At a rally to protest the attempt to overturn a free and fair election in Asheville last week, some 800 people came out, despite frigid temperatures.

I think we’re all feeling it — the seemingly endless parade of outrageous acts by the new administration. It seems inconceivable that things could deteriorate so quickly, and hard to fathom that it’s been planned so carefully for so long. The chaos in Washington is purposeful, deliberate.

The Oval Office is churning out executive orders, each more outrageous than the last. The Justice Department is running short of lawyers to defend all the lawsuits and the courts are putting some brakes on the slide, but Congress sits with its collective thumb up its collective backside. The Democrats ask me for money a dozen times a day in a dozen different ways, but I see no effort on their part to throw a monkey wrench into the works.

So, it feels like it’s up to us, and in reality, it probably is.

We all know we can’t do it alone, and it’s really hard to look at the big picture when your rights and financial assistance are being attacked from every direction. It’s hard to know where to start, and that’s the point. If they can overwhelm us, the can win.

So how do we fight?

I heard a great riddle the other day that I think is truly appropriate now:

How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time.

Each of us has something we do well, something we are passionate or particularly knowledgable about. That’s your bite. Whether it’s calling or writing to your government representatives, organizing a block party to help others learn about the issues, plannning and executing rallies and teach-ins, getting out the vote … You get the point. There’s a hell of a lot of work to do, and if we each concentrate on our own “bite,” we can clean up that elephant in no time.

Seventeen years ago today, I was driving to Raleigh so I could take my son for chemo. I was having to use vacation days to care for my dying son, and I was running through those pretty quickly. I couldn’t afford to take time off without pay, but I was trying not to think about that. Mike and I had several doctors’ appointments to see whether we could do anything to extend his life by a few months, and I had made appointments with officials I needed to interview for a story I was working on about the state’s mental health system “reform.” That would allow me to get paid for the time I was in Raleiugh, writing a news story as I sat by my son’s chemo bed.

It would turn out there really was not much more they could try than chemo, and that might keep the cancer at bay for up to a year if we were lucky. We were not. On this day in 2008, we had just four weeks and two days left with him.

I started out working on improving access to health care as the oligarchs began to dismantle every other part of the safety net. It didn’t tke me long to realize I needed to stand with my brothers and sisters who were working on wages, food security, education, justice system reform and more. We can’t weave one strand of the safety net back in, we have to put it all back together, each doing our part.

Don’t worry about the Gulf of America, worry about a foreign national accessing our Social Security and other records and sharing it with his tech bros. Worry about the inaction of Congress. Take your piece and work it. Stand with your neighbors and understand we’re all under attack here.

I fight in memory of my precious son. But I also fight for everyone still here.

Not sure what you can do? Look into organizations that are doing the work already — Common Cause, the ACLU, the Poor People’s Campaign, Indivisible, the NAACP and more. There’s a place for you and your bite of the elephant awaits.