June 14th: Our Love is Louder Than Our Fear

(The title needs work but it sounds better than the alternative: Hippy-love-fest-but-getting-shit-done-and-oh-my-god-we-need-to-party-before-the-world-ends-apalooza!)

What it is:

A Day of Effective Altruism followed by a Night of Freaky FundRaising.

Effective Altruism:

Putting our energy out there in ways that make a positive difference. There are many different ways of doing this through volunteering, through research, or through funding charities that do the most good with the funds they receive.

What can we do?

Help organize community cleanups, civic service projects, or other volunteering opportunities. We should try and focus on areas that Trump is harming the most:

Inner cities. Can we clean up some of the inner city neighborhoods, can we establish some tutoring centers, or some day care centers? Can we build some inner city food oasis where there are food deserts? Can we have lawyers volunteer at court to try and keep a few kids out of a counterproductive judicial system?

Latino and Muslim Communities: Can we ask for volunteers to prepare food and provide instruction on some of the projects that might impact their community? Can we all play soccer? How do you say 'I love you' in Arabic?

The environment: If you have as much trouble as I occasionally do with crowds, why not take to the woods for trail maintenance or trash pick up? Why not collect water samples to test for toxins? Volunteering to help coordinate trash and recycling collection would be a huge help!

Freaky FundRaising:

Well, imagine Woodstock but all over the country. Or imagine your jam band and a few people from the neighborhood. Or a 5k you do all by yourself or with a few thousand people you found online. The more people we have hosting fundraising events for the institutions that are quickly becoming the best chance we have for having a future, the better.

I say Freaky because while preventing harm and repairing damage is important, we also need to send a message. We need an ungodly amount of coverage on this. This message, that our love is strong, that our love is effective, and that our love is louder than our fear needs to be heard all over the world. We need gags and gaffs and a reason to turn a camera our way. We need an impossible amount of attention. We need enough attention to drown out Trump, even if it is only for one day, that day should be his birthday.

If you are interested in helping, please let me know. If you are interested in partying, please be patient and stay tuned.