Rain Perry

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We get inspired, there’s music, and use a set of tools for community and accountability.

Some people have a big moment of political awakening, like our Person of the Week. For other people, like me, who grow up amongst the earnest hippie activists, knocking doors and attending political rallies are a regular part of life. For example, as a freshman in college I got arrested protesting UC investment with South Africa’s apartheid government. (If you look at the cover of UCSB’s Daily Nexus from April 1985, that’s my right arm!)

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We get inspired, there’s music, and use a set of tools for community and accountability.

Yesterday was the “Economic Blackout” and already the pontificating is thick. “It was a step in the right direction!” “It was naive!” If you thought it was gonna make a huge economic impact, you’re probably disappointed. If you thought it was a trial run for future action, you might feel, as I do, a stir of hope. Here’s what I have to say about it: a whole lotta people — not sure how many but gut feeling, at least a couple million — joined together to try using their economic power to impact US policy.

And that was the point.

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We get inspired, there’s music, and use a set of tools for community and accountability.

Before we get going, I want to alert you to an action that’s coming up. I hope you’ll participate.

It’s one thing to say “the people have the power,“ and it’s another thing to show it. So: whatever you need to spend money on, do it before or after February 28. And if you absolutely have to shop, shop local and with cash.

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We get inspired, there’s music, and use a set of tools for community and accountability.

Phew — every time I write a new essay, it seems like a year since the last one. Welcome back, and very glad you’re here. I’m very excited to announce that I have a new tool for you at the bottom of the page!

As Federal Government programs are cut, we find ourselves looking to our local communities in whole new ways. The adage “think globally, act locally” becomes not just a rallying cry but a necessity, as we face challenges in public health, food safety, civil rights, national security and much more.

But there is a very real silver lining, believe it or not.

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We get inspired, there’s music, and use a set of tools for community and accountability.

Like you, I suspect, I’m finding every day newly overwhelming in the breakage of our norms and the breaches of our institutions. I’m no longer going to hold back from acknowledging that the United States is undergoing an attempted coup d’etat. Six mostly-too-young-to-drink hackers rolling in and accessing the most sensitive US Government computer systems at the behest of their billionaire overlord sounds like the plot of a Die Hard sequel, one that might be a little too over the top to be greenlit. And yet, that is exactly what has happened. I really can’t believe it.

Where’s John McClane when you need him?

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We get inspired, there’s music, and use a set of tools for community and accountability.

Not gonna lie — it’s been a hell of a week. I don’t need to recount it here; you’ve all been through it too.

In what seems like a lifetime ago (but was January 22), sociologist Jennifer Walter wrote a thread you must read about “shock doctrine” and how to defend oneself against it. (I’ve included the text at the bottom of this post for those who aren’t on Threads.) (And, about that, my feelings about social media have evolved since some strident pronouncements I made recently. Now, since the LA fires and during this fraught time, I am approaching social media as tools like skill saws that are both useful and potentially dangerous.)

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We get inspired, there’s music, and — at the bottom of the essay — use a set of tools for community and accountability.

The Greatest, the GOAT, the Louisville Lip: everybody knows something about Muhammad Ali.

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy crossposted here and on Substack. We get inspired, there’s music, and — at the bottom of the essay — use a set of tools for community and accountability.

This week’s Person of the Week is a case study in what you do when you plan to do something big someday.

First, the backstory: since my kids have been grown, every election cycle I keep myself sane by going somewhere and being a cog in the wheel of Democracy, getting out the vote or doing Voter Protection. In 2020 I volunteered both as a poll observer in Phoenix and as Out of State Help for Mission for Arizona (the coordinated campaign of the Arizona Democratic Party, the National Dems and the Biden/Harris and Kelly campaigns).

I was part of a small team who led zoom trainings on how to use an app called “Vote Joe” to do an old thing — “relational organizing” — in a new way. The idea was that since it was the height of the pandemic, we couldn’t knock doors so we had to find other ways for volunteers to talk to friends and neighbors — hence an app that organized their own contacts for outreach.

Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We get inspired, there’s music, and — at the bottom of the essay — use a set of tools for community and accountability.

Greetings from Southern California. You’ve seen the pictures of Los Angeles — the scope of the devastation is unimaginable. Up here in Ventura County we’ve had a couple fires start but thankfully they were quickly knocked down. Our power is back on after several days; neighbors just down the road are still in the dark. It’s a regular thing now that when there are high wind warnings. Edison shuts off the power prophylactically. We are all on alert.

It’s soooo dry. It hasn’t rained in Southern California since last May. Last year we got a ton of precipitation, which is so lucky because our reservoirs and groundwater basins are currently full. (Ignore the political lies about the water situation. Picture turning on all the taps and hoses in your house at the same time and you can understand why some hydrants had no water pressure in LA.)

Rather than give any attention to folks who would use a tragedy to gain political points, I prefer to do what Mr. Rogers said to do when things are scary: “look for the helpers.”

There are so many helpers in LA. I’ve seen videos of neighbors filling trashcans with water and hauling them across the street to wet down houses. I’ve read messages from dozens of friends offering a place to stay, a place to take a pet, a place to charge phones. There are the linemen and women working in hazardous conditions, day and night, often without much appreciation from frustrated residents, to get the power back on.

And then there are the firefighters - OMG, they are heroes. And the pilots. Check out this water drop. As someone posted: “nothing but net.”