Soon, there will be a spark

A thought about the moment that's emerging and an offer to help you spread the word

I know that optimism is in short supply right now, and for good reason. I have already established myself as a hope peddler, though, so you’ve been forewarned. My intention here is not make an empirical case for hope in this moment, but merely to share an observation and another tiny helping hand. I believe something is growing that is already quite lovely, but that will become even more powerful in the coming weeks. There is no shortage of historical reasons to believe that is the case, but I’m not going to go on about all of them. If all of this is too ridiculous for you to imagine, don’t worry. I’l wrap this up quickly.

If you have a second, please watch this lovely speech. It’s from a town hall hosted by New York Congressman Paul Tonko. It is somehow both plaintive and fiery at the same time. A ferocious yearning, if you will. The constituent is asking his Representative to engage in civil disobedience. “Make them outlaw you,” he says. “I will get arrested with you.” That isn’t a charge, it’s a love letter.

You can read this speech as a tragedy, I suppose. I don’t know much about Representative Paul Tonko, but I suspect that he will likely not be the spark that launches a national wave of civil disobedience. I recognize why so many would love if our Democratic representatives approached their life’s work in that way, but there’s no rule of mass nonviolent movement that says that they have to be birthed by an eight term Congressmen from Schenectady. If Representative Tonko heeds his constituent’s call, glory be. But it is not about him. We all know that.

I love that the man in the video is pleading with his Representative to move more boldly. We should all be following his lead. Let our leaders hear our pleas, every single day. But if I can project from the hundreds of conversations I’ve had with weary, shell-shocked Americans in the last couple weeks, his desire isn’t for this one elected official to do something, it’s for somebody to make a move towards direct action so impossible to ignore that it signals that it is time for the beleaguered to become the emboldened.

There are millions of Americans waiting for a spark. And not all of those Americans are in a position to be the fifth, five hundredth, or five thousandth person arrested in a government office building or a Tesla dealership or in the middle of a street, but many of us are. I love everything that we are doing right now, but I also love our yearning for what comes next. I am not blaming anybody for not being an initial catalyst, for not having occupied space or called a hunger strike. You will no doubt notice that I haven’t done any of those things myself. We all have our reasons for inaction, but many of us also have our stirrings towards it. Both are worth our attention.

I am not angry at what hasn’t occurred yet, because I continue to believe in us. I believe that the spark will come, and then another, and then another. You can call that belief fantastical, I suppose, but I also think it’s a law of physics. We have been gathering kindling— in the form of our love, our anguish, our actual material pain, the discipline of our tiny daily actions. Objects are in motion, and you know what happens with objects in motion.

The thing about gathering kindling is that you can only do so before long before a spark is lit and a flame starts burning. And because the current emergent movement is rooted in love and protection for all, the flame I anticipate will not be a destructive one. Trump and his allies have already been setting plenty of those. It will be a source of light, a bonfire that sends the signal to many more of us that there is safety and warmth, that we are not alone.

“I will get arrested with you,” says the man to his Congressperson. And the crowd cheered. So too will they. And so too will so many of us.

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An offer:

A week ago I wrote this piece:

Thirty lonely but beautiful actions you can take right now which probably won't magically catalyze a mass movement against Trump but that are still wildly important

It’s been immensely hope-giving to watch as that list has been adopted and enhanced by so many of you. Just one example: thanks to

Jen Mayer | Makeist

, it’s a zine now! A Zine that you can print out and fold and share with people off of the Internet (just follow this link and scroll down):

Zinestack Roundup No.5

If you read the piece, you’ll likely remember that one of its narrative through lines was the power that lies in spreading the word beyond those who are already paying attention (no doubt, all of us reading this newsletter). My gut is that many of our neighbors who present as if they “don’t care” actually just “don’t know.” it’s important to focus our messages not on those who are already outraged (those who would already nod along at statements like “Trump and Musk are fascists”) but towards those who still don’t know about all the ways life is about to get worse for themselves and people whom they love.

With that in mind, the essay itself talks a lot about flyering, stickering and chalking your communities. A few days after I posted it, I mocked up a few examples and told folks on social media to steal and use them to their hearts content:

garrettbucks

A post shared by @garrettbucks

To my delight, people have started doing so! Strangers even! Strangers in other Rust Belt cities, for example.

pittsburghgraffiti

A post shared by @pittsburghgraffiti

It says something about my particular niche interests that I yelled at my wife “Oh my God, the Pittsburgh graffiti account spotted my sticker in the wild” and she knew how much that meant to me.

Now just for the record, I love when folks engage in flyering and stickering that does not utilize designs I made (they’re fine, but they’re not the alpha and omega of agitprop). But, I do like to be useful, and I really like making these baby steps into collective action and base building easier for you all.

With that in mind, here’s another offer. I made a new design (a catch all, if you will) and put it on an actual sticker. Here it is:

Kind of sums it up, don’t you think?

The “take action” code will take you to this incredible compendium of actions and resources from Choose Democracy. The “learn more” code redirects to a growing collection of stories I’m compiling that center the human cost of Trump and Musk’s policies.

Like all the other images, you can feel free to copy it, print it out, and do whatever you’d like with it. But also, like I said, I actually made some stickers (or, more accurately— I’ve ordered some stickers; they’re coming soon). And I’d be more than happy to send a sticker your way as soon as they are in my possession, with the following parameters:

1. You’re patient with me! Again, I don’t have the stickers yet, but I will soon. And my initial run is 100, so I may be temporarily saying “shoot, we’re out” to some/many of you. Let’s see how this goes!

2. You promise to put it out somewhere in public, ideally in a place where folks who might not already be “on board” might see it.

3. Don’t be a jerk with your sticker placement (for instance, while putting it on the ordering screen at a busy Burger King would definitely attract notice for a brief period of time, you’d also make life worse for whatever employee would have to peel it off).

4. After you place it, take a picture and share it! If you’re a social media person, share it there. If you are a group text person, send a picture to your buddies.

5. Also send a picture of it to me (I’ll share my contact info).

6. That’s all! No need to credit me when you do so (it’s not about me, it’s about the act of getting it out there). And no cost, either. If you’re grateful for this work and you’d like to help me out, a donation to Barnraisers or a subscription to this newsletter (or even a share!) means the world to me, but this is not a tit for tat situation.

7. Here’s the form to sign up for a sticker. Please only sign up if you can definitely commit to putting one up within three days of receiving it. Again, if demand is super high, well, we’ll figure that out. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding vibes.

   That’s all friends. Just a message of optimism and an offer of stickers. Nothing world shaking, at least in isolation. We’re building together: hope, numbers, bravery, connection. Each of our efforts are tiny, but we are growing.

   Thanks for everything you’re doing you all. Love you sincerely.

P.S. I wrote this in a coffee shop in my neighborhood. Mid-way through, a young guy with a guitar pulled up a chair and started singing. He’s currently playing one of my favorite songs, which feels fitting to this message. I will be here in the morning, you all. We all will be, together.