Yesterday I went to the first event of my Take Action, Don’t Watch the News post election life. My friend Luciana, asked me to go to an orientation at the ACLU right after the debacle of November 8, and of course, panic-ridden, I said yes, like 200 times because I loved the idea of getting involved with that particular organization and was glad she had thought of it, and because it felt like planning a future might insure we were going to have one.

Luciana is a Brazilian fireworks display. She is funny and feisty and fearless. Her two daughters, who are totally amazing also, came with us. The orientation was packed. And Matt, our orientation leader, who was incredibly amiable and articulate said that they usually do like one orientation a month, but this month they have 10. It was a heavily female population, mostly young. Matt reminded us that the ACLU is a bi-partisan organization, but I would bet my kids that there was not one Trump supporter in the room. These were people hungry to know how they could effect change during the next four years.

Basically, Matt talked about the organization, what they do, how they do it. He also threw out a fact I was impressed with, which is that the Massachusetts chapter of the ACLU was the first one ever. The groundswell of volunteers have caught them by surprise, so he let us know that while he didn’t necessarily have a huge action plan right now, there would be plenty of opportunities to be involved once the agenda is set by the administration in January. All who attended are now on a list serve of events and ways to help, from going to hearings and canvassing to doing research and organizing volunteers. You can join by going to their website. And you should, because these guys are helping to protect our legal rights, and we’ve never needed that more than right this minute.

It felt like a good first step. Not to mention afterward, in-the-know Luciana took us to Yvonne’s for a drink. This place is super cool and I didn’t even know it existed!

Gratitude that organizations like the ACLU are out there and ready for the fight. It made me feel a little more hopeful about our, uh, current circumstance. (And Yvonne’s made me feel more hopeful about my next dinner out.)