Thirteen-year-old Anne Frank, hiding from the Nazis with her family in an attic in Amsterdam, wrote, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” When I first read her words, I remember being filled with admiration for this young girl — for her courage, her ability to find joy in life as her world grew smaller and her future more bleak.

We find ourselves almost speechless as we watch the news and hear the heartless response of our president to the deaths of children on an airplane; to the deportation of immigrants; to the dismantling of programs meant to combat centuries of inequality; and to the dissolution of international alliances that protect our worldwide community.

Hate crimes and hate groups seem to be everywhere. We hear and read about them on a daily basis. While discrimination and prejudice against “the other” are nothing new, these current strains of venom seem to be striking dangerously and frighteningly close to home.

After last week’s letter about our 2025 Art as Activism contest inviting high school students to create posters expressing the importance of fighting book bannings and censorship in schools and libraries, and our plans for a forum on the same subject at the Cabot Theater in Beverly on March 26, we started thinking about what we might all do in our daily lives to spread awareness about this issue, increase knowledge, and make some tangible effect.

We are excited to announce our fourth annual Art as Activism contest for high school students. We believe that art is an effective form of activism, as well as an especially powerful way for students to find and express their voices.

Some of us are still licking our wounds. Some are still shocked and in disbelief. All of us are horrified that more than half the voters in our country chose for their leader a man who speaks vulgarly about women and veterans and immigrants and so many others. Horrified that the most powerful head of state in the world is a convicted felon who wants to rule with impunity, overrun the system of checks and balances in our federal system, and deny basic rights to many law-abiding citizens.

Tomorrow night is the night we have all been waiting for. Yet, it’s a little like having your senior prom postponed indefinitely because of a blizzard.

We’ve had a busy past few days, with voter registration drives at Beverly High School and Landmark School and our YOUth Votes Count event in partnership with the Cabot Theater.

We heard the call last week. Again and again. “Do something.”

Don’t get us wrong. We are as excited and encouraged as anybody about the new energy and joy in the presidential race. But let’s be clear. Winning the popular vote, and even the electoral vote, are not the only challenges. There may still be threats to the election process as one candidate attempts to upend the ballot count in crucial states and then cause an insurrection that could make January 6, 2021, look like a playground tiff.

Because of you, 2,500 postcards with images of the winning posters created by high school students for our Art as Activism contest are on their way to reluctant voters in battleground states! 

There is excitement in the air while a new figure takes center stage as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. The race seems very close right now, and the results may likely hinge on voter turnout – specifically, on the turnout of women and young people in battleground states.

Whatever our reaction to the current state of affairs, we can’t complain of boredom! Every day seems to bring more surprises, some frightening, some exciting. Many, as we’ve noted before, totally out of our control.

There are less than five months, 145 days, or about 3,480 hours, until Election Day 2024: November 5. What are we each going to do until then to try to make a difference? How many of us are feeling energized by the latest developments, domestic and international? How many of us are bone tired and discouraged?

We have good news and bad news.

Bad news first.

While I was walking through a beautiful flower garden last week with my five-year-old granddaughter (in a land far away from New England), she asked to pick one of the pink blooms. Just one, she insisted. I, of course, gave the standard line about how if everyone picked even just one, soon there would be none for people to see and enjoy.

Remember the chain letters of the 1980s and 1990s that promised money or recipes galore? All you had to do was forward letters, sometimes with cash or a recipe included, to a list of recipients and you would be significantly rewarded. The recipe chains often worked; the cash chains always seemed to break down somewhere along the line. What was appealing about both was the opportunity to get something with little effort and to connect with other people from near and far.

As we know, many among us have little to be merry about. Charles Dickens long ago gave us a poignant and memorable look at the less fortunate during the holidays with A Christmas Carol, his heart-wrenching tale from the mid-19th century of the overworked and underpaid, those who had little but could still find joy in their friendships and family.

Nonpartisan, according to Merriam Webster Dictionary, means “not partisan, especially: free from party affiliation, bias, or designation.” Disinterested, dispassionate, equitable, impartial and indifferent are a few of the suggested synonyms. Leading Ladies was founded with the promise that we would be nonpartisan by not endorsing any candidate or political party. We would take a stance on issues, however, and those positions might sometimes, and even often, ally with particular candidates, and even one party, more than another.

As I was sitting in my doctor’s office at Lahey in Danvers two days ago, finishing up a discussion about the state of my thyroid gland, she and I paused to listen to an announcement on the PA system. “There is an external situation. Everyone is advised to shelter in place. No one should leave the building until clearance is given.”