What Can I Do, asks Jane Fonda. A whole LOT!

[ConnieMadden]

What Can I Do? asks Jane Fonda. Answers here!

Civil disobedience is the new norm, says Jane Fonda, known for her role as sexy alien Barbarella – and as Hanoi Jane during the Vietnam War while protesting war IN Vietnam! Her book, just out, is What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action. Now, age 82! She looks like one would hope to at 50. Buy the book at your LOCAL BOOKSTORE for activist points! Her 7th book, it is well written and gives direction and connection.

A dear family/friend, Yulia, asked if we should support Fonda. “She’s got dyed hair and is such a consumer” idea. To which I say, sure, AND she reaches millions maybe billions of women, helps them get stronger and have their own very own voices, and, yea, she’s fierce! She moved to D.C. to start Firedrill Fridays, a program now taken over by Greenpeace across the country. Firedrill Fridays, rallies with speakers demanding the Green New Deal and Climate Justice (see below) helped bring thousands of protesters to D.C. for climate justice rallies and teach-ins.

Thanks, Jane, for being a real human, for helping us find our roots as activists or rediscover them. Rachel Maddow says “Wonder what you will be doing when your country (falls apart)? That would be what you are doing NOW.

I did help hang a freeway drop banner “Sonoma County needs Climate Action Now!” last week and learned to bake challa bread for Sabbat with friends and family, but wonderful as those are, I must still read, write and agitate! Fonda’s What Can I Do helps me get off the couch.

Ted Danson is in the book – did you know he is an expert on threats to our oceans? His advice is eat LITTLE LOCAL fish. Perfect sense. That would be cod? More choices not yet available in stores? Stay tuned on this and other food sovereinty issues.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court seems irrelevant to democracy and as our whole story of America is ever more tarnished with corruption and cruelty, we need reminders of civility and ethics! Didn’t used to be so. I remember as a kid, President Dwight David Eisenhower, staunch Republican, talking to his public with respect, offering basic kindness, though we disagreed already on policy. He had one thing SO right: “Beware of the military industrial complex.” Taking over about now? Getting ready just in case.

So, with rascism deeply ingrained in our culture, climate and pandemic crises seeming unending, getting to the end of Star Trek the Next Generation, what is a lady to do? Read what brave people do and say and pick your path! Read Jane Fonda’s What Can I Do and realize this 82-year old isn’t in a rocking chair, she rocked Washington D.C. with her Fire Drill Fridays, now across the country as a Greenpeace project. What will YOU do?

HISTORY OF FIRE DRILL FRIDAYS
Last fall, Jane Fonda decided to stop everything and take action to stop the climate crisis. Inspired by Greta Thunberg’s call to act like “our house is on fire” and guided by Naomi Klein’s Green New Deal advocacy, Jane reached out to Annie and other trusted allies to say she was ready to do whatever it would take to stop the climate crisis. Starting in October, she dropped all of her commitments and moved to DC so that — together with Greenpeace and other movement allies — she could launch “Fire Drill Fridays,” which would be weekly protests centered around civil disobedience and a demand Congress pass the Green New Deal.
Though it shouldn’t have been a surprise, it was a bit of a shock that the campaign became instantly iconic. In two short months, the D.C. protests reached hundreds of thousands of people through the media, social channels and what became in-person capital E “events” on
Capitol Hill. Each week, the rallies included different speakers — celebrities, youth, Indigenous leaders, representatives from impacted and underrepresented communities, as well as movement and thought leaders — all demanding our leaders end fossil fuel expansion, pass a Green New Deal, and implement a plan for a responsible just transition of existing fossil fuels as rapidly as possible. The goal for this initial phase wasn’t mass turnout, but a diverse and high profile group of participants who could raise awareness and exert public pressure. Even still, there were more and more people each week, all wondering what would happen next.
So in just two months at the end of 2019, Fire Drill Fridays both ignited and tapped into the growing sense of urgency that something must be done to stop the climate crisis — and that we can’t wait for anyone else to do it. We’ve seen thousands of people join with us who agree that it’s time for bold, broad, and courageous direct action.
Now, in 2020, Greenpeace is going to help Jane and our allies take the project into a new phase where we’ll channel the energy from the past few months into a nationwide series of events in different cities — all calling for a Green New Deal, an end to new fossil fuels, and a just transition to a renewable economy. Jane and her friends will continue doing monthly Fire Drill Fridays in California starting February 7th, while around the country supporters and allies will lead their own Fire Drills in their communities with Jane’s blessing.
Jane, Greenpeace, and dozens of other organizational partners and allies will continue our work in this new distributed phase that will help us build power in communities across the country, as well as increase the pressure on elected officials and corporations. So on the first Friday in February, we’ll start in Los Angeles, and then we’ll keep going around the country until this crisis ends. (from Fire Drill Fridays site)