I have received a great deal of encouragement from readers of the My Turn columns I have written. The response I hear most often is, “Keep them coming.” People tell me that the columns give voice to concerns they already carry but have struggled to express. Seeing those thoughts in print reminds them that they are not alone. I am always touched when someone I have never met recognizes my name and thanks me for something I wrote.
Almost inevitably, however, the conversation turns to another question:
“But what can I do?”
It is a deceptively simple question because it can come from two very different places. It can arise from a sense of agency — a sincere desire to find where we fit and how we can contribute. Or it can come from a place of discouragement, when the scale of what is happening feels overwhelming. Democracy, our economy, our educational institutions and our social fabric all seem under assault. I understand both responses because I move between them all the time.
It is easy to become despondent. Many of the forces reshaping our lives are difficult to see or understand. Why are property taxes rising while confidence in public education is declining? Why do energy costs continue to climb while thousands of acres of solar panels spread across our farmland? Some threats are unmistakable, as when ICE raids disrupt families and communities. Others are more subtle, working slowly over time like invisible radiation: crushing student debt, the erosion of public education, the widening gap between wealth and opportunity, or the long-term consequences of climate change.
These problems are real, but they also tempt us to believe that they are too large or too distant for ordinary people to influence.
Yet the front lines are not only in Washington or Tehran. They are here — in our towns, neighborhoods, schools, libraries, farms and local governments. While many national issues seem beyond our reach, the life of our community is not. We can challenge corruption, strengthen local institutions, support one another and work together to create the kind of community we want to live in.
Perhaps, then, “What can I do?” is not the most important question.
A better question may be, “What am I being called to do?”
That question shifts our attention from what we cannot control to what we can. We cannot control the wind, but we can set the sails. We cannot choose every circumstance we face, but we can choose how we respond. The greatest danger is not that events are beyond our control, but that we don’t recognize the power of what we do control.
Every generation faces moments when the way forward is unclear. Ours asks us to take the next step before we can see the entire path, to hope when hope seems unreasonable and to persevere when success is far from certain. Darkness is real, but we do not have to grant it the final word. Hope is not optimism that everything will work out. It is the decision to act as though our actions matter.
My friend Mitch captured this beautifully:
“Our home is the front line of democracy. It is one of its primary laboratories. Parks and libraries, school committees and neighborhood gatherings, dinner tables and board meetings — these are the civic commons, the places where public life is either practiced or neglected. They are small enough to feel personal and large enough to matter.”
That is where democracy ultimately lives — not in grand speeches or distant capitals, but in the daily choices we make together.
So when someone asks “What can I do?” my answer is this: begin where you are. Find the work that speaks to your heart. Strengthen one institution. Help one neighbor. Join one effort. Speak one honest truth. None of us can do everything, but each of us can do something. And when enough people answer the call before them, communities change.
There is, indeed, a place for every one of us.
Christopher “Kiffer” Sikes lives in Northfield, is a 40-year resident of Franklin County and founded Common Capital, a nonprofit that finances small businesses and community projects in western Massachusetts. Comments are appreciated and can be sent to kiffersikes@gmail.com.