Day two has come and with it, a mutual sense of purpose and urgency. Like many of you, I have experienced both enthusiasm and admonishments for expressing my feelings regarding the outcome of the election. I will not apologize for any feelings that I may have stirred up in regard to my last post. My sentiments were true and have given a voice to some of my dearest friends and family members.

I will not engage in negativity, rather, in the words of Michelle Obama, “When they go low, we go high.” So what is there to do today? It is hard and it feels overwhelming to try to figure out where we go from here.

Some will tell you that Donald Trump is our president and we need to accept it. They will say that it is uniquely un-American to announce that he is not your president. They will say that he is the president and that Congress is red and there’s nothing we can do. They will inundate you with condescending messages like this one that I received today:

My dear niece, get used to it now for the next 4 years because even though you don’t like it, you’ll constantly hear all kinds of news about [the] new Trump/Pence administration from all kinds of people and sources. No one will be able to hide from it. No one!

I know, right? But the thing is that I DON’T need to get used to it. And I’m certainly not trying to hide from it. I am actively saying He is not my president. I do not accept it. I will not get used to it. I will not hide. Instead, I will fight.

In the words of the queen of the democratic process Leslie Knope, in an open letter addressed to America today:

Our president-elect is everything you should abhor and fear in a male role model. He has spent his life telling you, and girls and women like you, that your lives are valueless except as sexual objects. He has demeaned you, and belittled you, and put you in a little box to be looked at and not heard. It is your job, and the job of girls and women like you, to bust out.

You are going to run this country, and this world, very soon. So you will not listen to this man, or the 75-year-old, doughy-faced, gray-haired nightmare men like him, when they try to tell you where to stand or how to behave or what you can and cannot do with your own bodies, or what you should or should not think with your own minds. You will not be cowed or discouraged by his stream of retrogressive babble. You won’t have time to be cowed, because you will be too busy working and learning and communing with other girls and women like you. And when the time comes, you will effortlessly flick away his miserable, petty, misogynistic worldview like a fly on your picnic potato salad.

He is the present, sadly, but he is not the future. You are the future. Your strength is a million times his. Your power is a billion times his. We will acknowledge this result, but we will not accept it. We will overcome it, and we will defeat it.

Now find your team, and get to work.

I admit that I have taken baby steps today, but that is okay. You’ve got to know that is okay. The biggest thing that I did today is write to my representative, expressing my fear and frustrations and hope that he will adequately represent myself and his other constituents in the coming days, weeks, months and years.

I urge you do to the same. All you have to do is visit this website and enter your zip code. Once you find your representative, read about him or her, evaluate the best way to reach out. That may be by phone, email, or letter. Call or write. Express yourself, it’s so important right now. That’s step one. Make yourself heard. Your representatives have been elected to…REPRESENT you and the only way that they can do so is if you make yourself heard. It’s awkward, and it may be hard to find a way to express yourself intelligently to a stranger that holds public office, but I believe in you. WE THE PEOPLE have the power. Don’t forget that.

The other thing I did today was sign a petition urging the Senate to approve President Obama’s supreme court appointment, Merrick Garland. If you care at all about the preservations of your civil liberties and basic rights, I urge you to sign the petition. All it takes it putting down your name. You can do it.

That’s all I’ve done for now, politically, and that is enough for today. When I’m done posting this, I am going to write a thank you note to Hillary Clinton. You are free to do the same. If you want to share your experiences and feelings with her, please do so! You can send her a card at:

Hillary Clinton

PO Box 5256

New York, NY 10185-5256

Let her know that her message has been heard and that you will fight for what’s right. It’s worth it.

Please, practice self-care in these distressing times. I promise we will get through this together. Now that we’ve found our team, let’s get to work.