There must be 50 ways

Participating in democracy 1.

Vote. Yup. I have gone through years of anarchy, years of wishing to secede from the US, but I still vote. I mean, voting for the candidate who might be most open to secession is a great way to make my vote count for something even in years I have felt it counted for little or nothing. 

Voting, Holly Near stressed at a concert I attended in 1984, is our great obligation as Americans because our US policies affect everyone on Earth, so in many ways, she said, our vote was even more sacred and we were called to make that vote count with as much due diligence as we could muster so that our vote was for the people who would tend to damp down the harm we inflict on the world. 

In 1982, for instance, Americans voted in almost half the states on versions of the Nuclear Freeze petition and in all the states except Arizona, it passed. It was the largest direct democracy exercise in US history and put enormous pressure on Congress and the belligerent presidency of Ronald Reagan to dial back on his reckless rhetoric about the utility of nuclear weapons. It took a while, but it worked and eventually Reagan and Gorbachev signed the first nuclear disarmament treaty in history, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty of 1987. 

Voting matters at every level and for every office. When you wonder if you should learn about candidates for the district school board, for instance, know that some of them across the country have made decisions about banning books and about allowing or preventing military recruiters to operate in public schools, even grade schools! Voting matters. Participate in democracy. Vote.