We the People Are Right at Home

By Victoria Rolfe / Red Hook, NY

The author and her husband John at a No Kings Day march on June 14 in Kingston, NY

Hi everyone! It’s good to be back amongst The Insiders. I would like to thank Andrea for giving us this opportunity to reconnect for this Commemorative series. It’s certainly a different world than the one we were writing about a few years ago.

Back then, we were dealing with a microscopic enemy. Now the foe we face, a looming dictatorship, is all too visible, and just as pervasive and threatening; in fact I would say even more so. But whatever we are confronted with on a global level, the only way we can persevere is on an individual basis. This is not to say that we each fight alone, far from it. It is when millions of individuals all step up to do the right thing that we become a force with which to be reckoned.

Here at the Rolfe homestead, nothing much has changed. Perhaps that is the case for you in your own home life as well. If we didn’t watch the news (which I must admit is hard to do on most days), we would be blissfully unaware of the danger that is threatening our country. But we do watch the news (well, not the mainstream network news, which is too afraid to report what is really happening), and are all too aware of this new dark enemy invading America.

As I say, life hasn’t changed for us here, because ;my husband John and I were already living the lifestyle that we feel is best for ourselves, our bodies, our health, our community, our country, and the planet. It is my belief that each person should be living in a manner that they feel if everyone lived that way, the world would be a better place.

The author picking snow peas in her beloved home vegetable garden

For us that means we live a simple, frugal, sustainable existence. The typical American lives paycheck to paycheck, but instant gratification existence is not for us. We grow as much of our own food as we can (we are still working to increase our production), we have our own chickens, and we eat a vegan diet. When we do need something, we try hard to buy it used or make do with what we have. We have scrimped and saved (and invested) all our lives and have a good cushion of savings to keep us going into our golden years.

I tell you all this not to sound superior, but to say that we will be less affected by the price increases and inflation that are likely to come than those living more consumerist lifestyles. We could just live here happily in our little bubble and ignore what is happening in the world.

But we wouldn’t and we don’t. Because living the life that we feel each person should be living requires activism right now. Each and every one of us needs to fight this. Every individual needs to be doing whatever they can to resist the evil that has taken hold of our country.

What does that look like? It is staying informed. It is getting involved in your local politics. It is joining local groups such as Indivisible to work to spread the word. It is calling your representatives daily if you can to make your voice heard. It is voting in every election, from the hyper-local to the national. It is taking part in demonstrations, and boycotts, and (hopefully someday) a nationwide work stoppage. It is helping your neighbors who may be more affected by this. It is not becoming complacent and letting any of this become normalized. This is NOT normal! It is an outrage! We must stand up for ourselves, and more importantly for the marginalized who have become the victims of this horrible regime.

So yes, each individual must do their own part, and with 340 million individuals in this country, We the People become a powerful force of one. Let’s do this! Together we can resist! We can overcome! A better world is in our future.

As Egyptian author and activist Wael Ghomin wrote, “The power of the people is greater than the people in power.”

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A long, long time ago, after the birth of her third child, Victoria made the life-changing decision to leave the work world behind and devote herself to being a full-time mom and homemaker. Along with her new title of Domestic Engineer, she took on the role of the Chief Home Economist for the family.

At first, it was scary to try to live on less than half their income, but Victoria found that she not only rose to the challenge but thrived in the enjoyment of learning to live their best life with limited resources. She embraced this new frugal lifestyle of the at-home-mom and went on to add a fourth child to the mix. And their family was complete.

Along the way she acquired a great deal of wisdom in how to not only avoid debt, but pay off mortgages early, buy cars for cash, travel on a shoe-string budget, and send kids to college with no student loans, all while also saving a tidy nest egg for retirement. She currently educates others in these skills through her business Bright Future. 

Now living the life of a modern homesteader in the Hudson Valley, New York, Victoria has added gardening to her list of skill sets as she grows many of her own vegetables to supplement her family’s primarily vegan diet. And she has come to realize that this waste-not, want-not, carbon-friendly, sustainable life she is living is not only benefiting her own family but also our Mother Earth, and that each of us has the obligation to live a responsibly sustainable life not only for ourselves, but for the greater good of our community, and our planet. We can all do this one household and backyard at a time. We are the world! And it all begins right at home.

Victoria can be reached at brightfuture2budget4@gmail.com