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Activist Pro-Tip: Create a Personal Mission Statement

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We Should Treat Our Energy and Engagement the Same Way We Treat Our Money

Donald Trump’s been president for about a year already – or is it a month? I really can’t tell anymore. It certainly feels like it’s been forever. At this point, we’re all tired, we’re cranky, and it feels like no matter how hard we try, nothing much changes. 

Right after he was elected, I wrote a plan for how to get involved on an issue. It talked about learning the field, building relationships with those in power, developing a plan of action, and getting to work. I refer to that piece a lot, but there’s more to add to it. 

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned over the past few years is that I can have the highest impact if I really focus on just a few issues. If I pare down my main causes to just a few, I can legitimately become an expert in them. I can position myself to be a go-to person for others and I can build meaningful relationships with those in power. 

When I try to focus on too many issues, I find that I get nothing done. I’m constantly overwhlemed and I feel hopeless. The hardest lesson to learn was that I had to let some things go, and trust other folks to take on those fights while I focused on what moved me the most.  

My background is education, and when I work with students – of any age, really, – I often talk about the need for a mission statement. We know that businesses, particularly non-profit agencies, often create a misson statement, but I’m a firm believer that people need a mission statement, too. I think we’re more successful when we can literally write down our guiding principles. I think everyone should do it. 

It’s not hard to write a good mission statement. It should be short, to the point, and use strong, active language. A mission statement should be no longer than one sentence and it should always be as clear as possible. This is not a time for flowery language.

Here are a few examples of what that might look like in practice:

“I will fight for stricter gun control and expanded reproductive rights because I am truly pro-life.”

“I value education and safety for LGBT kids, so I focus on transgender equality in schools and anti-bullying programs.”

“I believe in racial justice efforts and programs because I want everyone have an equal opportunity to be successful in life.” 

You’ll notice that these statements are very specific and include just a few issues, as I described earlier. Creating a personal mission statement doesn’t mean you don’t care about other things. I absolutely care about many things, but I also know that I can’t take on everything.  

When it comes time to the issues that don’t make it into my personal mission statment, I spend some time identifying people in my community and my inner circle I trust who focus on those areas. I follow their lead when it comes time for action. If they ask me to make a phone call to an elected official or show up to a rally, I know that they know what they’re talking about.

Having a mission statement also helps keep me centered and calm because I can focus my anger and rage (and there’s a lot of it these days) into places that will always be useful. I really, really want to care about certain aspects of foreign policy, for example. But, I have absolutely no training in it, almost no education in it, and the likelihood of me making an impact in that area is slim to none. So, when those issues come up, I know that I have specific folks I can look to who will help me understand what’s really happening without me spending every day in a perpetual state of freak out. 

Having a mission statement not only keeps me calm when dealing with the issues I do care about, it helps me make peace when I can’t get involved with other issues. There are times when I just have to say, “I’m sorry, but this issue just isn’t part of my personal mission, I can’t use my energy for it.” That may seem harsh, but we do the same thing when we donate money to charity. We sometimes have to say no to a very worthwhile cause because we don’t have enough money to support everything we care about, and we have to make hard choices. Our mental energy should be thought of in the same way. We just don’t always have enough of it to go around. 

Take some time today to write a list of the issues you care about most. Then, go through that list a second time and decide which of them you have the best ability to impact and are most passionate about. The top two or three belong in your mission statement. You’ll find that as you go through the week you’ll be able to focus your energy into something useful, and the issues won’t feel so large and abstract anymore. And hopefully, it will renew your sense of action so you can continue to fight for the things you believe in. 

 

Robbie Medwed is an Atlanta-based LGBTQ activist, educator, and writer. He’s a much calmer person now that he can say, “I really want to get involved in that, but I just can’t.” Follow him on Twitter: @rjmedwed

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‘You Don’t Care’: Gay Congressman Blasts Defense Secretary Over LGBTQ Troops

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U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, a Democrat and the first openly gay member of Congress from Illinois, delivered strong criticism of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, accusing the embattled Pentagon chief of not caring about LGBTQ service members, and fostering an environment where LGBTQ people do not want to join the military. He also brought up the planned renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk, which the Secretary reportedly ordered to intentionally coincide with LGBTQ Pride Month.

Congressman Sorensen told Secretary Hegseth that Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, who was assassinated in 1978, served “courageously,” but was forced to resign from the Navy because he was gay.

“You see,” Congressman Sorensen said, “as a kid, all I wanted to be was the weatherman on TV. You know, I learned that I could have gone into the Army or the Navy to learn meteorology. But someone like me was not allowed. They didn’t want someone like me, Mr. Secretary.”

READ MORE: ‘Coup’: What DHS Secretary’s ‘Liberate’ Comment Means, According to Experts

“There wasn’t anything that I could do to change myself, or the way that my nation thought of me. And so I want to keep this very simple. Do you believe that Harvey Milk is a veteran who deserves his country’s thanks?”

Hegseth attempted to dodge the question.

“Sir, the decision to rename the ship was—” Hegseth began.

“I’m just asking, do you believe that Harvey Milk is a veteran who deserves his country’s thanks? Yes or no,” Sorensen pressed.

“If his service was deemed honorable, yes,” the Secretary replied.

“I disagree with your leadership,” Sorensen said, “because I believe that every veteran deserves our thanks. We all walk in the footsteps of leaders before us, and you may not find the value in the fact that many of those people are women, with different skin colors, different backgrounds, different talents, immigrants, gay, straight, transgender, disabled.”

READ MORE: In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand

“You may want to change it, but you can’t. Because the America that you and I both serve is a place where everyone has the ability—or should have the ability—to grow up and be the hero their grandpa was. I wanted to do that when I was a kid.”

“We’re going back to that time,” the congressman warned. “Gay kids like me, they don’t want to go into the Army. They don’t want to go into the Navy, because you don’t care for them. It’s happening all over our country.”

“My grandpa taught me never to judge the value of a veteran’s service. And I hope, Mr. Secretary, you learn to do the same in your capacity, and you can find it in your heart, to make that part of your process.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Democrats Demand Noem Testify After Handcuffing of US Senator Padilla

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‘Coup’: What DHS Secretary’s ‘Liberate’ Comment Means, According to Experts

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Before her protective squad forcibly removed, detained, and handcuffed a sitting U.S. Senator asking a question at her Los Angeles press conference, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem delivered remarks that legal and political experts warn are explosive.

“We are not going away,” Secretary Noem vowed, regarding herself and her Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, other DHS operatives, and the U.S. Military, all of whom she promised would “continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city.”

“We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country here,” she declared, referring to Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom and Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Experts are once again sounding the alarm.

READ MORE: In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand

“I think the governor and mayor of Los Angeles are right,” declared U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) on MSNBC on Thursday night. “I think they’re testing out their ability to essentially commandeer National Guards throughout the country, and use them for their own purposes.”

“One thing that got lost in the horrendous treatment of Alex Padilla today,” Schiff continued, “was what Kristi Noem said at that press conference in saying that it was necessary to have these troops there to ‘liberate’ the city from the socialists. That’s the kind of rhetoric the administration is using.”

He went on to say that “the fact that they would abuse the military that way and justify it that way is unconscionable.”

Other critics weighed in as well.

Quoting Secretary Noem’s remarks, Harvard University Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe, a top constitutional law scholar, wrote: “Using military force to displace a democratically elected state government is called a coup.”

Former prosecutor and former Hill staffer Stephen Rodio remarked, “Trump’s regime is going to liberate us from the people that we elected to represent us.”

“Be clear on what she’s saying here,” wrote podcaster Joe Walsh, a former GOP Tea Party Congressman and now a Democrat and political commentator. “She’s saying that Trump is going to use the U.S. military to overthrow both the duly elected Mayor of Los Angeles & the Governor of California. I understand she’s not very bright, but, in essence, she’s saying the federal government has declared war on California.”

READ MORE: Democrats Demand Noem Testify After Handcuffing of US Senator Padilla

“Quiet Part Out Loud?” asked U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). “Sounds a lot like she’s saying they’re there to liberate the city from its elected government.

Lincoln Project senior advisor Stuart Stevens also quoted Noem’s remarks, then wrote: “That’s a statement of intent of a coup, to ‘liberate’ a state from legally elected officials. Then armed men tackle and shackle one of those leaders. Nothing about we are here to arrest violent offenders and support law enforcement.”

“The declared purpose is to undo the choice of voters. Nothing like this has ever happened in modern America except the insurrection of Jan. 6th, which Noem supported, including her support for pardoning those who assaulted law enforcement.”

“Greeted as liberators, you say?” wrote Wall Street Journal reporter Alex Ward, appearing to echo former Bush 43 Vice President Dick Cheney’s fated 2003 Iraq War claim.

“Do the decent thing and resign, Noem,” urged former U.S, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH). “The world is watching.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Not Today Hegseth’: Dem Slams Defense Secretary as ‘Unfit to Lead’ in Fiery Exchange

 

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In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand

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Facing backlash from his base over an announced, possible exemption for undocumented immigrants working in agriculture and hospitality, President Donald Trump has entirely reversed course, now calling for the mass “remigration” of all undocumented individuals. The term “remigration” is closely associated with ethnic cleansing and far-right European movements, including the neo-fascist political party backed by both Trump and his vice president.

In a wild rant steeped in fascist and ethnonationalist rhetoric, Trump baselessly attacked the Biden administration and characterized all undocumented immigrants as takers costing the country billions—despite the fact that the undocumented population is a net economic positive for the United States.

“The Biden Administration and Governor Newscum,” Trump declared Tuesday evening—using his derogatory nickname for California Governor Gavin Newsom—“flooded America with 21 Million Illegal Aliens, destroying Schools, Hospitals and Communities, and consuming untold Billions of Dollars in Free Welfare.”

READ MORE: Democrats Demand Noem Testify After Handcuffing of US Senator Padilla

These claims are not supported by evidence.

“All of them have to go home, as do countless other Illegals and Criminals, who will turn us into a bankrupt Third World Nation. America was invaded and occupied. I am reversing the Invasion. It’s called Remigration. Our courageous ICE Officers, who are daily being subjected to doxxing and murder threats, are HEROES. We will always have their back as they carry out this noble mission. America will be for Americans again!”

Just one day earlier, Trump had declared that undocumented immigrants working on farms, in agriculture, the hotel and entertainment industries are “very good, long time workers,” who are “almost impossible to replace.”

READ MORE: ‘Not Today Hegseth’: Dem Slams Defense Secretary as ‘Unfit to Lead’ in Fiery Exchange

Changes are coming!” he vowed.

“Our farmers,” Trump also said Thursday at a press conference, according to The New York Times, “are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers, they have worked for them for 20 years.”

“They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be, you know, great. And we’re going to have to do something about that. We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don’t have maybe what they’re supposed to have, maybe not.”

“We can’t do that to our farmers and leisure, too, hotels,” he said, suggesting an executive order was in the works. “We’re going to have to use a lot of common sense on that.”

All that appears to have been a blip.

READ MORE: ‘Mouthpiece for the Kremlin’: Rubio Scorched for ‘Russia Day’ Congratulations

 

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