Dear Editor: If you are anything like me, you may be feeling overwhelmed and a bit (or maybe a lot) disempowered with what’s going on in our Divided/United States of America.
Almost daily since 2025, there is a new issue on the “and justice for all” front. Whether it’s DOGE cuts to critical programming and infrastructure OR the Epstein files OR ICE/CBP assaults on American citizens and immigrants OR the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voter Rights Act OR the unsanctioned assaults on Venezuela and Iran OR dismantling the Tongass Roadless Rule …, it can make one want to disengage, put our head in the sand, or throw our hands up in the air … in other words, to flee.
The counter to this despair, as Daniel Hunter with Choose Democracy has written, IS action in solidarity with others even when we know our democracy is broken. Pick an issue you care about. Check out Indivisible (www.indivisible.org), 5calls.org, your house of worship’s government relations office or sitkawild.org then commit to a weekly action like calling your elected officials, attending a Zoom meeting to learn more, registering to vote and creating a plan to vote, canvassing for a candidate, etc., then share that action with others. We can only improve and preserve our democracy when we participate in it. So join me and other Sitkans who are working to make our community, our state and our nation “just for all.”
Lisa Sadleir-Hart, Sitka
