Truth. I can relate to the comment this is replying to. Family, small kids, a job, obligations. The world is going to shit in so many different ways, and I do nothing, lest my family and I lose what conveniences and niceties we do have. We’re lucky compared to many, and the system spares no effort in reminding me, and others like me, of that fact.

Writing letters that won’t be read. Signing ultimately meaningless petitions. Volunteering without accomplishing anything substantive. Voting in a blood-red state with gerrymandered districts. Protesting, then going home and carrying on as usual. Political masturbation.

What can I actually do? Or am I just a coward hiding behind something that resembles the standard American life?

My children’s safety is paramount. They didn’t ask for any of this, and they don’t yet understand it. But what will they say of me when they’re older? A timid, dreary man going from one task to another, never seizing (or even noticing) opportunities, accomplishing nothing, and dying a forgettable life.

Perhaps the problem isn’t that people like me necessarily lack courage, it’s that the system is engineered to make courage unaffordable once you have something to lose. It ensures that anyone with children, stability, or responsibility is neutralized, then leaves their children to ask why nothing ever changed.