Sunday, June 18, 2006

But I don't know what to doooooooo......

Find a local peace and social justice organization and support them.
Blog.
Read read and then read some more....arm yourself with the truth
Talk to your friends and neighbors
Take to the streets. March. Protest. Hold vigils.
Get a couple friends together, make some signs. Stand at a busy intersection for an hour with your sign.
Hold a peace festival. Incorporate it with a march, an art festival and speakers.
Organize book signings and speaking engagements by progressives.
Attend activist training sessions.
Root Camp. Camp Wellstone
Democracyfest.

PDA periodically holds excellent citizen lobbyist training that provides great information on how to talk to your representatives.

Freeway blog

Call your representative
Write to your representative
Visit your representative.
Repeat.

Support peace candidates.
Contribute.
Participate in GOTV efforts.
Register voters.
Be a poll worker.
Become an election observer.
Run for office.
Work for election reform (the one reform that makes other reforms possible)

Join Progressive Democrats for America Don't have a local chapter? Start one
Hook up with your local Move On folks. Meet up!
March in a parade. I made a big ol' peace sign out of a hula hoop and marched with the local social justice org in the Pride Parade last year. It cost me $5, took four hours of a Saturday, and 50,000 people saw me.
Table. You can table at concerts, community events, churches, at the park, in front of a friendly business.
Seek out the peace group at a local church. There are a lot of progressive churches doing good work. Find them.
Provide a rational, progressive voice to talk radio. Support Air America.

Surround yourself with like-minded people. Empower yourself by realizing the strength in numbers and that there are MANY people who agree with your position.
Support the activities.of like-minded groups and ask them to support yours. Network!
Put a bumpersticker on your car, your bulletin board, your office door. Wear a peace button.
Join CodePink actions.
Join a United for Peace and Justice mailing list. If you don't find a local group that's part of the UPJ coalition, start one.
When Bush or Cheney are in your town, organize a protest. We got nearly a thousand people to line the sidewalk outside the hotel where Bush was staying when he was in town.
Plan your vacation around a large anti-war event. Last September I got to see Washington DC for the first time with half a million of my closest friends! While I was there I stopped in to see both my senators and my representative to tell them what I think about the war.

Call the White House and give them your opinion. Repeat.

Be visible for peace. Be the voice of peace. Be outrageous for peace. Don't ever think your voice doesn't matter. Don't ever think your individual effort won't be enough. Every effort matters.

It has become a common feeling, I believe, as we have watched our heroes falling over the years, that our own small stone of activism, which might not seem to measure up to the rugged boulders of heroism we have so admired, is a paltry offering toward the building of an edifice of hope. Many who believe this choose to withhold their offerings out of shame. This is the tragedy of the world.

For we can do nothing substantial toward changing our course on the planet, a destructive one, without rousing ourselves, individual by individual, and bringing our small, imperfect stones to the pile. -Alice Walker

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