Every day it's the same old sh#t.

Trump attacks. Media attacks (with Deep State help). Rinse. Repeat.

No other story gets covered. Not the atrocity being committed at Standing Rock today. Not our continued participation in Saudi Arabia's campaign of genocide in Yemen. Not bills being proposed to eliminate the EPA, repeal the ACA, and gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Not the organized attacks on immigrants from Muslims to Hispanics. Not threats to LGBTQ people. Not the surge in hate crimes.

One feels overwhelmed and helpless. One's anxiety rises, and depression descends.

And by "one" I mean me, but I suspect I mean many of you also, who cannot turn away from the train wreck that has dominated our politics, news coverage, internet forum discussions, etc.

Suicide prevention hotlines noticed a surge in calls after Trump's victory. Fear is in the air, and I mean that literally as the media continually broadcasts about every outrage as if it is life or death. It's not unlike the phenomenon when Obama won, and people on the right went on a gun buying rampage and joined hate groups and "militias." They didnlt act because of what his policies were actually doing to America but because Fox and conservative hate radio ramped up their fear level based on conspiracy theories.

Now we are seeing the same thing playing out with traditional liberals and Democrats who flocked to march in the streets before and after Trump's inauguration, as the non-Fox media magnified each new story about Russia or Trump's Muslim Ban, or whatever, while ignoring our continued wars on vulnerable people both at home and abroad.

Fear really is the mind-killer.

What to do? What can be done? The mind reels. It becomes easy to fall into despair. To avoid the news. To try to run from your anxiety through escapist entertainment, or drugs, alcohol, anger ... the list is endless. And the fear that causes these reactions is not irrational.

Yes, the world is contingent, and the times are bad. Yes, there are very wealthy, powerful interests who are aligned to keep you afraid and inactive, or acting out in ways that benefit them, not you. Who seek to distract you and drive you into a state of learned helplessness, or encouraging wasted energy signing petitions, sending money to causes, or marching in protests that have no focus and no direction, that are being financed and led by the very same people who worked diligently to destroy dissent when they were in power.

But.

But despite the contingent nature of our situation, despite the limits that situation imposes on each of us as individuals, we are still free to act. We can choose to give into the barrage of hate and fear and outrage that both factions among the powers that be wish to entrap us, or we can choose to do something other than follow their lead and/or simply stick our heads in the sand.

"Are we really free?" you might ask. After all we have witnessed over the last 20 years culminating in the horror that was 2016? Are we really free if we cannot find a job, cannot get healthcare, cannot escape the constant drumbeat of hate and fear that is being pounded into our heads by both the so-called right and the so-called left?

My answer is yes. We can choose how we face our situation, even those of us severely limited because of financial insecurity or health crises. It's why I keep writing here. It's why I made that video the other day, announcing what is in essence a quixotic run for the Presidency.

Because to do nothing in the face of evil, is to surrender our souls and allow that evil to spread. That is why the people at Standing Rock are risking their lives today in what many may consider a futile and useless gesture. However, if there is one thing I've learned, it's that doing anything is better than doing nothing. There are no futile gestures in my opinion.

That's why Dr. Michael Mann and thousands of other climate scientists continue to do research, but what is more, they have also entered the political arena to do battle with those who would deny a real and present danger to life on earth.

It's why alternative media has grown at such an explosive rate over the last four years.

You may not have the ability do make your voice heard to a great multitudw, or effect change within the Democratic party, or oppose the evils of the oligarchy and deep state elements that run this country without the consent of the governed, but that does not mean you're only option is to do nothing. Indeed, I would argue doing nothing is far more harmful to you, emotionally, physically and spiritually than any action you could take, no matter how small.

On Sunday, I met with a friend who recently retired from the Post Office, a mail carrier who walked a beat in the city day after day. She suffers from severe damage that her work caused to her feet and hands. And she spoke about how afraid she was with Trump in office, and how paranoid she'd become. She expressed the very things I discussed above, the feeling of wanting to do something to combat this existential threat that she sees in Trump and the Republicans, and the corporations that are behind them, but feeling there was nothing she could do. Like me, she lacks the stamina to march in the streets, or the money or connections to run for office, or to otherwise effect the changes she sees need to be made.

In response, I reminded her, however, of what she had told me earlier that day. She volunteers at a nursing home, visiting shut-ins there who do not get visitors, who spend their days in what amounts to solitary confinement, without any real human companionship to give them a reason to live or to help arrest their slow slide into dementia.

"You are doing something to help the world," I told her. Those visits mean something. They are important for the people whose lives are otherwise spent in gray despondency waiting to die. Your actions matter, I told her, even if they aren't making the big changes in the world she wishes she could bring into existence. There are other people manning the barricades, but that doesn't take away from you actions to bring kindness and love to those in need.

The point of this rant is simple. Every action you take to help others makes a difference. Whether throught disseminating information and opinions on the internet that the oligarchy and its adherents disdain, or serving the homeless in your community, or going out into the world to stand with the water protectors, or helping people find legal aid when ICE agents batter into their homes, or even marching in solidarity with those who are protesting for higher wages, decent living conditions, or protesting our endless, often secret wars around the world.

Whatever you can do to help others, no matter how small or insignificant you think it may be, or how futile, I say to you just do it. By acting you affirm that your life and the lives of those you seek to help have meaning. It's either that or waiting for Godot, by which I mean going from day to day without any hope, lost in your own despair, numbing yourself to what is going on the world outside your door, praying for a salvation that will never arrive.

So, yes, I say you are free to choose, even in times like these. Even when these times become much worse than they are now. You can choose to do something or do nothing.

Choose wisely.