Lately I’ve been getting a lot of emails from friends that include one or more of these phrases: “we need to pace ourselves,” “this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint,” and “do you want to go to a 4-hour restorative yoga class with me?”

My response: I’ve been an activist all of my life. I’ve been training for this for decades, ever since I put on a Women Against Reagan (WAR!) t-shirt in 1980, went to D.C. with my mother to protest his inauguration – and wound up convincing a policeman not to lock my mother up when her chanting got a bit too “spirited.”

Yet, I found myself thinking a week after “45” (a.ka. Trump, the 45th president) moved into the White House, “I’m really scared. I’m not sure the world is going to survive this presidency. Should I tell my dog?”

Every night, after climbing into bed with the jitters, too wound up to sleep, my husband would suggest I experiment with an occasional news blackout. Every night I’d promise to do so the very next day, no matter what 45 and 45P (45’s Puppeteer, a.k.a. Steve Bannon) did. In the spirit of non-fake facts, I feel the need to divulge what I did the moment I heard my husband’s steady snoring – I made a blanket-tent, much like the one I used to hide under when I was 10 to read Nancy Drew books with a flashlight. Now, of course, I have a much handier 24-hour-news-spewing iPhone. It will come as no surprise that I checked my news feed as soon as I woke up.

But here’s what happened: Each morning, after reading the headlines about 45’s latest hissy fit (a.k.a. Executive Order), I found myself searching for good news. Admittedly, in the days between the election and the inauguration I needed to define “good news” quite broadly; e.g., tomorrow the sun will rise, it will stop snowing before evening rush hour, the police in New York solved a murder they’d been investigating since 1974.

But then something truly amazing happened: There was good news. It started with the women’s marches, and it’s not letting up. As it turns out, we, the people, do have the power to dilute and delay, and, a girl can dream…. defeat 45’s plans. We’re already making an impact … which has been my motivation to start Marla’s Good News from the Resistance blog.

I hereby promise to read, sift through, and send to you, once a week, all of the best GOOD NEWS I can find. I also vow to search for GOOD NEWS only in publications well-known for printing True Facts.

My hope is that GOOD NEWS will help fuel the resistance, and keep our fighting spirit alive amidst the firestorm of 45’s, 45P’s, 45AFB’s (45’s Alternative Facts Barbie, a.k.a. Kellyanne Conway) mean-spirited, anti-American, vindictive actions.

Now get up off that couch, unplug, and go out to Defy! Resist! But only after you read the latest GOOD NEWS, forward it to all the resisters in your life, ask them to sign up, and post it on your Facebook page.

After all, we need to pace ourselves, because this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. And really, how many restorative yoga classes can a person take?

Ready to read the first edition? Read the GOOD NEWS >