It’s up to 1,000 homes, now. 1,000 homes around my dear Boulder burned down in mere hours last night. A hotel. A Target. [Photos]

I don’t wish us a Happy New Year. I don’t feel #ColoradoStrong, as the hashtag is trending, or #BoulderStrong, as it trended when an armed jerk killed 10 locals this year, too. Just a few days ago another jerk killed people in Lakewood, near Denver.

I feel vulnerable. We are vulnerable.

An overwhelming number of US are concerned about both our climate crisis and gun safety. But the GOP decided, instead of evolving as a party, to rig the vote through election officials, voter suppression, and gerrymandering (and if and when Dems do it, it’s wrong, too, but 95% is done by the GOP, and I call this spade a spade).

The midterms are coming.

If we vote blue in overwhelming numbers, Manchin and Sinema won’t be able to block progress. If, as the media forecasts, a red wave washes over our shores, flooding America with partisan hate, we will awake to a failing democracy (if this strikes you as hyperbole, you aren’t reading quality journalism). Trump tried to overthrow this democracy, and his barbarians are still at the gates.

These fires, these shootings, are not isolated incidents. So keep your thoughts and prayers, and hashtags if that’s all you got.

If our prayers are just the beginning of our helping, as with Moxie and Cure Farm and so many others offering up food, and the gofundmes (a friend, with burns on 12% of her body, penniless, if you’re inspired to help) and so many others giving shelter—showing kind caring community, then we are manifesting our inner goodness.

We just have to dive beneath the blinding rancor and posturing and soapboxing that social media encourages. Then we can live in a kind of real hope and optimism. That kind of community strength is real.

But too often it’s just a hashtag. Not enough of us are active in our caring, and we let gun control and climate crisis be ignored, year after year. But we’ll offer “thoughts and prayers” readily.

The question is, as a friend who’s a mom put it, speaking of our children: “what kind of world are we giving them?”

My words here are not shared out of hate, or lying, but out of heartbreak, exhaustion, alarm, and truth. Vote like your life depends on it. Because for the next generation, and every one to follow, everything good in this world depends on our actions this decade. We can do this. We can all band together against our self-made overwhelming obstacles and save something. Not all of it, as Goodall says, but it’s worth it.

Micro and macro matter, both. I hate the social media-lazy argument that micro doesn’t matter. Lead by example. Live w/ kindness and responsibility. Yes, biking, going vegan, boycotting plastic and effing gas-powered leafblowers matters. But macro, matters, too: vote. Fight for voting rights.

Comment I’M LOOKING UP if you’re in.