Like many disheartened liberals, I almost completely withdrew from following national politics after the November election. I just didn’t have the capacity to deal with a flood tide of bad news about what Donald Trump was going to do.

I still spend less time consuming national news than I used to. But I can no longer enjoy the luxury of abstinence. Things are just too bad and too consequential.

The above passage is from Chapter 24 of the Book of Proverbs. I came upon it while tracking down the famous quotation, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.” It’s usually and wrongly attributed to Edmund Burke; as with many famous quotations, its actual origin is murky at best.

That sentence started rattling around my head as I was writing about the many ways in which Trump is already having a corrosive effect right here in Vermont, and about Gov. Phil Scott’s refusal to acknowledge the harm being done or speak out against it.

The last straw was the Friday, April 11 edition of the Rachel Maddow Show, in which she went deep on the crisis in the Social Security Administration the damage Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is doing at the Department of Health and Human Services.

So. I decided to do something.

Not just one thing. I decided to do one thing every day. Indefinitely.

It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Most days, it won’t be. On day one, I wrote an email to Sen. Peter Welch asking him to oppose the U.S. House-passed voter ID bill that will make it harder for many people (including most women and people born in other countries) to register to vote. Took me about ten minutes.

On day two I signed onto the email list for 50501 Vermont, the grassroots organization trying to channel the abundant anger and fear about the Trump administration. Tomorrow? Will let you know. I’m going to do a short post every day reporting that day’s small step.

Here are some of the things I’ll be doing, and you could be doing too. Suggestions welcome.

• Writing an email or making a call to an elected official.
• Taking part in a public protest, like the “Hands Off!” rallies of April 5.
• Join a protest organization like 50501, Indivisible, or Third Act.
• Attend a meeting or volunteer for one of those efforts.
• Donate to a political cause or candidate.
• Donate to a local or state organization that might be suffering from federal cuts like food banks, libraries, and museums.
• Donate to journalistic enterprises, national or local. (Vermont media have picked up an extra beat, chronicling the local effect of federal cuts.)
• Write a letter to the editor. (Sue me, I’m old.)

That’s it for now. Expect a short post every day just letting you know what I did that day. And pleas consider doing the same yourself, if you’re not already engaged in whatever way you can manage.