It may seem hopeless, but you can do something

GULFPORT, Miss.—A waxing moon. A chilly night in a brand-new year. And on the edge of a Gulfport sidewalk, across Highway 90 from the Mississippi Sound, about 50 protestors chanted cumbersome slogans to one another and to a few representatives of the local media. It was a small but passionate crowd.

This is bona fide opposition. It may not look like much on the surface, but it is something, at least, that can be done as an administration led by climate change deniers takes over the country. A peaceful protest. Locally. Ordinary people.

“Climate change is not a hoax; Trump’s cabinet is a joke.” Try saying that three times fast. We were in front of the federal courthouse, opposing with awkward chanting and homemade signs the proposed cabinet posts set to go to Rex Tillerson, Scott Pruitt, Rick Perry and Ryan Zinke. Read that list and weep.

Lends itself to another slogan: Rex and Rick and Ryan and Scott. Makes you want to cry a lot.

Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran was not there, though his office is nearby. Probably in Washington working on repealing Obamacare. The hope was Cochran would read a newspaper story or see some snippet on the local television news about the protest and at least know there is some opposition to leaders who deny science. Leaders who will whistle as they feel the sea lapping up around their beds.

Most of the protestors at this modest protest already knew one another. There were hugs and warm greetings, sort of like a PTA meeting with the survival of the planet tops on the agenda. School lunches, class play and, oh, yes, rising tides.

They had been called together by the conscience and emails of one Jennifer Croslin of Steps Coalition, a consortium of nonprofits formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to promote “a healthy, just and equitable Mississippi Gulf Coast.”

The group gathered was mostly middle-age women and men, holding high clever signs: There is no Planet B! Earth is Calling; Answer. Love Your Mother.

“There are people in Mississippi who believe in climate change,” a grateful Croslin said. That was the point. To show there is thinking opposition. In Mississippi. Imagine.

The hopelessness these days threatens to be overwhelming. Where do you begin to argue with an administration that calls climate change a hoax? The environmental retardation is but one area of concern, of course. This is a mindset that opposes rights for women, gays, some religious groups. It has no problem with torture or Russian hacking of American elections. Where to start?

Well, defending the planet we all live on is one obvious place. So this small protest on a cold Mississippi night was perhaps not as insignificant as it appeared. It mattered. Was bona fide. Fundamental.

Multiply it by a thousand, two thousand, three thousand, and you eventually will get the attention of those who claim to have won control, of our minds and hearts and ethics, by a landslide. Doesn’t have to be true, only repeated a lot.

This protest was a simplicity pattern. Could be copied by anyone, anywhere. Yes, there are people in Mississippi who know that climate change is real, and, as one man said, “The only hoax is that the science is not real.”

Listen, leaders. Ignore us at the planet’s peril.