Although the message I carry on my backpack wherever I go says “I’m protesting because I don’t want my grandkids to grow up in a fascist America,” I’ve turned into a walking billboard because I don’t want anyone to have to live in a fascist America. But many more of us have to get involved NOW to make sure that we won’t end up living in the chaos and cruelty of an authoritarian state. Once such a state is established, it will take years, decades even, to dislodge. Dictators don’t leave peacefully, and the damage they do (as we can see from what is happening even now) is extremely costly in every respect.

As I go about my days (on foot or on public transport), I’d say 90% of the people who go by either don’t see me (faces buried in their smartphones) or glance up and look quickly away, pretending that they don’t see the eccentric older lady plastered with signs about uncomfortable things. But of the 10% who do look, and of the much smaller percentage who respond, 99% do so positively — a thumb’s-up, thanks, genuine smiles, nods, and (far more rarely) a brief conversation. (I recognize that such positive responses would not be the norm in far too many places in the USA right now, alas.)

The conversations, however brief, often include the person expressing their frustration — some variant of “I hate what’s happening, but I don’t know what I can do about it.” Hence this little website, based on a YouTube video I saw some months ago from a “Professor Poutine” (a.k.a. “Mr. E’s histories”).

It’s definitely worth watching, but here’s the gist:

In 1930s Germany, only about 5% of the people were collaborators or perpetrators of the horrors of the Nazi regime. On the other side of the equation, only about 5% of the people were “upstanders” or rescuers (active resistants). That left about 90% of the German population in the category of “bystander” — people who ignored what was going on, who did not do anything as their neighbors disappeared, as stores they themselves had frequented were vandalized, as the doctors they themselves used suddenly were no longer allowed to practice medicine, and so on. They remained neutral in the face of evil and ultimately were engulfed by the horrors of war and full-on destruction.

If only a small additional percentage of people had chosen not to sit passively by, it may have been possible to have mitigated at least some of the horrors the Nazis perpetrated. In our day, experts say that it takes some 3.5% of the population to rise up and stand against evil for authoritarian regimes to get stopped in their tracks.

Going from bystander to rescuer is usually a stretch too far for most people, but moving from bystander to upstander requires only positive actions, no matter how small or private, that strengthen community ties and build networks. Creating those ties and networks before emergencies arise is important! Not everyone can publicly march or hold signs or otherwise openly oppose what those in power are working to achieve, but we can all do something, and it is absolutely essentially that we all do what we can — NOW.

Please choose to be an upstander. We need you! America needs you. The home page provides ideas and links to groups and associations that can provide even more ideas and support