of these require a home printer (or nearby print shop) to print off letters that you then stuff into envelopes and mail out. The postcards, you’ll need some time to order them (order them now!). What you are writing and to which state or type of voter will change a lot depending on the campaign that is active at any given moment.

Places I know that are sending snail mail to voters.

  • Postcards to Voters (their postcards are fast to get via Amazon)

  • Reclaim Our Vote (they are wrapping up their postcard campaigns in October, so make sure you have enough time to get all the supplies needed). They’ll be switching over to focus on phone banking at that time.

  • VoteFwd (print letters at home, enter a small message to the voter, sign, stuff, stamp, and you’re done!)

  • SwingLeft (in partnership with VoteFwd)

Volunteer IRL!

Seriously, even with COVID there are safe ways to do this. The problem is that in most election years, it’s older, retired people who volunteer at polling places. They need to stay home and be safe right now! So you/we younger folks and people with good health insurance need to pick up the slack and volunteer if we are able.

Check out:

Donate!

Do you have extra money? Did you get a nice, fat COVID loan from Trump’s administration? Make him regret he ever participated in such socialist shenanigans (ugh) and donate that shit to powers that will defeat him!!! There are loads of places you can donate to, but here are some of my faves:

See? There are soooo many ways to make the hole that Republicans crawled out of deeper and wider! Isn’t that more satisfying than hot tea and a good book?

STOP READING THIS ARTICLE AND GO DO SOMETHING!

I regret none of the “fucks.”

Coonoor Behal is Founder & CEO of Mindhatch, a creative consultancy that focuses on helping companies and organizations get better results through 1) Design Thinking 2) Organizational Improv™, 3) Innovation Facilitation, and 4) Diversity & Inclusion. Coonoor is the author of "I Quit! The Life-Affirming Joy of Giving Up (scheduled to be published by New Degree Press in April 2021) and the doting owner of a Bernese Mountain Dog named Nikka. Her favorite description of herself was provided by a friend years ago when she described Coonoor as "elegant yet foul."

Meg Murray