This is a plea to ask you to join me in fighting the forces of evil and despair. We have a planet that deserves saving! We have young people who deserve to live full lives! I urge you to get active!

Do not go shopping! Do not watch a movie! Do not eat sugar! These are all things that corporate leaders would approve of, to increase their profits and help push their political agendas. We cannot afford to let corporations run things.

Feel your feelings! Be terrified about climate change, 12-million acres of wildfire down under, trigger happy, unstable presidents or other disasters. Let your feelings motivate you to do something productive. Get angry! Get active! We are more powerful together than most of us can imagine.

I wrote this letter. I will email Rep. Peter DeFazio, and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, to ask them to limit Trump’s military actions in Iran. Then I will write friends in other states to spread the word. I will sign up to encourage potential voters to register then show up to vote.

At some point I will roll up in a ball and cry, listen to calming music, take a walk in the woods, make a list of all the reasons I can’t let myself stop believing, cry some more, hug one child and call the other one… then pick myself up and get back to it. Because I know that which I value is being up-ended, I will act with intention and passion to protect it.

What will you do?

Karen Austin

Eugene