S10, Ep6: Joanna Smith on “Conspiring Against the United States Government” with…Fingerpaint

Joanna Oltman Smith: [00:00:00] My name is Joanna Smith and I do a lot of activism in a lot of different areas. I kind of consider it to be my job. I call myself a professional citizen, which to me just means paying attention to what's going on and acting when it's necessary. And in terms of climate in particular, I feel like I've always been very aware of the issues around it.

Amy Westervelt: Joanna Oltman Smith was one of two activists arrested at the National Gallery in Washington, D. C. in April 2023. She and her fellow activist Tim Martin, both members of the group Declare Emergency, smeared water soluble finger paint on the glass display case around a Degas statue called Little Dancer.

Then they sat down in front of it and read a statement about why President Biden needs to declare the climate crisis a state of [00:01:00] emergency. Martin and Smith, both parents, talked about fearing for their children who, unlike the Little Dancer, are not protected by glass and face an increasingly dangerous world.

Gallery visitors gathered around them, along with a few journalists they had invited, and then they were arrested, pretty quietly, as expected. The indictment that came down for them both a month later was more of a surprise. The two were charged with conspiracy against the United States, because the protest took place in a federal building.

That crime comes with a potential jail sentence of 10 years and a fine of half a million dollars.[00:02:00]

Joanna Oltman Smith:  It was quite a shock. I think that's a perfect word. I, I could not believe that what I, I left, I was being held by the National Park Service police because of the location of the protest was on the National Mall and that's their jurisdiction and when they released me, they gave me a Kind of a hearing appearance ticket that indicated that my my violation was defacing public or private property, which is exactly what I did and intended to do in the most non destructive way possible, right?

But right before that hearing was to happen, I received a call from my lawyer informing me that it was now in federal. Jurisdiction and that I had been indicted by a grand jury [00:03:00] on two counts, which are public and I can, repeat them here. One was conspiracy against the United States of America and the other was Pertaining to a, a very obscure statute that covers only the National Gallery and sets a much lower threshold of damage than any that I was aware of the general misdemeanor damage level, I believe in, in D.

Amy Westervelt: I'm Amy Westerveld, and this is Drilled, "The Real Free Speech Threat". Throughout this series, in addition to bringing you investigative [00:04:00] pieces on the role of extractive industry in the criminalization of protest, and reports from the front lines all over the globe, we will be bringing you the stories of people who've been directly impacted by this trend.

As you heard in our episode on the Atlas Network, a key step in criminalizing protest is vilifying the protesters themselves. It's important then to remind people that these activists are humans, that they care about perfectly reasonable things like protecting their kids, and that actually it's pretty admirable to take on big risks with your comfort and your security in order to fight for the greater good.

Earlier in the season, we heard from Disha Ravi, the youth climate activist in India who's been charged with sedition for working with Fridays for Future and supporting the farmers protests there. Today, the story of Joanna, [00:05:00] who describes herself as just a middle aged mom from Brooklyn trying to do the right thing.

That story coming up after this quick break.

Joanna Oltman Smith: [ midroll break]

Even as a child, I grew up in Berkeley, California. There was a lot of activism and social movement around me all the time. And I guess one of the big issues of my childhood was a general sense that things need to be done in a different way in order to protect, I guess, back in the 70s, it was more of a focus on wildlife and open space out in California.

So. Issues would be, addressed around certain species who were threatened with extinction or preserving a park for public use when developers wanted to build a [00:06:00] house on it or, that, that sort of, granular local issue. We had a roadway in Berkeley. It still is, I believe, closed off every season to allow newts to cross.

It's up in the Tilden Regional Park above Berkeley.

And they have these wonderful new crossing signs up in Tilden. Anyway, so just, as a kid, just very aware of our impact affecting other species. My elementary school in Berkeley was one of the first probably to have Any kind of garden element.

It had something they called the environmental yard .Washington elementary on martin luther king , which was basically just this huge open space With plantings and a pond and we could just run around in there at recess. So That was a big formative thing for me and then Yeah, let's see , moving on into college years.[00:07:00]

I went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie in the 90s. And at the time there was no recycling program on campus. So a bunch of students and I would get up early on Sunday mornings and drive around in a truck collecting all the empties from all the house parties and take them to a recycling center in Dutchess County.

I think that was probably like my first on the ground trying to do something with my hands to make things better. But in terms of like political involvement around the climate issue, I'd say my entree was actually around transportation issues in New York City.

I was very concerned about how cars were dominating the urban environment and Polluting it and making things unsafe on the street level for everyone else trying to use the city. So I got [00:08:00] involved in advocating for safer streets for people walking and riding bikes and helped found a political action committee around that issue that still exists in New York, to help get people elected who understood all the issues that come up around, around giving people choices about how they move around the city and then that, that got me involved in all kinds of local politics. I served on my local police precincts, community council for a couple of terms, trying to help them understand the issues around the built environment, how they can better be good community partners around that.

Gave up on that, gave up on trying to reform the NYPD. And I joined my local it's, it's like the lowest level of government in New York city. It's called the community board.

They're like [00:09:00] 50 of them around the city and the idea behind them is to have citizen input on local issues ranging from liquor licenses to historic preservation.

And I became very aware sitting on that board that we were still litigating really important climate issues on a block by block basis. Things like trying to remove one parking spot to allow for More bicycle parking on street, or letting a homeowner put solar panels on their historic district house.

This kind of thing would take hours and hours of fighting and discussion. And sometimes they would pass and sometimes they wouldn't. And I just started to feel like... The extreme weather events that were happening in my life were being caused by all of [00:10:00] our, our manmade emissions and that the local politics wasn't up to speed in terms of coming up with solutions around that.

So I have over the years done a lot like I mentioned the electoral politics like. Doing get out the vote and petitioning and trying to get certain people in office. I've also done a lot of citizen lobbying with various non profits in the climate area and other issues that I care about, like Moms Demand and the Trust for Public Land and the National Resource Defense Council, New York Renews, which is a coalition of Several hundred environmental and community groups in New York State.

I'm trying to get climate friendly legislation through our very broken legislature. So, yeah, I've done. I've done like a lot of on the ground organizing and. [00:11:00] Part of that has been rallying and protesting. I've done a fair amount of die ins and picket lines and blockading of buildings to raise awareness on different issues.

have focused on primarily financial targets because we live in New York City. That's where the headquarters of a lot of the largest funders of fossil fuel infrastructure are based. I have like a really great group of meditative friends from all different faith traditions. And we get together once a week and hold a kind of silent meditative witness in front of the BlackRock headquarters.

Sometimes within it. occasionally I've been arrested there for nonviolent civil disobedience, things like protesting in the lobby after they ask us to leave or,[00:12:00] making a little bit of a challenge for people entering the building so that they are able to hear the message that people are, are trying to get across about how their version of responsible investing isn't truly responsible because they don't follow things through the whole value chain. So that's kind of my background, but I'd say, in terms of what I just did with Declare Emergency and Washington. That was my first time stepping up as an individual, putting myself on the line with my partner, Tim, to really do something that we knew would raise the alarm, on the government's lack of climate action. To the level, that would pierce the bubble of mainstream media, which is very inclined to not [00:13:00] cover any of all the things I just mentioned to you. Pretty much radio silence on the part of the large media outlets, in terms of what's happening on the ground, How broad the movement is at this point, how intersectional it is, how so many different social issues coming into the climate issue, because we're all interconnected and we're all understanding that.

So this this action was devised, as a way to make sure that some coverage happened. And we did that by doing it in a very public space. And Doing it in a way where we could get our, our speech out and explain what we feel needs to be done to move the dial on climate action.

But we also did it in a completely non violent way, and also non destructive. [00:14:00] We used purposefully used tempera paint that is otherwise known as washable finger paint that's used in nursery schools all over the world. And we did it because we wanted to have, yeah, a visual component because that kind of, theatric is what ends up being covered and we needed that coverage in order to start more discussions and it needed to happen in Washington, D. C. because that's where our leaders are. Making all the decisions or lack therein that are making it very hard to live on this planet at the moment and it's just going to get harder.

Amy Westervelt: There's so many things that you just mentioned that I want to pick up on one of which is this thing of the media.

I consistently hear from people who are organizing actions that it is like impossible to [00:15:00] get the media to cover activism and especially to cover it as anything other than a disruption.

Joanna Oltman Smith: Any facts, yeah. Or any, any background as to motivation of why people might want to take this personal risk. That is the challenge. I would say that there's been a little bit of coverage on our Particular protests that I found very spot on and compelling. And all of that has come from social scientists who some journalists reach out to and, get, kind of a larger picture of what's going on with movement building, pretty much all of those, academics, , scientists, professors, they all understand the need for the disruption to get the media to pay attention, and the idea is to not You know, keep [00:16:00] manifesting the disruption for all time. The idea is to, get the disruption covered.

Starts people talking about the issue, learning more about the issue. I mean, at the point we're at with the extreme weather spiraling out of control all across the globe. It's not exactly like we need to raise awareness, or you would think it wouldn't be, but it still is a necessity because you look at the pushback that our protest has received from pretty much everyone, within the art world, anyone from mainstream communities.

Newspapers, who we still respect, we still understand the need of the free press to get important information out to the public. That's why we, wanted so dearly for them to cover our protest. But then you get things like the Washington Post editorial [00:17:00] board painting us with very broad strokes and pretending that they, Didn't understand the need for it in the way we approached it, when all of the social scientists say this is exactly what has to happen.

Amy Westervelt: So actually, I think it'd be helpful for people who are not, familiar with organizing or protest. Could you walk me through, how does an action like this come together?

Joanna Oltman Smith: Right. I'm, of course not allowed to talk about the specific action that is, currently being litigated, but I have participated in so many actions over the years, so I can speak to the fact that, , yeah, general, general organizing involves clarifying a message and a mission. What are you trying to achieve?

That can be done starting with one person. I see a problem. I want to fix this problem. How am I going to go about explaining this to other people? So right, you have to come up with what, what you're [00:18:00] doing and why you're doing it. Then you reach out. There's outreach. You find like minded people. You find them in a wide variety of ways these days.

You put something On social media, you print up a poster, you print up a palm card, you get out to the farmer's market and talk to people, you ask friends and friends of friends to help share. Your message of what you are hoping to change and then you get together with those people who have expressed interest in connecting with you on on that issue, and you devise an action plan, and that is generally something that depends on who you're trying to reach in terms of where the, where the change can actually be made. It depends on locations. It depends on various people's risk tolerance in terms of interacting with both, [00:19:00] law enforcement and anyone else who might come down the pipeline after having done something like this.

So basically groups are divided into by risk and certain actions depending on your immigration status, your age, your current employment situation, your need to be home for your kids, there can be a variety of reasons why people might not want to engage with law enforcement. But because this is like the moral issue of our time, protecting a livable planet is something that a lot of people are willing to engage with law enforcement around.

And that engagement needs to be nonviolent for it to be powerful in any way. And so there's training that happens around that for the people who are willing to risk arrest. There is a lot of, coming together [00:20:00] about different ways of communicating, ways of speaking with each other, how to show respect through body language, how to position yourself in a way that will reduce the chance of harm to yourself and others.

There are a lot of different, components to nonviolent civil disobedience and anyone who's planning to undertake that in a way that will actually eventually make some change happen needs to be up to speed on all that. So that training takes place. And then, the day of action finally comes around and hopefully everyone that you've gotten on board knows exactly what their role is and is there to support one another.

Then there is a whole another element of support that happens around helping those who have decided to risk arrest. So, people will take care of personal belongings. People [00:21:00] will make sure that they have your emergency contact and your medical needs written down somewhere. People will come to the location where you have been detained after an action and greet you when you are released and make sure you have a snack and make sure you know what your next legal steps are.

So there's a lot from, soup to nuts. It's like a really long process. but it's amazing people power when you get people on the ground all there for the same reason, all trained in nonviolent civil disobedience and all ready to help make a protest happen in a way that will get the message out, the intended message out, and make sure that everyone stays safe.

Amy Westervelt: It's interesting because I feel like one part of the, the sort of backlash currently [00:22:00] is to almost paint that organizing as like insidious,

Joanna Oltman Smith: Exactly. Yes.

Amy Westervelt: Like organized crime or something

Joanna Oltman Smith: exactly what they are doing. And it's when I speak to my surreal position as an individual, I have been aware of this happening in other countries, even in other states in the United States. I always somehow thought that, the RICO laws were specific to organized crime and for people who are trying to harm other people or cheat other people or do something very nefarious and all of this climate movement organizing that's now being charged under these laws, It's the opposite, the intention is to support other people and help other people and quite frankly, save other people.

So I find it very interesting that, the whole concept of [00:23:00] getting together with, assembling with like minded people and coming up with effective protests is now considered something sinister. That just, dissent, dissent in general is, In many eyes, seen as the same as destruction or something.

Amy Westervelt: Yeah, there's a lot going on in the U. S. And then we're also looking at what's going on in other countries and where there's overlap between things happening here and in other places.

I was talking to a disinformation researcher about trends that they're seeing and climate disinformation and things like that. And, she didn't even know that we're working on a series about the backlash against protest. And I was like, so what are you looking at? What are the things that are concerning you in the next six to 12 months? And she was like, well, I'm really concerned about the rhetoric I'm seeing, that sort of othering and demonizing of climate protesters.

And I'm even more concerned about the way that the media seems [00:24:00] to just be running with that frame.

Joanna Oltman Smith: Yes. Thank you. I have, I have an Exhibit A for you to check out, which is an article that ran in the Times

Amy Westervelt: Oh yeah, I saw it, where they were really defensive of the museums and how this is causing problems for them.

Joanna Oltman Smith: Yeah. We went into this acknowledging this is going to be a pain for the museum. This is going to inconvenience a lot of people. It's going to probably be upsetting to people there. But it's not going to harm any of them, and it's certainly going to be easy to clean up.

That was our thinking. But the Times piece, didn't even do any, fact checking as far as I can tell, based on some things I've seen coming out of the discovery process, and. I am pretty concerned about a news outlet that I rely on as a New Yorker running such a one sided piece where they really didn't even get to the, the heart of the matter, which is[00:25:00] what's the issue?

Why, why are all these people doing this? Particularly, a mom and dad of a certain age, like Tim and I are, we felt really compelled to do this action as parents, as a protective measure to keep our kids and all kids safe around the world, and that really didn't make it into that article.

Amy Westervelt: Wow. That's really interesting.

Joanna Oltman Smith: Yeah, just back to the museum itself, I have an advanced degree in an art related area of study.

I'm a historic preservationist, so I have learned how to conserve art and, I've learned, the importance of art in society as an expression of our highest human spirit and what we decide to preserve and conserve is a reflection [00:26:00] of our ideals, and I live around a lot of art, and I'm a longtime member of the Metropolitan Museum, I, I attend art festivals and I go to galleries for fun and openings at museums, and it's just a big part of my life, and I, Felt comfortable doing this action because I realized that this Extreme weather that is being brought down by all of our man made emissions is going to threaten all those beautiful things that I've loved for my whole life, including art in museums, including all the precious people in my life and including all of the amazing places I have lived my life, that I think should be around for other generations to enjoy, I just, I don't think that inaction is an [00:27:00] option anymore given what the science is telling us. And I believe the science, I believe it. I'm not terribly knowledgeable on the science, but I am listening to, the high level of Overview of what the IPCC is saying. I am listening for sure to the UN secretary general comes out and says things like the real radicals are not the activists, the real radicals are the fossil fuel companies who refuse to change their way of doing business.

And that, that, Gets to all levels. Like I, living in New York, I attend a fair amount of like conferences and symposia that are open to the public. And sometimes those are at places like NYU or Columbia University. And I sit there and I see who is on the dais and who, who's getting the spotlight at these institutions.

And then I realized, Oh, those, those same companies. And [00:28:00] the representatives of those companies are the ones who are funding the research. They're the ones who decide what will be presented and what won't be. And it's, it's really shocking. Like, all these universities have ethics divisions, they have someone whose job it is to make sure that it doesn't impact the research, but I'll tell you from even just from sitting in on basic webinars where there's someone from BP right there next to all the professors, those professors are not going to actually speak their full mind and heart because they know Where their bread is buttered, they need that next research grant.

Amy Westervelt: Whenever I talk to people at universities, actually they make a free speech argument about it. Sort of comes full circle, right?

Joanna Oltman Smith: Oh, right,

Amy Westervelt: they say they well, we give our researchers and our professors academic freedom. And if we try to tell them who they can or can't accept funding from, then, they'll [00:29:00] kind of point to, Citizens United as like this precedent.

But in the most recent document dump from the congressional investigation, BP in particular, like was saying in their emails about how valuable that the relationship with like Princeton, for example, is not just because they can, shape the research agenda and get their point across and all that stuff, but also so that they, I think it was like, they said something like, so we know what the other side is thinking.

Joanna Oltman Smith: Oh, right. Oh, boy. It's pretty dark. I think I think that the interior secretary just said something along those same lines where she, she was very much politicizing the desire to slow down our extractive businesses with progressive politics. She said, I'm not gonna just listen to progressives who wanna.[00:30:00]

If we keep heating up our, our atmosphere the way we are, it's really not gonna matter whether you're a progressive or a conservative or anything. You won't be able to go outside, ever. That's the first part. And then the food supply will get disturbed. That's the second part.

And it won't really matter what your politics are. It's just, I don't understand how people don't see how all the systems are connected there. To have people at the highest position like I think the energy secretary yesterday tweeted about how upsetting it was to see all the extreme weather events hitting All over the country and how much suffering they're causing With a complete disconnect that she is in charge of the agency that sets our energy policy for the most powerful company A country on earth, right?

She she's the one she's the secretary

Amy Westervelt: I know [00:31:00] they do that a lot, a lot of us government officials will make these statements like I wish there was something we could do.

Joanna Oltman Smith: There's a lot you could do and that's what I try to give them credit for the many things that they have done. I'm, very excited by a lot of the parts of the Inflation Reduction Act that seem to be focused on, regenerative agriculture or expanding transit or, things that can really move the dial.

But if you're doing that at the same time you're authorizing things like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and Willow, and the big LNG export facility up in Alaska, that's going to wipe all those gains off the table. It's a lot to unpack for a regular person trying to live a regular life.

Juggling jobs and family and all of the stresses that are coming as a result of the massive income inequality in our country, where is anyone supposed to have time to sort all this out? That's why we need our leaders. [00:32:00] To do their jobs, right? It's not really not our job to come up with the policy and That's what we elected them for. And our government is still quite involved with that industry from a particularly from a campaign donation standpoint and a lobbying standpoint, that's who's whispering in the ears of our leaders. Their access is so much greater than an average citizen. So here I am, little average citizen trying to be heard.

Amy Westervelt:  I am curious to hear, I guess, yeah, like, what your initial thought was when you heard these charges.

Joanna Oltman Smith: Yeah, it was quite a shock. I think that's a perfect word. So, I was, yeah, indicted on two felony counts. And it was just a shock. It was a shock to hear that from my lawyer because I... I [00:33:00] knew that I was taking a risk by taking this action, but I had no idea what the level of risk, in fact, turned out to be .In, in past actions I've undertaken in DC things like die in on Capitol Hill or sitting in the halls of Congress during the Kavanaugh hearings, I was always given a very manageable fine and allowed to kind of, release myself on certain, there were some, some constraints, like, occasionally in New York, I'll get promised to not do anything for a certain number of In terms of my protest activity but there, yeah, there's never been any kind of threat of sentencing of this magnitude before.

So it's, it's kind of uncharted territory for me.[00:34:00]

I was surprised that that this would be coming from the federal level, the conspiracy charge, the federal level, given the administration that we currently have. I was expecting that when that happened down in Georgia with the stop cop city protesters I, Said to myself, well, that's a Georgia, that's a Georgia problem.

That's something that kind of overreach is because that particular state does not have leadership that respects people's right to protest and I would expect that from some of the things I've heard about Georgia politics over the years, but to see that coming out of Washington, D. C. as well under a Democratic administration that to me says we're in deeper trouble than we thought and not just me and Tim, but all of us that shows me that our Government [00:35:00] is afraid of something that Tim and I said in that gallery, because if we had gone in there and just maybe done like a little graffiti tagging of the pedestal with the same paint and walked out without saying anything, I'm pretty sure that The government response would be quite different than what we're seeing. And that should be a concern to all Americans, right?

I mean, I just keep saying, was it something I said? And yeah, it was. It was something I said. That there's some pretty powerful interests that don't want that to be said.

Amy Westervelt: That's really interesting. So logistically, what are you waiting on right now?

Joanna Oltman Smith: Right. So we had, we had our first initial hearing on Friday that was supposed to be straightforward. It was just supposed to be all the parties involved in the case meeting with the judge. But there was a surprise. I the judge[00:36:00] issued additional restrictions on our, pretrial agreement.

So already both Tim and I have our travel is very restricted. We have to get court permission to leave our home federal court districts. We've had our passports taken away. And we have to check in on a regular basis with the pretrial services. And we are. Forbidden from entering the National Gallery.

We're also forbidden from entering Washington, D. C. as a whole because at my arraignment, the prosecution made A very verbal equivalency with my nonviolent civil disobedient protest and what happened at the Capitol on January 6th. And he argued with the magistrate that outside agitators have been coming [00:37:00] to Washington D. C. to disturb the community in various ways and they need to be kept out. And if you've done any reading of Dr. King, his, his letter from Birmingham Jail explains very nicely why the whole concept of an outside agitator around issues as big as civil rights or climate change make no sense.

There, there is no outside to these issues, right? If you, if you understand what's going on, you understand that everyone is impacted. Therefore there's no outside . But anyway, so we were already quite restricted under those guidelines, but the judge on Friday also decided that we should not be allowed to enter any museum.

And that is very distressing to me because it's very broad, it's very vague and there was little explanation of why [00:38:00] why that was necessary. So that's where we are.

Amy Westervelt: I thought this was strange that they made a point of saying over the last year, in addition to this offense, Declare Emergency has blocked roadways around the Washington, D. C. area.

Joanna Oltman Smith: Yeah, this, this was my first protest with declare emergency and I really didn't have anything to do with any of those roadblocks and another thing that came up in the hearing on Friday was the judge's concern about copycat activities and that somehow by prohibiting Tim and my ability to Go to any museum that that would somehow.

Prevent copycat activity. Once again not sure what that has to do with me. But I don't understand all the legal ramifications. And, I'm learning as I go along. If I'm somehow able to compartmentalize a little bit, I am [00:39:00] finding the process fascinating to kind of learn how, how the system works, how the criminal justice system works, it's, it's really interesting to Be in the, in the belly of the beast,

I have one like very visceral experience I've had so far of when I went to surrender to the FBI, I thought it was going to be kind of a straightforward More of a, like a clerical matter, but I ended up being put into shackles and taken into custody for a good part of the day without a lot of explanation of what was happening or why that was necessary.

So I guess that's just their protocol for when somebody surrenders, but that gave me a lot of insight into just what business as usual means how, how people are treated

Amy Westervelt: I'm curious [00:40:00] just what you think about this way that activism is being portrayed both kind of by the government and in the media where being like a professional citizen or a career activist or someone who goes to a lot of protests or organizes a lot is like increasingly being. painted as like this kind of suspect activity. And I do think it's funny that like, I, I feel like it is often people that I think probably do quote MLK regularly.

. So I'm curious what you think about that

Joanna Oltman Smith: yeah, I, I recognize that most people cannot dedicate as much time to following the issues and occasionally showing up in person for something the way I've done the past many years because of all the things we were talking about before.

And my circumstance is very different. I was a full time stay at home mom who did not end up going back to work because right around when I was planning to do that, the pandemic happened and then. Things [00:41:00] changed, work seemed yeah, like something I could do from home, which is what I've always done with all of this kind of thing.

And I just have the flexibility in my schedule. I have the flexibility in terms of our economic security. I have the flexibility of having a supportive partner. I have the flexibility of my race. I am a white woman with gray hair and I am much more likely to be treated with some modicum of respect Than a lot of people who are on the front lines of the climate crisis so I use all of those those advantages that I have to try and move the dialogue.

I also feel like there's something to be said around being a woman of my age in our particular American society, where I've done with my child [00:42:00] birthing and rearing, and I can't really think of anything else I could be doing right now that would have as much of an impact as what I am doing, so I just think it's the best use of my time, and I don't think that there is any reason to vilify that. I am also, I want to say, the oldest sibling in my family, and I come from a pretty complicated immediate family structure, where I was kind of the primary caregiver, and I think I'm still in that role, I think I'm still trying to take care of everything and everyone and that's just how I'm, that's just how I'm wired.

I can't leave it to someone else to do because yeah, growing up, if I didn't take care of it, it didn't get done. And yeah, I think there's a lot to be said for that.

I don't know, not to be too grandiose, but it is my hope that people will see, [00:43:00] just like, oh, stay at home mom, stepping up and doing something bold, we'll call it bold, I don't know, maybe I can at least, get in touch with my legislators or work on a local issue, or, it's such a great we want Antidote to all the anxiety that so many of us are feeling,