1600 Days: Day 1
The first step in a journey of an unknown number of miles
Today would be my son’s 13th birthday. That’s one reason why I’m doing this. Emerson was our first child, born just shy of Maria’s and my first wedding anniversary, and we were overjoyed to have him—but we knew from the jump that our time with him was not promised. At 20 weeks, in utero, he was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). We knew he would need two open-heart surgeries within the first six months of his life, and that his chances of surviving that were on the right side of half, but the wrong side of 90%. He made it through a turbulent first year, and things smoothed out for a while, but he had other medical diagnoses along the way, too, and his life was never easy. When he died of an infection that spread because of his compromised immune system, in March 2016, we were devastated. That didn’t have to happen. He could still be here with us. But it was something we always knew might happen.
I tell anyone who finds this that information so we understand each other a bit, but I won’t spend more time on it right now. I don’t like rattling off the facts of Emerson’s life in rote. It doesn’t convey the really important things of him. Just understand this one partial impetus, so we can move to the next.
Emerson lived 1,600 days. By semi-coincidence (because it’s not really coincidence, it’s just how calendars work), there are also 1,600 days between now and my 40th birthday. I’m not one to freak or stress out about my age; this isn’t an early midlife crisis. I just realized this fact a few days ago, and it settled onto me as a bit of synchrony worth noting. I was doing the math, initially, with a start date a few days ago and a different end date in mind: Election Day 2028. When I realized the harmony between Emerson’s life and my own far-off milestone, though, I elected to make a small pivot.
This is a project about self-improvement. It’s about habits of body and mind. It’s about physical and mental and social health. But yes, it’s also about politics. Here’s the skinny: If I can get a bit better—a bit more ready, a bit more connected, or a bit more energized; a bit more effective—every day between now and my 40th birthday, I think I can make a valuable difference. I need to make those 1,600 days’ worth of improvements, because right now, I’m struggling all the time, just to make sure our ends meet and the kids don’t spend all their time on screens. But for that very reason, I can’t just go into a cocoon and emerge months from now as the person—the advocate, ally, writer, editor, and family member—I want to be. This will have to happen slowly, out in the open, and it will also have to include a lot of side quests to try desperately to make the world better, or at least to stop it from getting worse.
All this is going to be is a daily journal, really. It’s a way to track and note and occasionally reflect on progress, and to hold myself accountable for making that progress. It’s a pledge to do whatever work I can to overcome my anxiety and reticence in some situations and help people, directly and indirectly. My desperate hope is that there is still an Election Day 2028, but I don’t feel safe in making that assumption right now. Nor do I want to fool myself into thinking the world will magically go back to the way it’s been lately, if and when that election comes and whichever Donald Trump supporter runs in his stead loses. The fight will have to go on beyond that, and now, I have a way to think even beyond that. Right now, though, it’s only Day 1, so it’s time to take my eyes off the horizon and check the ground in front of me. Here goes. First step.
Action: Call your representatives today, and tell them to vote against the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. This law would give the Secretary of the Treasury the ability to unilaterally revoke nonprofit status for any nonprofit organization they deem to be a “terrorist-supporting organization”. That sounds fine on the surface, but in practice, Donald Trump is about be President, and the Republican Senate will approve whomever he appoints to cabinet positions. We know Trump views plenty of Americans as “the enemy within”. A whole lot of nonprofit organizations who can survive only on that status might lose it just because Trump views them as unfriendly. This is an easy policy for a fascist to weaponize, and we have to try to prevent it from going onto the books. The vote is Tuesday.
https://theintercept.com/2024/11/10/trump-nonprofit-tax-exempt-political-enemies/
Keep in mind that this act also includes tax relief for Americans imprisoned abroad, which is fine, and the non-objectionability of which is part of the insidious nature of this law. Make sure to tell your rep that you support that measure, but that the act must be voted down in its current form and passed without this incredibly dangerous rider.
If you don’t know how to reach your rep, start here: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative