Did you ever? Saying yes to activism

Sarah Mensch, Boston rally. Courtesy of Sarah Mensch, former Engaging Peace intern,

By Kathie MM

Fear, anger, discouragement, and a sense of helplessness are running rampant in this country today, and they have been charging towards this sorry state for generations.

But as pointed out in our recent series of posts , there are thousands of individuals around the world working actively on behalf of peace and justice.  Most started out pretty much as ordinary people, but they saw injustice and oppression and cruelty and had to act, no matter how big and frightening and indomitable the Big Brothers appeared to be.

You may be closer to belonging in their ranks than you realize.

Just think of the following:

Did you ever, as a kid, stick up for some other kid who was being bullied?

Did you ever try to be nice or include in activities some kid who was shy or shunned by others?

Did you ever, as a child, try to enlist the help of an adult to stop bullying or harassment ?

Did you ever, as a parent. confront a teacher or a principal or some other adult because you thought your kid or some other kid was being bullied or mistreated?

Did you ever, as a parent, take time to help your children understand prejudice, injustice?

Did you ever attend a school board or town meeting because you believed something harmful was going to happen to people in your town if particular policies or procedures were enacted?

Did you ever call upon family members or friends to join with you to protest something harmful to people or the environment that a  city council or state senate or big corporation was trying to promote?

Have you ever signed petitions or written to politicians, or participated in rallies against injustices?

Have you ever voted for a new politicalcandidate because you did not like what the incumbent was doing?

If you have done any of these or similar actions, tell us about them — and recognize that you’ve been a protestor on behalf of justice. Keep it up.  People all over the world are taking actions such as those and achieving successes.  But that’s a subject for another post.