We made it through 2017. Now begins 2018.

Things have been harder for me lately. This is the point at which it really starts to hit home that this isn’t a short-term challenge; it goes on and on and on. Taking tikkun olam in its proper sense, repairing the world is a task that goes on more or less forever, because there are always ways to make things better. But the amount of repair it needs right now is huge, and many of our victories amount to maintaining the status quo, rather than letting it get worse.

But 2018 does offer a chance to turn things in at least a little bit of a new direction, via the midterm elections in the U.S. If I have one resolution this year, it is to make sure the Republican Party reaps what it has sowed. They’ve been given their head, and they’ve used it to screw the American middle class, benefit the wealthy, strip protections from the environment, lash out at Latinos and Muslims and women, hand the Internet over to corporations, try repeatedly to gut health insurance, and generally piss on everything I care about. They’ve made it clear that they don’t really give two shits about democracy or the will of the people.

So it’s time for us to speak all the louder.

If you are not registered to vote, then register. If you are registered, make sure that’s still valid. And then vote. Same goes for anyobody living in another country, because your politics matter, too. Don’t listen to the voices that tell you that you don’t matter. You do.

You can change the world. One bit at a time.

The election is in November, but the work begins now. Share here anything you’ve done to repair the world: donations, volunteer work, good deeds, changes in your own life to be a better citizen and friend and neighbor. No effort is too small to be worth mentioning. We’ll need every straw if we’re going to break this camel’s back.