The title of my spring class is borrowed from the catchphrase of President Jed Bartlet, a fictitious president featured in the landmark political show, The West Wing.

“What’s next?” is what he would say when he has processed, understood, and accepted information given to him and wanted to signal that he was ready for the next piece of information or the next task.

I draw inspiration from this because we need to emulate this in our lives, whether in experiencing negative emotions like disappointment, fear, or worry, and in positive actions like helping, connecting, or building.

I won’t sugarcoat things: The next four years (and more) will be hard. Those of us who are older than our mid-30s will remember past hard times, and we need to draw on our resilience from that past not just for ourselves, but to model for younger people the steady tension that we need to accustom ourselves to. We need to keep moving, keep doing, and not allow ourselves to get stuck in negative spirals nor in echo-chamber driven complacency.

“What’s next?” reminds us to keep moving and doing, and to frame what we do now and today in a larger context of what the bigger goals are over months, years, and decades.

Our Adversary: Persistence

One man spent much of his lifetime working to overturn Roe v. Wade. He spent decades pursuing multiple avenues, building coalitions, increasing his knowledge, skills, and influence. And he never gave up. Think of all the times that Roe v. Wade and local abortion rights were protected. Those were victories for us, but losses for him. But he didn’t let discouragement stop him; he probably took a day to process, then got back up and kept fighting for what he believed in.

While we disagree with his goal and his idea of the “good,” we would do ourselves a disservice to refuse to acknowledge the power of his persistence. And to beat this worthy adversary, we have to do better than him.

Our Mission: Grow

I am drawing here from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, specifically, his concept of Circles of Control, Influence, and Concern. This is a useful framing that helps us to prioritize and self-empower in stressful times by focusing on what we can do, how we can increase what we can do, and redirecting energy and time from things that we can’t change to things that we can affect.

First, we need to make sure that we are in a supportive material and social situation so we can recharge and stay healthy (Circle of Control). This means that we should bolster our existing relationships with others and build new relationships of trust with wholesome people. We should nourish our bodies and minds, and take care of ourselves with enough sleep and exercise. We can make choices to protect ourselves and give ourselves safe spaces to recharge (but not linger) in. All of these not only are choices we can make, but are choices that expand our ability to make other, better choices going forward.  

We need to build ourselves up in knowledge and skills to increase our Circle of Influence. This means that we need to open our minds to useful ideas, whether scholarly or practical. Look to the helpers: what are they doing and how? Look to the experienced activists – veterans of Stonewall and the Civil Rights Movements – and learn how they built coalitions through local action. And we should look at our adversaries to glean ideas that we can appropriate for our own ends in ways that fit our values – how can we connect with other citizens in substantive ways? How can we educate and communicate without shaming and dividing? How can we appeal to our shared values and humanity, despite our differences? All of these are tools that we need in our toolkits, and they will extend and empower our reach and ability to make positive change around us.

And we need to stay focused on our mission, not letting ourselves get distracted or overwhelmed by things outside our influence or control (Circle of Concern). We need to recognize the risks of unmoderated social media use for everyone: adults and young people. We need to be mindful when using social media: are we helping with our posts, or are we indulging in venting that could snowball into despair for the larger community who sees an unfiltered post? Do we pause to think about who our audience is when we post or share something? Do we pause to fact-check ourselves so we don’t spread disinformation and misinformation? And most importantly: what are habits we can cultivate for ourselves and those around us so we don’t get sucked into doomscrolling on social media that will hurt our mental health and take time away from healthy activities like going for a walk, engaging in a substantive conversation with a friend, or even taking some time to reflect quietly with no external stimulation?

My Circle of Influence: What I can offer

This spring, I am offering a class for motivated young people seeking to increase their own circles of influence: “What’s Next? Politics and Activism from 2024-2028.”  Through this, we will focus on skill and knowledge building by looking at how each of us can engage in politics at a local and grassroots level. They say that “all politics is local,” and this is because each individual, especially at entry level, has a much larger influence on local politics, local laws and policies are felt much more intensely, and because future high level leaders build their influence starting locally. We need to fight back against the tendency we all have to fixate on one big race at the federal level, one where most of us have little influence, and challenge ourselves to direct our energy and focus to where we can make positive change that will have good downstream effects. 

We will look at strategic issues, like voting laws, ways to get more visibility for third parties, and information dissemination ( e.g. local news media, libraries). People are working on these and similar issues NOW in preparation for the 2028 election because effective activism takes time. A change in voting laws needs to be worked on years in advance so it will take effect in the next big election. 

We will also read books. These books may have challenging ideas, and may be frustrating for learners because the ideas are unfamiliar or even dissonant with their current moral sentiments. But this discomfort is how we grow and learn, and we must get used to that feeling (and distinguish learning discomfort from actual harm or trauma) if we are to strengthen our learning skills. Each student will get to choose one informative book to read and share about to the rest of the class: this is a way that we can team up together to share the learning load collectively to benefit everyone. 

Finally, everyone will engage with local activism in some way. This may involve researching a local organization that is doing work on an issue of interest. This may involve doing advocacy or volunteer work. This may involve talking to and interviewing several local activists to get to know what the political landscape is like in your area. The goal is to push our comfort zone and do something new while getting to know our local allies, with a goal to get involved to build experience now. 

Reading Groups for Adults

I am also working on setting up some reading opportunities for adult learners. There are many informative books about social media’s impact on social and mental health, the politics of morality, and similar topics that give us more cognitive tools to work with. I am mindful that adult schedules can be tricky to find time in, so I am exploring asynchronous options, as well as considering offering ways for a group of participants to schedule a live meeting, because I believe live interaction is important for some types of discussions. I have experience facilitating discussions of difficult topics with a goal of educating and informing, and enjoy sharing useful knowledge with people as part of community building. 

Contact me if you would like to receive updates on this project going forward. 

What’s Next? 

So what’s next? That’s up to you. 

But I myself have made a small habit change that has been very positive. I give myself time first thing in the morning to read a book, whether fiction or nonfiction. I also have set up a JSTOR account and give myself interesting academic articles to read for a personal project I am working on. Each time, I have read an article and felt inspired by the things I have learned from it for the rest of the day. This has replaced excess time spent on social media, and it has helped my mental and emotional health significantly. 

Feel free to reach out to chat about habits you can change or about learning opportunities with me. This is my offering to you as a way of supporting community building and empowerment. 

We’ll get through this together. 

Sign up now for “What’s Next?” in 2024 with coupon: “RESISTANDREBUILD” for $20 off basic enrollment!