The women's march has come and gone but the work is just beginning. I don't know about you but I feel overwhelmed. Just days after the march, I am inundated with requests to send letters to Congress and call legislators about this or that issue. Every few minutes I see another email or Facebook notification to sign a petition or join a new progressive organization. At one point, I was feeling so overwhelmed, I just sat and stared straight ahead like a deer caught in headlights.
Then it dawned on me. I can just do one thing at a time! I don't have to do it all! Revelation! I began to feel a flood of relief. So I looked at the first of many emails asking me to take action. I picked up the phone and called my senator and left a message. The next day, I typed up two letters, one to each Senator in my state, with a heart felt plea to consider the progressive people's agenda. On my way home from work today, I will make one more call to the Congress. Tomorrow, I will do one more thing, either a phone call to Congress or another letter to my representatives in the house about women's health care. Later in the week, I will join the protests at the Loews Hotel to stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the Center for Popular Democracy against the agenda of billionaires.
Its important to remember that each of us has a small but important part to play. We don't have to do it all. There are millions of us in the 99% and we all have a part to play if change is going to come.
As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his New York Times bestseller The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.
"In the same way as a virus can spread rapidly through a population, so too can behavior change, particularly within a group. For instance, a small action by one individual within a crowd can influence the actions of other individuals within the crowd, and so on, until the behavior becomes widespread. Thus, small, initial changes have the potential to make significant differences overall."
Then it dawned on me. I can just do one thing at a time! I don't have to do it all! Revelation! I began to feel a flood of relief. So I looked at the first of many emails asking me to take action. I picked up the phone and called my senator and left a message. The next day, I typed up two letters, one to each Senator in my state, with a heart felt plea to consider the progressive people's agenda. On my way home from work today, I will make one more call to the Congress. Tomorrow, I will do one more thing, either a phone call to Congress or another letter to my representatives in the house about women's health care. Later in the week, I will join the protests at the Loews Hotel to stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the Center for Popular Democracy against the agenda of billionaires.
Its important to remember that each of us has a small but important part to play. We don't have to do it all. There are millions of us in the 99% and we all have a part to play if change is going to come.
As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his New York Times bestseller The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.
"In the same way as a virus can spread rapidly through a population, so too can behavior change, particularly within a group. For instance, a small action by one individual within a crowd can influence the actions of other individuals within the crowd, and so on, until the behavior becomes widespread. Thus, small, initial changes have the potential to make significant differences overall."