"We need more time. There's all these great campaigns going on and most of them are completely worthy of our supportÂ… We've had the 40 hour work week for a hundred and something years. So now it's time to go for the 30. We need more of just about everything."
"Honest hope derives from a belief that positive change is possible in the world. And we will only believe this if we experience ourselves changing. The key is risk, doing that which we thought we could not do."-Frances Moore Lappe
Hope and risk. For those of us committed to transformative change it is this combination that fuels our actions-the belief that change truly is possible and that we are willing to take risks to create a better society. But sometimes the risk is too great. All too often those actions which would accurately reflect our values are compromised or avoided simply to maintain survival. This is particularly common in situations that directly affect our lives.
"This is nice, light summer reading." I look up, smiling, at the customer who proclaimed this about one of the best-selling new releases at the bookstore where I work. This whole concept of "summer reading" has been on my mind ever since I left this job when the season began to pursue something vaguely resembling a summer vacation. Now I'm back and, with one more hot and sticky month to go, the reading masses are still in search for the perfect summer book-something nice and light.
In the United States, access to a college education is still a privilege not available to everyone. As the tuition rates continue to climb through the roof and competition for financial aid increases, more and more people are shut out of this system. What about those who do make it in? How does their class background affect the quality of education that they receive from local community colleges to the most elite university?
"Think Globally-Act Locally," read the fading bumper stickers on thousands of cars and guitar cases across the United States. This influential statement has defined a popular activist strategy that politically connects our local movements with those in other countries. But what does this idea mean and where has it gotten those of us working toward social change in our communities and across the world? How does the challenge to think globally and act locally play out in our everyday lives?
"Whatever you do, just don't get stuck in a dead-end job." These words had a powerful effect on me and have occupied my consciousness over the past seven years. It was the summer after my high school graduation and this advice was given to me while I was working in the mechanized bakery of a large grocery store chain. My coworker had been there for over 20 years and now, in the midst of back problems and middle-age, she was unhappy with her life and urged me not to make the same mistake.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019