1. It’s Wednesday, November 16, 2016. The month is past the halfway mark.

2. It’s the 109th birthday of actor Burgess Meredith.

He, of course, was among the most accomplished performers on the stage, screen and on TV.

The veteran character actor is best known for playing Mick, the battle-scarred trainer, in the “Rocky” film series.

3. Right now, those of us devastated by Trump’s win could use a Mick.

We’re watching this freak show of a transition, with the names of one horrible human being after another being bandied about for positions of major responsibility.

We’re seeing this clown, who didn’t even get the most votes eight days ago, attempting to give his children access to the essential cogs of the government.

And that’s not all of it. There’s the Congress in Republican hands. Led by the supposed Mr. Responsible, the Speaker of the House, who has plans to gut Medicare and other similar destructive impulses.

So why do we need a Mick?

4. We need to focus.

We need to divvy up responsibilities and protect the things that the people who voted for Trump somehow forgot.

That, if they’re 65 or older, or getting close to that, it has been a promise for half a century that most of their health care is taken care of.

That, if they’re 62 or older, they’re entitled to get back the money they poured into a system for the purpose of giving them security in retirement.

That, if you’re a poor woman in Texas, you shouldn’t have to scrounge up the money to get to New York or California if you feel the need to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

That, if you’re an undocumented immigrant, somehow who has lived in the shadows while doing jobs that Americans didn’t want, that you’re not about to be part of a heartless forced exodus that will be the shame of the world.

5. There’s going to be a slugfest for at least the next two years to determine the fate of America’s soul.

Mick made Rocky chase a chicken to get faster.* He made him tie up his left hand, his natural punching hand, so that he would surprise Apollo Creed with a strong right hand.

We need to be as ready as Rocky was. We need to be organized. We need to show discipline.

And we need to stick together. We need to show the people who voted for Trump that they screwed up. Big time.

We need to show Trump and Pence and Ryan and McConnell and the menagerie of discredited, addled jerks that will hold the job titles that they don’t really have the power they think they have.

Through our campaigning, our protests, our demonstrations of our own strength of conviction, we can try to stop them.

Like Rocky, we might go 15 rounds and lose. But these miscreants need to know they’re going to get bloodied. This is going to hurt them, too.

As Mick might have said, “Keep hitting ‘em in the ribs…Don’t let those bastards breathe!” 

*Corrected to reflect that the sequence didn’t take place in “Rocky,” but “Rocky II.” Thanks to my brother and noted Rocky Balboa student, Seth Adam Meinero, for the fix.