Starting on January 20, 2017, you and I and all others who comprise the “other 98 percent” of residents everywhere who are not part of the financial elite—but Americans in particular—will see our lives, are fortunes, and our sacred honor under attack on a wide front by political assailants on the right. They see the next four years as their time to inveigh, to invade, and to infiltrate every nook of our existence, and to take, and take, and take. Our financial ability to survive will be weakened, our ability to choose freely will shrink, our opportunities to thrive will diminish, and our collective sensibilities will be tested to their limits. The attacks will be relentless, and life as we know it today will not be restored again for decades to come. Our common enemy is human greed, and greed has no limits.

The stakes are that high; and our future is that bleak. Survival will mean we must use the one resource that no one can take from us. And that is our combined abilities to think, to analyze, and to put together both a defensive posture, and the skills to launch counter attacks that have a chance of becoming effective. It will be a fight for survival, make no mistake about it.

Before he died Carl Sagan was once asked by an interviewer “What is the one thing that the ordinary person can do today for humanity that can a positive effect on all our futures?” What a perceptive question. Sagan did not hesitate with his reply. He said simply “Plant a tree.”

Trees are our past, our present, and our future. They cleanse the air we breathe; they protect us from the ravages of time, and weather, they harbor innocent animals, and they are a safe haven for us. They are silent sentinels that stand guard to extend their benefits to all other species at all times. Environmentalists know this, climatologists know it, and those with common sense know it. If all 7.5 billion of us who inhabit this place we all call home knew it and acted on it, we would all reap the benefits for decades to come. And it is almost a certainty that political ideologues would not have a clue about what we were up to.

But the wisdom inherent is Sagan’s words go much deeper. It must extend into finding other trees of knowledge that we can plant, other forests that we can cultivate, and other fruits of our labor that we can reap for our benefit and for the survival of humanity. That is the real challenge; the essence of what goes into deep thought by the brightest among us. And Carl Sagan was first, and foremost, a very bright person; but he was also a lover of life, liberty, and the right to individual pursuits in this existence we call life. At the core of his answer is the need to be true to our values and to our sense of purpose.

We already know the issues that are being framed for attack. They are the environment, education, health care, retirement, taxes, nuclear proliferation, and new wealth accumulation. You and I are the targets for the short end of every one of those issues. We are the designated many to receive less and less in order for the greedy few to reap more and more. It is a tale as old as the human race, as ungodly as the most vile of intentions, and as certain as the pomp and circumstance that surrounds those who pursue such ends. We need to formulate a plan that cuts to the underlying issues.

Know our strengths. The internet and the petition are two means for staying informed and for illuminating the virtues of our cause. We need to support efforts that illuminate what we are for, why, and to attack opposition to them. I don’t know of a faster or a more efficient way of staying informed.

Know their weaknesses. Greed has its origins in a variety of shortcomings: lack of confidence, lack of skills, and lack of ability to perform (mentally, physically, and sexually). And ideologues hate to have their weaknesses exposed. So let’s expose them. And let’s be relentless in calling them out about their “insecurities.” Attacks on women are awash in sexual impotency; climate change denials are the result of ignorance; science and the scientific method represent the best of our intellectual pursuits; those who are against both are insecure little boys who cannot compete in these arenas. Those who advocate wars but who will not fight in them are weaklings and cowards. Call them out.

A Call to Writers. I’m certain there are many other approaches to this issue that readers can articulate. Your thoughts and ideas are encouraged, just as your scintillating essays on this topic are needed. Think about them. Then let the writing begin.