A long time ago, an activist told me a story, which I will convey to you now in the mostly gender-neutral terms with which I try to approach our gender-complex world. (This is otherwise not really about gender at all, any more than everything is, in a patriarchy, but I want to be transparent.)

Three adults are walking along a riverbank when they see hundreds of babies bobbing down the river down the rapids. The first adult jumps in, grabs and baby, and swings back to shore, turning back to grab another baby, and another, as more slip by. The second adult swims out to the middle of the babies and starts trying to teach them how to swim.

The third begins to walk away.

“Where are you going?” the other two cry out. “Help us!”

“I am going up river to find the person who is throwing all of these babies into the water–and I am going to stop him.”

I think about this story right now as thousands of bodies bob through our news cycle, as the election presses ever closer. I googled the story today and found variants–one was about public health and where it should focus. In another few, there was a village by the river. In some, it was not only babies drowning. In one, everyone was mostly ignoring the babies bobbing by–and I thought of the way it seems so easy for (we) white people look up periodically to note: This country is horrifyingly racist! Before turning back to our lives.

Folk songs and folk tales build and grow and morph to meet their moments, as do strategies and movements.

It is clear that the crises we all face cannot be handled one life at a time–which is not to say that the hard labor of saving and nurturing lives is not of tremendous value. And it is not even going to be done by giving individuals the kinds of skills and relief that can make a difference between surviving and failing to survive, though again, we must never stop doing that work as well. It is not enough to recycle or stop flying or driving or buying disposable everything as if this were a disposable world, but that does not mean we stop trying. At the same time, there is someone throwing babies in the water upstream, and we do have the chance to stop him–and many such others, and to make a huge difference in the outcome not of one election but of multiple global crises. It starts with voting, and getting others to vote, and educating others on accessing the vote, and celebrating the urgency of voting, and fighting voter suppression. And celebrating the outcome! It doesn’t end there. But together with the strategies laid out by this story, whatever versions work for you, we can go to the source of the trouble we are in and stop it. Ready? Let’s go!