January 12, 2026
The picture on social media showed a man outside before a pile of trash bags. The post read, “You don’t have to be at your strongest to make a difference,” and went on to explain he had collected seven bags of litter from his local wildlife preserve. The man is named John Dabell and he had picked up the litter despite—or maybe in defiance of—living with incurable cancer.
Most of us are not at our strongest right now, living in a country that is certainly not at its best, either. Whenever I feel extremely discouraged, I fill a bag with books and restock Little Free Libraries. I slip a few dollars into the pages, a gift card, or an encouraging note. I make soup from scratch and share with my neighbors, something I learned from my parents, who taught me we might not feel like we’re winning but we can feel warm.
In this installment of Justice This Week, we are looking at what we can do when not at our strongest, from the legacy disability activist and writer Alice Wong left people living with long COVID, to advocates fighting for women’s rights. Help doesn’t have to be perfect and the perfect time to do what you can is right now.
Dr. Alison Stine
Senior Editor
Climate Justice
