Small Things

February 1, 2025 6:20 PM

I am pretty sure many of you in the US, and elsewhere, feel like they should be doing something or contributing something. Even if it's a small thing. It feels important to start somewhere, and help other people do the same. Right? Please post small things you have found that are helpful for yourself or your community. For instance, someone on Bluesky offered this page where you can download red cards in many languages, from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. And john hadron collider posted a Bluesky thread on how to think about public data archiving.

It would be nice if everyone could try to give people the benefit of the doubt on this website even MORE here in 2025, particularly in the U.S. It's a great time to practice! I'm sure I'm not the only one who has not been sleeping well.

posted by Glinn to MetaFilter-Related at 6:20 PM (8 comments total)

There's a house in my neighborhood that serves as a private (for obvious reasons) safe space for our trans and other queer community members. They don't have a way to fundraise so I supply (and will continue as long as necessary) them with paper products to meet the needs of the many people who gather there on a regular basis.
posted by Scout405 at 7:41 PM on February 1 [6 favorites]

* We increased our charitable giving. That includes money to help toward compensating for Trump damage.
* I called my members of Congress about to support federal workers and to opposed Elon Musk. (Here are a couple scripts for the former. Script for the latter was from 5 Calls.)
* In my subdivision, I put up a few small signs supporting federal workers.
posted by NotLost at 8:13 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]

Buy Canadian
posted by chococat at 9:13 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

Fighting for justice doesn’t have to be a big dramatic act. It can be small
Rebbeca Solnit (Guardian)
posted by Glinn at 8:02 AM on February 2 [6 favorites]

I decided to start giving to pro-democracy causes and to start calling my representatives. I’ve never done anymore more than vote before, so this is a big change for me. I’m trying to be active on Metafilter in my own way, because people need community and a way to talk with other people (not bots on Reddit) in these hard times. I’m trying to be kinder and to give people the benefit of the doubt in my daily life.
posted by LittleLadybug at 4:27 PM on February 2 [5 favorites]

These may or may not be small things depending on your perspective, but getting involved in local politics is something I'm really passionate about in terms of it having a big impact on the people in your community who need help. Being politically involved in your hyperlocal government does not have to be a huge commitment.

Positions like judge of elections, make an impact. Can you sit on a zoning board? You may have a role to play in whether more affordable housing gets built in your community. Months of going to local planning meetings with a group of neighbors, got us some protection against local housing stock being converted to short-term rentals.

Showing up and speaking at school board meetings can let marginalized or at risk kids in that school district know that adults in their community support them. I have heard directly from trans teens in my very red School district, that seeing adults stand up in front of a crowd and defend their rights to exist safely, makes them feel less alone. And after enough people standing up to do that guess what, we now have a democratic majority on that school board. (Which was notable enough that it made national news.)

This is going to sound dumb, but write letters to the editors to your local newspapers if you still have any. I volunteered as a poll greeter at the election that changed our school board, and I had a lot of older folks come to me and tell me they hadn't been paying attention to school board issues other than taxes since they no longer had kids in school. But, they explained, they read a letter to the editor that changed their mind..... One of them referenced a letter to the editor that I wrote about the importance of diversity in our curriculum.

Being involved with my hyper local Democrat group has connected me with a lot of other people doing organized things to help our local community. So I can support these hyperlocal organizations in the practical things they are doing to help people in our district feel safe and be safe, and I can support the political advocacy they are doing to get local rules and policies that help. I am guessing a lot of Mefites already do these things, but I will proselytize for participation in local government at about any chance I get.
posted by fennario at 2:53 AM on February 3 [5 favorites]

Added to the sidebar and Best Of blog!

I really love your tag "solidarity," Glinn, and it's given me ideas ... maybe we could begin tagging all our posts and threads that offer ideas for helping (wherever they appear) with "solidarity" (or maybe, like #solidarity) so people can find them easily, and the site could feature collections, or new ones, etc. on the sidebar as they come up ... or something along these lines. People really do want to help however they can.
posted by taz (staff) at 2:53 AM on February 4 [1 favorite]

That's a nice idea, taz. You added this one to the Best of also, but here is a link to a related Ask:
What can I do in my spare time to benefit society?
posted by Glinn at 6:41 AM on February 4