“What Can I Do?”

Some people are marching. Some are calling their senators. Some are tuning out, or waiting to see if critics are overreacting.

Whatever your political viewpoint, Donald Trump’s first weeks as president have people talking about little else. And, in the case of bright-blue New Haven, many people people opposed to Trump’s initial executive orders have been asking, ​“What can I do to make a difference?”

Six prominent local voices — community leaders, organizers, a radio personality — offered their five-point responses to that oft-heard question

Kica Matos

Longtime social justice and immigrant rights advocate.

• Reform Immigration for America (managed by the Center for Community Change). To sign up for immigration actions, text JUSTICE to 69866. The RIFA Facebook page also has up-to-date information and requests of people to participate in real time actions — by calling your member of Congress or signing a petition or joining a rally

• United We Dream. An immigrant rights organization that advocates for DREAMers; you can sign up to receive their alerts here:/

• Sign up at the Unidad Latina En Acción Facebook page (New Haven).

• Donate locally to JUNTA for Progressive Action, Unidad Latina en Acción, CT Students for a Dream.

Sarah Ganong

Ganong works in fundraising at Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound, an area nonprofit working to preserve and protect Connecticut and Long Island Sound, even in an era of Trump. (They’re always looking for donations too!) She is also involved in local progressive political campaigns.

1. Everyone is telling you to make phone calls to your politicians. An easy way to stay organized? Label them in your phone with (politician) before their first name in your contacts. Then you can just call down the list. I saved my federal and state politicians, and often call on my walk to work.

2. Have tough conversations. I’m not going to convince a stranger of anything, but her best friend or aunt might. So talk to the people you know, even though it can be hard, when it’s not too much for your own mental health.

3. Donate to the Working Families Party. They’re smart, innovative, and taking the fight to Trump nationally, while making a splash in Connecticut politics, too.

4. Wherever you donate, set up monthly donations if you can! It’s easier to keep up donations if you don’t have to remember to make them, and it helps out organizations for the long haul.

5. Do one thing a day — and share it. I’m posting a daily Facebook update to hold myself and my networks accountable. Even if an action is small, 365 days of actions sure add up.

None of these ideas are mine — but sharing information would be my sixth idea!

Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

Minister of Immanuel Baptist Church and host of the weekly ​“Community Conversations” program on Ugly Radio and WNHH FM.

The request/desire of ​“the people” troubles me, as I believe the desire to want to ​“do something concrete” that immediately addresses (or solves?) our problems runs counter to what really needs to be done. The expressed desire to ​“do something” which sounds like a wish to accomplish something, speaks to an instant gratification perspective, among other things. It is a perspective that led to the situation that we are in right now and are desperately trying to escape. It is my view that this perspective will not be able to rescue us. The desire also seems to ignore the fact that the situations we face are complex, and the solutions will need to involve more sustained activities which have long lasting effects. Writing a check, I’m afraid, won’t be enough.

As we search for things that we can do, we might find many simple activities that serve to mollify, or even distract, us from the complexity of our problems. But, if we search for ways to “(sustain) justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God” there are a few things, that we must engage over a longer period than participating in a rally, or writing a check. Based on the perspective I’ve laid out in these few sentences, here is my list of five:

1. We should talk with our children as they engage the media, of all kinds, to ensure that they are not merely taking in information but are asking questions about what they see and hear, and questioning the authority and credibility of those from whom the information comes.

2. We should have classes in our PUBLIC schools (not just the private ones) that allow students to discuss ideas and to figure out problems, as a consistent form of learning. We should not merely give them information to remember (and forget).

3. We should develop reading and discussion clubs all over the country, ensuring diversity in each one, thereby helping us learn to listen to people of different backgrounds, religions, races, socioeconomic classes and perspectives.

4. We should read (and read about) the Constitution.

5. We should be vigilant concerning institutions that were intended to serve the greater good, e.g., religious institutions, the media, the academy, boycotting those who base their activities on how much money they accumulate contrary of the founding ideas and ideals they were founded to uphold.

One should note here that all of the suggestions listed focus on long-term solutions that are sustainable if we are willing to be consistent with them.

Lee Cruz

Longtime community organizer and activist who lives in Fair Haven.

1. Listen with empathy to people around you and who are affected by the executive orders, policy changes and proposal laws of the new administration.

2. Read a variety of sources and get different perspectives: Al Jazeera, BuzzFeed, CNN and MSNBC websites, Drudge Report, Guardian, New Haven Independent, La Voz Hispana, Inner City News, NPR (listen and read), New York Times, Slate, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post.

3. Select a person or group with which you can work. The number of organizations doing good, important work is long. Below is a list of organizations with which I have personal experience. I have donated and or volunteered for all of them although not all at once. This is by no means meant to imply that others are not doing equally important work.

ACLU
All Our Kin
Apostle Immigrant Services
Black Lives Matter
Capital for Change
City Seed
City Wide Youth Coalition
Columbus House
Common Ground
CT Voices
End Hunger CT
Fair Haven Community Health Center (or your local community health clinic)
Habitat for Humanity
IRIS
Junta for Progressive Action
Mary Wade Home
New Haven Farms
New Haven Land Trust
New Haven Legal Aide
New Haven Reads
Planned Parenthood
Sierra Club
Solar Youth
Urban Resources Initiative
Your local neighborhood association or Management Team

4. Talk with the person, a leader if it’s a group, to find the intersection between their need and your abilities. Remember that a leader is someone who develops leaders, not necessarily someone who has a lot of followers.

5. Follow through, do not allow guilt to paralyze you. Do what you can as well as you can, build trusting relationships that allows you to see and to question what others are doing to contribute to the cause.

James Bhandary-Alexander

New Haven Legal Assistance Association lawyer who represents immigrants in wage theft and harassment cases, and co-chairs an effort to raise the state’s hourly minimum wage to $15.

1. Stay in the streets. Mass protest is effective now, and it builds unity.

2. Pick your lane, find your people, and fight alongside them. (Advice borrowed from Mariame Kaba.) You can’t do everything, and you can’t do much of anything alone.

3. Get people out of jail. Don’t let them put Aymir Holland away for sixty years.

4. Don’t tolerate witch hunts. See case of Linda Sarsour.

5. Don’t give up on food, exercise, or sleep. And stay hydrated.

Harry Droz

WNHH FM station manager and on-air personality. Fox News fan.

1. Don’t read or watch opinion pieces, and accept them as fact.
2. Always put yourself on the opposite side of the argument.
3. React evenly to issues that may offend you, so your able to use reason.
4. Don’t just get the news from outlets you already agree with.
5. Judge based on actions. Talk is cheap.