Melodies of Light for Love and Justice Charity Booster Event!
February 27, 2026 4:30pm - 12:30am EST

Join MelodicBlue in a special Love and Deepspace themed charity booster event benefitting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Lambda Legal! For more information about the event, our sponsor, and donation incentives check out https://love-and-justice.carrd.co/!

Melodies of Light
Charity Team Returns!

The Melodies of Light charity team is officially kicking off a long-term donation campaign to do our part in helping fight for all of us, and especially for the people currently being targeted by federal policies and some states’ bills and laws. We’re not lawyers ourselves, but we can do something to help the people who are; they are fighting to protect and support people needing their help, and to protect everyone’s rights!We’ve chosen two recipients for donations here: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), taking the lead in many legal battles for rights under attack, and Lambda Legal, our nation's oldest legal organization dedicated to winning and defending the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and everyone living with HIV .Donations will go immediately to the chosen non-profit, rather than waiting until the campaign ends and/or hits a certain threshold.We know many people here are struggling hard to cope with what’s going on, to try to retain some kind of mental/emotional stability; therefore, we have set up a page with various links, to put into YOUR hands the ability to “look at this right now, or not”---we understand that “I’m overwhelmed” is common for all of us now. We simply want you to have our full story and a collection of resources available to you, to go to or not, at your discretion.

Tell Me More

Many people are feeling frustrated and even helpless right now, in figuring out what THEY can do to try to support, resist, help, and many feel like they’re not doing enough, even failing. Here’s something on that from Dave Barnhart:

I've been talking to a lot of clients and friends about their feelings of [being] overwhelm[ed] and how they struggle with what news to follow or pay attention to. I want to offer a clarifying question: "What is mine to do?"You've been given a unique set of talents, friends, communities, resources, and ideas. It may be that what is yours to do is to protest; it may be to bear witness; it may be to chalk messages outside your senator's office; it may be to offer sanctuary or an ear; it may be to escape danger.I've watched people self-organize in a natural disaster. Some mobilize their boats, but not everyone has a boat; some offer their homes, but not everyone has a home; some cook, clean, lift and move boxes, or just listen and pray. In a bucket brigade, people find their place.
And what is yours to do may not be immediately apparent, but in group tasks there are always those who observe until they see the thing nobody else sees, and then they step in or raise their voices or catch someone before they fall.As individuals, we do feel overwhelm[ed]; but the human superpower is not AI, or guns, or the state. It's our ability to organize and adapt. You are already part of something larger than yourself, something bigger than billionaires or conmen or governments, and it has eons of wisdom. It's a wisdom that sings itself into being and topples autocratic states when even less than 4% of the population rises up in protest.There are way more than 4% of us -- well in excess of what we need to put billionaires in their place (behind bars) and wrest the lever of government out of the hands of high school bullies. What is yours to do does not have to be big, dramatic, or heroic.It may be that it's planting a garden to feed yourself and your neighbors. It may be teaching a skill. We need bards and storytellers and druids, not just warriors and sorcerers.The forces of oppression live according to the notions of "deserving" and "not enough." You can resist simply by rejecting their metrics and worldview, which clearly does not make them happy, kind, or content.Like Joan of Arc, like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., you were born for this moment. You already have everything you need. And the bad guys are fighting really hard because they are terrified of you.

Remember that you have talents, skills, knowledge, experience, interests, abilities, resources, etc. that are your strengths: whatever they are, play to those in this fight. Remind yourself that while no one can do everything, everyone can do something… and everyone doing something is enough. You don’t have to be “Superman + Data from Star Trek + Gandalf.” Really.And so if you can, as you can, our donation campaign is open to help you donate to these two causes, as one of the many things people can do in this fight.Now, to get the ball rolling here, a few years ago a sociologist gave a Ted Talk on how non-violent protests tend to be the most successful, and on two of the main forms such protests can take. They back this up with data and historic records. They also point out that our culture has always insisted violent protests are not only inevitable, but also, are the most effective (which this researcher believed at first themselves), and how we need to learn more about all this and how that belief is incorrect.Here is that Ted Talk:

Note in particular that “protesting” can also be by you being absent from something they expect you to be present for---whether it’s boycotts on shopping or on going places (as we’ve seen with Canadians no longer vacationing here, and their airports being practically empty of travelers to the U.S.), or strikes/general strikes, or other methods of you exercising your power not to give the oppressors your time, your money, your work, etc.There are numerous guides out there now floating around on various ways to stand up to this oppression and to protect all our rights; here are a few to get you started. Feel free to look up more as you need/choose. You may agree or disagree with aspects of what they say, and that’s fine. The main point is to get you thinking here, and looking at various strategies. Again, do not let this make you feel overwhelmed: you can only do what you can do.Remember what we quoted from Dave Barnhart above. Mom says she finds the “How people react to a natural disaster” analogy very comforting and one that helped her center on what SHE can do, what HER strengths are---like helping to write this page and providing info on media sources.

Resources

These resources are broadly segmented into Community Support Tools--to help support you and your mental/physical wellbeing--and Stay Informed & Empowered, a collection of information-sources across social media and news sites (along with media literacy tips on how evaluate what you find on those sites critically) along with case-trackers and toolkits from ACLU and Lambda Legal.

Community Support Tools

Many thanks to LilijaTheLancer for her work in collecting many of these resources into a single document on her Twitch channel.

Crisis Resources:

Worksheets and Processes:

Meditations:

Social Media:

NameWho Are TheyLinks
Erin Reed, aka Erin in the Morning(She/Her) She is an Independent LGBTQ+ journalist who tracks and reports on anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the world and creator of the Informed Consent HRT Map and the Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Map.Substack, Bluesky
Heather Cox RichardsonA historian who both covers day-to-day actions going on plus often provides historic context; for example, giving information on past broad use of tariffs and the economic effects they had, or why societal-good programs were founded by the federal government.Facebook, Substack
Rebecca SolnitA writer and journalist often known best for covering feminist issues, but she’s covering a lot of what’s going on beyond that.Facebook, Essays
Jay KuoA former lawyer and political sciences student, on the Board of Directors at the Human Rights Campaign, works with his friend George Takei’s pageFacebook, Substack, Bluesky
Robert ReichProfessor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. Worked in administrations for Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and as the Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, and as a member of Obama’s economic transition advisory board. Reich particularly leans into issues like Citizen’s United, Constitutional Rights, Economic Rights, and like Cox Richardson, tends to offer quite a bit of historical background info on issues. (He's also the father of Sam Reich, host of Dropout's Game Changer & Make Some Noise)Youtube, Substack
Jim WrightA retired military intelligence officer, and freelance writer. By the nature of his former work there’s a lot he doesn’t discuss publicly. Wright often provides his own salty take on the goings-on, sometimes offers stories from his past that may relate, and is also a nature photographer. He may not be up on every single thing you or I are up on, but he has a strong sense of loyalty to the Constitution, honor, and to people’s rights. For years he lived in Alaska, but he and his wife moved to the Florida panhandle to be there for elderly parents…and living in the middle of this very Red area often brings on some pithy criticism from him for what he has to put up with there, and what he sees. Aside from Mom enjoying some of his biting sarcasm, she finds value in his posts where he draws on his own experience, and/or his sense of honor and loyalty, to give his perspective on “this or that thing going on.” His comments on “Signalgate” for instance.Facebook, Bluesky

Media/News Sites:

A note on critical media literacy:
Click here to jump to the list of sitesThe problem with much of mainstream media is that they’re owned by corporations, and the owners/heads don’t want to “rock the boat” or have even “kissed the ring,” as Bezos and others have done. Much of their coverage may be spotty at best on certain events (eg. Protests) , slanted, etc.As a literate consumer of news, this is one reason why it matters to check multiple sources, much of the time, as well as checking into the background of the news source: who owns them, if campaign contributions are listed, etc. It doesn’t mean everything they cover is incomplete or slanted, but often may well be. Compare and contrast, folks.Also, at times it can be worthwhile to try to search and find local media outlets for something happening, to see what they are saying. Sometimes it’s still “corporate feed” stuff, but sometimes they contain local details missing from national reports (or it can be vice-versa).There are also sites that claim to show left/center/right bias for media organizations; again, that can be useful but also take it with a grain of salt, at least in part because it can depend on how they define “left, center, right,” and on whether or not there are objective examples. Same is true for fact-checking sites: many have now been put forward as “fact-checkers” when in reality they have a strong-leaning agenda and may themselves be lying.One larger site that was at least founded as a non-profit news source by independent journalists trying to adhere to journalist ethical standards, is ProPublica. Their articles are usually very long because they tend to do a lot of deep diving, will wait 2 years or more in doggedly pursuing a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to be filled, etc. That doesn’t mean they can’t or don’t make mistakes, but by and large they try hard for accuracy. They also sometimes will team up with some local media outlet for a story, and note that when they do.And there’s always NPR and PBS, but remember that they too can have something biased/slanted; a lot depends on who is writing and editing, and/or pressure “from above”.Remember, check backgrounds of sources and compare and contrast what different sources are saying, and be aware that no news source is perfect all the time; what you want to look for is general reliability, most/much of the time.Another way you can do that, aside from comparing mainstream media to local sources, is to search for sources from specific groups. For example, for years Mom has followed specific groups that promote rights and issues for specific groups of people, because sometimes they have news specific to their group that mainstream isn’t covering, and/or they offer their own insights into an issue that mainstream doesn’t voice.