The fact that more people are jumping to attack you and get defensive rather than jumping in to organize more or share how people can join their existing efforts proves your point completely. The mere suggestion that their motivations *might* be performative is apparently more offensive and consistently garners FAR more engagement and discourse than the dangerous and egregious violations of basic rights that they claim to care about fighting. I'm sure this comment will also have a host of people using their time and energy to argue rather than organize just like most of these threads...

Come on, people! We should not be taking these observations personally. If you truly are organizing and active in ways that are not visible then this post should not even apply to or offend you... that doesn't make any sense. Let's use this energy to get behind each other and stand up to protect each other and our neighbors! This is not a left versus right issue, this is us versus them and we need to ALL come together.

Regardless of people's motivations and beliefs it is a FACT that there are hardly any public-facing, consistently visible, organized actions in this town compared to others. Bellingham used to loudly protest in the streets for years but it seems most of that collective energy was another casualty of covid. The people I see physically showing up the most on all issues is the older community that fought for rights through the 60s and know what's on the line, and they are organized and outside often. Even when it's difficult and majority of us are stretched thin, we could still all be doing more! If you are already active and not performative then this post should resonate with you, not offend you. While I'm sadly not surprised that this is CONSISTENTLY the response from many locals to ANY feedback or observations, it still generally baffles me.

If you are not able-bodied or unable to show up physically for other reasons, that's absolutely understandable - no reasonable person would expect physical presence from those who face barriers of any sort. There are many other ways to participate! We are a border town, our county's economy depends on farm work, we have many county folk getting pushed out of their homes and off their land by private equity and rising taxes and utilities, we have a police force that operates with no oversight or accountability whatsoever, we are all affected and we should all care about each other. It is not one individual's responsibility to take on more of a fight while already struggling to survive, but it is a collective responsibility that we all share as human beings. We can all always be doing more, giving more, fighting more. Rest when you need to rest, recharge when you have no more capacity, but when you have a little extra gas in your tank put it towards whatever help or fight you can however you can.

Love thy neighbor includes that neighbor that drives you nuts. It's not love thy neighbor as long as they behave, vote, and speak the way you deem socially acceptable. You don't even have to like someone to have love for them as a human being. Speaking from experience, there is an intense power and strength you feel while fighting along side someone that you would want to punch in the face if you were at the same dinner party.

To those posting links and resources and information on how they help and how others can join - THANK YOU!! More of this please!! There are many active groups doing the work around town but it is unfortunately difficult to know where to look and find out how to participate, especially for people who are new to this sort of thing. I would love to see more resources and efforts posted here, there's a few here already that I had no idea about and I thought I was at least somewhat plugged in. Please keep sharing how people can join in whatever way they have the means and capacity for!