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If you鈥檙e like us, this has been the scariest and most disheartening political season in memory, one that has left many of us questioning the direction of our country and the prospects for future generations.

But while it does matter who is in the White House and on Capitol Hill, at YES!, we鈥檝e been looking at a different sort of power, one that we believe can transform our families and classrooms, neighborhoods, and cities. It鈥檚 what we鈥檝e always done. YES! Magazine began 20 years ago with the belief that regular people were the ones creating solutions to address the overwhelming crises of our time鈥攃limate change, accelerating inequality, systemic racism, and a democracy broken by money and greed.

That鈥檚 why, for our 20th-anniversary issue, we asked a dozen reporters to speak with hundreds of people around the country鈥攁ctivists, entrepreneurs, parents, politicians, religious leaders, scientists, students, workers鈥攖o bring you 50 of our favorite inspiring鈥攁nd doable鈥攕olutions. These are the ideas making the places we live more sustainable and inclusive鈥攁nd they鈥檙e bringing communities together.

It turns out that we need each other to make change happen.

Much of the change that has propelled our country forward has grown鈥攐ften slowly鈥攆rom the roots of our own communities. Sometimes it鈥檚 change stirred by kids, like the Nashville, Tennessee, teenagers who convinced their city to invest in biking infrastructure; sometimes it鈥檚 change sparked by parents and grandparents, like those in the Virginia school district who organized to reduce punitive policing of their children. Most often, it鈥檚 the energy of diverse groups of people that spark the most brilliant ideas鈥攂uying up real estate together to rent to local businesses, starting a school focused on Black history, organizing a neighborhood fix-it shop.

Change at the local level matters because it often ripples outward.

This is what YES! founder and editor at large Sarah van Gelder found during her road trip last year. She went looking for transformative change鈥攁nd found a lot of it, in innovations small and large, in remote corners of the country, and in the midst of the nation鈥檚 largest cities.

Despite this particularly polarizing election, we kept coming back to what we share: a deep-hearted sense that our homes鈥攐ur lands and neighborhoods and cities鈥攁re worth standing up for. As one woman from the Oglala Lakota tribe on South Dakota鈥檚 Pine Ridge Reservation told us: 鈥淣o one鈥檚 going to care about our community as much as we do. So we are the ones who have to take ownership.鈥� Through understanding our place and building power together, we can fix what鈥檚 broken in our small parts of the world, regardless of who inhabits the White House.

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Christa Hillstrom is a freelance writer and former YES! editor.

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Sarah van Gelder is a co-founder and columnist at YES!, founder of PeoplesHub, and author of The Revolution Where You Live: Stories from a 12,000-Mile Journey Through a New America.

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Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz is the former creative director at YES!, where she directed artistic and visual components of YES! Magazine, and drove branding across the organization for nearly 15 years. She specializes in infographic research and design, and currently works with The Nation, in addition to YES! She previously worked at The Seattle Times, The Virginian-Pilot, Scripps Howard Newspapers, Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Post, The Connecticut Post, The San Diego Tribune, The Honolulu Advertiser. She lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and currently serves on the board of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association. Tracy speaks English.

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