What Will You Do In The First 100 Days?
By: Roxanne Hale
Tags: Politics, Leadership, Relationships, Business, Life

What Will You Do In The First 100 Days?

An Open Letter to My Fellow Citizens

Here at long last, we find ourselves on the Eve of the 2020 election. Results unknown, and yet — I dare say — optimism in the air. If you’re a Democrat.

Something feels distinctly familiar. Hope, perhaps?

As I go about my day, doing regular mundane things, in the back of mind, as it’s been the past four years, the itch of worry remains.

We haven’t won yet.

And if we do, what then? What other unknown obstacles exist? It’s difficult to imagine that promising future so tangibly within reach without the nagging fear it may be snatched from us in some totally unexpected way.

Still the hope, buried but barely peeking through, asks — Might 2021 be a year for real progress?

Biden’s team has a plan for the first 100 days. So much to do in so little time. It feels like we are already late. And like any crappy employee that finally loses their job, the current President has no doubt left other mind-blowing dereliction of duties for us to find.

But Biden isn’t the only one that needs a plan.

When the results, at long last, reveal themselves — what will you do?

Will the immortal words of John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” call to us again?

The Transition Period

No doubt, the entire country will need a transition period. We are exhausted from our collective nightmare. Some will still be angry, and others anxious to roll up their sleeves. But like any significant fight you’ve just had with a loved one, a little cooling-off period is probably in order.

I just wonder, though, how long will it take for the lessons we learned here to fade? Or will the weight of these times leave a permanent dent in our collective subconscious, like my grandfather who suffered the Great Depression and survived WWII only to be left with the permanent stamp of frugality.

Do we finally stop doomsday scrolling or get back to keeping up with the Kardashians and declare it’s now once again impolite to talk politics at parties?

Was the lesson severe enough to change our behavior permanently? If so, to what degree, I wonder?

In the first 100 days of the new presidency, we’ll have our own work cut out for us — regardless of who wins.

What will you do in the first 100 days of the new presidency?

Double Down on Civility

We could all take a lesson from Slayer Pete Buttigieg. His interviews go viral because he’s witty as hell and doses his arguments with common sense. He states his position with a twinkle in his eye and smile on his face.

Always civil. The arguments are no doubt important to him but he doesn’t cave to anger.

In the coming months, win or lose, we’ll have to find a way to learn to talk to each other again. After everyone calms down, of course.

Open Your Mind

I was a life-long Republican until I encountered a passage in a book by Holocaust survivor Primo Levi. It described the most civilized countries as those that keep one person from gathering too much power and the weakest from falling too far below the rest.

It’s like a switch went off in my mind, and I could see some policies for the power grab they really are.

“A country is considered more civilized the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak and a powerful one too powerful.” — Primo Levi

It’s easy to write down but difficult to live down — keeping an open mind to others’ struggles.

The path you made it on isn’t always available to everyone else. Sometimes people need help. Others need regulation.

The world is shockingly unfair. A little humanity for others is an incredible equalizer. And when it can’t be found, there are laws.

Restore Fractured Relationships

In the first 100 days, you may have to extend an olive branch to your Trump-loving mom. Re-friend a few people on Facebook. We’ve all learned something about each other in this four-year crisis that we didn’t know before.

Maybe right now, you just can’t, though, and that’s ok. The transition period is for you. Take your respite and then find a way forward with your long-lost loved one. Like any relationship that survived something ugly, your relationship might look different afterward.

Find Your Fight

It’s exhausting to fight battles on every front, but each of us has a cause that calls to us. Find ways to get involved with the issues that speak to you. Just remember, behavior and people change slowly over time.

Stick to it. It may be a life-long battle in a war you personally never see won. But like all important battles, someone will be there to take up your torch one day. Don’t leave your post.

Exercise Your Right to Vote

If our current state of affairs has taught us anything, we can never abandon this important civic duty.

As a member of the “governed” we must take every opportunity afforded to us to express our will. In large elections but especially small ones, it can’t be said enough.

Vote.

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to have hope when one is winning. It’s nearly impossible when things don’t turn out as you wanted. I guess that’s the ironic way life goes sometimes.

As this week comes to an end, and we finally learn our fate, we can hopefully drop our swords and allow our thoughts to turn towards a reconstruction of sorts. If it doesn’t, we’ll find a way forward anyway, for that I have no doubt.