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I wrote this on a mailing list as support for friends but figured I'd share more broadly: Here are my 10 rules for these trying times

1. Realize that this is one part in history and that we've been here before: I know it sounds crazy, but this country has been in similar situations before.

There was the revolutionary war. There was the civil war. The world went through 2 (!!!) world wars. Nazis held rallies in New York and there was talk of attempting a coup in the US. At the height of the cold war, we came within days of potentially escalating into a nuclear conflict with the USSR.

3. Think of the things you have agency on and act on them: "All politics is local." Organize to help those in your community and find activists in your community to work with. Working together, at a local level, will make you realize there is tremendous good still happening in the world.

4. This too shall pass: In the days/weeks/months following 9/11, we all wondered what living under the threat of foreign-born terrorism meant. We survived. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, we wondered if the world could recover from such a shock. We survived.

In the early 2020s, we wondered whether we'd make it past the pandemic. Most of us survived. We may be entering an era of uncertainty but it, too, will end.