social and political action

Great Quotations on Action, Activism, Change, Integrity

Here are some fine words of wisdom, advice, encouragement, and inspiration that seem useful in these times. I hope that these words will help give you renewed hope, motivation, strength, and courage whenever you need a boost.

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
– Andy Warhol

“I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.”
– Lily Tomlin

“If you don’t like the news…go out and make some of your own.”
– Wes Nisker

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— Eleanor Roosevelt

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
– William James

“At the end of this day, the world will either be a more or less loving, compassionate, caring place because of your presence.”
– John Pavolvitz

— Jane Goodall

“The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.”
– Norman Cousins

“We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.”
— J.K. Rowling

— Amelia Earhart

“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.”
– Edward O. Wilson

“Common sense is seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be.”
– Harriet Beecher Stowe

“The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world your best and it may not be enough. Give your best anyway.”
– Mother Teresa

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– Mark Twain

“What after all has maintained the human race on this old globe, despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not the faith in new possibilities and the courage to advocate them.”
– Jane Addams

“There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.”
— Marshall McLuhan

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
– Nelson Mandela

“Nobody made a bigger mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
– Edmund Burke

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”
– Edward Everett Hale

“If you try, you risk failure. If you don’t, you ensure it.”
– source unknown

— Robert Louis Stevenson

“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
– Jiddu Krishnamurti

“For every problem there is a solution that is simple, clean, and wrong.”
– Henry Louis Mencken

“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it matters most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
– Haile Selassie

— MLK, Jr.

“If we do not change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.”
— Chinese proverb

On Priorities

“Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

– Henry David Thoreau

“Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.”
– Edward Abbey

“We spend more time developing means of escaping our troubles than we do solving the troubles we’re trying to escape from.”
– David Lloyd

“Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age.”
– Albert Einstein

On Effective Approaches

“The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you can alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change the world.”
– James Baldwin

– Buckminster Fuller

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
– Chinese proverb

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

 

Also read this letter by E.B. White:

(Excerpts): “It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right.”  “As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate.”

…and this letter by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, which begins:

“Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.”

 

Related posts:

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February 28, 2017
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The Ways Forward: Rising to the challenge of our political climate (Part I)

Part I: Action Lists, Groups, Online Tools, and Other Resources

Many of us are seeking effective ways to take action, to counteract, offset, mitigate, neutralize, resist, and fight the impending damage that will be done by members of the DT/Pence Administration and their attempts to corrupt and dismantle U.S. democracy. Many of us recognize that “business as usual,” the status quo, and complacency aren’t going to cut it anymore. We need to redouble our efforts, go beyond the edge of our comfort zones, take some giant leaps, speak out, refuse to accept the unacceptable—to “be the change we wish to see in the world,” and become our own heroes, rather than expecting other people to step forward and save us.

To get through these dark times without losing our minds, we need to make it a regular practice to take care of ourselves and find constructive ways to cope, and also to offer and request support from our friends and loved ones. We have to recognize that we are not alone; we are all muddling through this together. But in addition—to maintain our self-respect and act as compassionate humans and citizens—we should also find some way(s) to support and protect people from vulnerable and targeted groups, and to protest and take positive actions within our neighborhood or community, our town or state, and our country and world.

sleeping giantsIn the next couple of months, I will be adding a list of several specific steps and actions that you can take (in Part II, a separate post). In the meantime, please check out the existing tools and resources listed below. They include action lists, action campaigns, guides, articles, advice; as well as a list of trusted news sources; key organizations; people to follow online; and tools for staying sane and fostering hope.

Don’t feel obligated to explore all of these links. Just check out a few at a time; select a couple of them to follow or participate in, and if those end up not feeling useful to you after you’ve spent some time with them, pick a couple of other sites or groups (from this list or elsewhere) to follow or join. Note: I have not done a thorough vetting of all of these sites yet, so cannot vouch for every single one (and am not endorsing them), but I put a couple of my favorites in bold type. I’ll be adding more links regularly, as I discover new ones.

Useful articles

News sources

It’s important that those who can pay something for real journalism actually do so, so that real news outlets can survive and not be entirely driven out by the world of profit-driven, sensationalist media (and “fake news” or lie-spreading, non-journalistic websites). Choose at least one legitimate (truth-seeking, fact-checking, investigative) news source to subscribe to (as a paid subscriber), to show your support and to help keep them afloat. We can’t expect competent journalists and writers to work for free, and we don’t want them to be reliant solely on their major advertisers, who might expect publications to alter (or censor) their content to serve the advertisers’ special interests. Here are just a few media sources that, to date, have regularly produced sound, informative reporting:

Also see: Reputable, Fact-Based News and Information Sources [a newer, more comprehensive post]

 

Key organizations

Here are some suggestions of the types of local, state, national, or international organizations that you might want to consider donating to, becoming a member of, or getting actively involved with.

Environmental:

Your state’s League of Conservation Voters; local and statewide renewable energy or climate initiatives (e.g., California’s Center for Climate Protection); local land conservation groups (e.g. a Land Trust in your county or region) and local habitat/wildlife protection groups;  Earthjustice, NRDC, Center for Biological Diversity, 350.org, Indigenous Environmental Network, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Bold Alliance (Bold Iowa, Bold Nebraska, Bold Louisiana, Bold Oklahoma), Nature Conservancy, Earthworks, Greenpeace, Vote Solar, GRID Alternatives, Union of Concerned Scientists, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Fossil Free, WeForest, Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, The Greening of Detroit

Societal:

Local food banks, shelters, homeless/housing groups, child abuse prevention and foster care organizations, non-profit health clinics and mental health services, education groups, senior services and veterans services groups; ACLU (including state chapters), National Lawyers Guild, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, SPLC, Teaching Tolerance, VoteVets.org, Common Cause, PFAW, Children’s Defense Fund, NARAL, Planned Parenthood (including your state’s group or a PP in a “red” state), Population Institute, Global Zero, Ploughshares Fund, VerifiedVoting, Carter Center, International Rescue Committee, UN Refugee Agency, Center for Media and Democracy, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), Compassion & Choices, Meals on Wheels, MoveOn, Emily’s List, and California’s Courage Campaign; Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), DSCC, DCCC, and Democratic Governors Association; Animal Legal Defense Fund, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF), SPCA.  (Also see the groups listed in the bulleted list near the top of the post.)

Also, if you grew up in or currently live in a Republican-governed or Republican-leaning state or county (or a low-income state or county) and you have the means, please consider donating to (or volunteering for) local organizations in your home state or hometown that will help protect people there (and their health and their land/water/environment) from the state or local government’s regressive policies. And consider getting involved in your local Democratic Party or other political organizing group.

Also see:

People to follow online

The people listed below have shown integrity, courage, intelligence, and/or leadership in their writings and their actions. Some are names you may already be familiar with, and others probably aren’t. While I don’t always agree with everything these individuals say or have said, I have often found their commentary to be informative or interesting. I will probably add more people to this list (and maybe remove some) over time. Take a look at what these individuals are saying on social media, and consider following some of their pages:

Rebecca Solnit, Dan Rather, Sarah Kendzior, Jason Kander, Bernice King, Robert Reich, Van Jones, Reverend Dr. Barber, Bill McKibben, Nicholas Kristof, Jennifer Hofmann, John Pavlovitz, Laurence Tribe, Lawrence Lessig, Ari Berman, Dallas Goldtooth, Antonia Juhasz, Marc E. Elias, Paul Krugman, Shaun King, Charles Blow, Nick Hanauer, Ian Milhiser, Sherilynn Ifill, Tony Schwartz

It’s also important to support and praise principled conservatives with a conscience, whenever they speak up for democracy and civil rights, challenge the DT Administration or the GOP leadership, and show compassion. A few conservatives (and independents) who have shown that they have a backbone and think for themselves include:
Evan McMullin, David Frum, Max Boot, David Brooks, Joe Scarborough, John Weaver, Andrew Sullivan, Colin Powell, Ana Navarro, John Dean, Chris Suprun, Charlie Sykes, Mindy Finn, Bill Kristol, and numerous retired Generals. (Even some right-wingers like Peggy Noonan and George Will have spoken out against DT.) Conservatives of conscience should follow Stand Up Republic and Republicans for the Rule of Law.

And Republican politicians (current and former) who have sometimes spoken out against DT and who have periodically demonstrated that they have a backbone or a conscience include: [the late] John McCain, John Kasich, Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bob Corker, Jon Huntsman, Bill Weld, Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, and the Bushes.

 

Tools for staying sane / retaining and creating hope

Try not to let yourself get so overwhelmed that you become paralyzed by the depth and breadth of the challenges and the many different ways there are to be of service to your community and world. Start by identifying one or two specific ways that you are most able to be involved (or groups to get involved in), and dedicate yourself to those. Pick something to do each day or each week or at least each month. Take sanity breaks when you need them, to avoid burnout, and you may find that you are gradually able to build your capacity over time. Regardless, the point is: Do something. Start where you are. Acknowledge your frustrations and the limitations of your individual impact, but remember that you are part of a widespread and growing, collective effort (even if other people’s efforts are not visible to you).

Here are a few resources for maintaining emotional balance, regaining perspective, or finding inspiration and motivation when you start to feel overwhelmed:

I have found that going for a long walk or a short hike can really help me regain the perspective that I need to move forward. What are some of your favorite strategies or readings for grounding or motivating yourself or coping with adversity?

Do take care of yourself, get enough sleep, eat nourishing meals, and take a break when you need it (other people will carry on when you can’t, and vice versa), but never give up completely. Please never stop trying to make the world and our country a better place. And remember that you are not alone.

Related (newer) posts:

To be added:

  • The Ways Forward, Part II: Other actions to take
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January 13, 2017
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Excerpts of Wisdom, from Hope in the Dark

9781608465767-f_medium-2f1e8dbafb4b3334d0db297eed405179Rebecca Solnit’s book, Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, has become a newly popular source of consolation, illumination, and inspiration, as an increasing number of people are struggling with feelings of hopelessness in these dark times. Originally published in 2004, a new edition was published this year (2016), with a new foreword and afterword by the author. Solnit is active in the climate movement, among other social movements.

Here are a few short excerpts from the book. This is just a taste—just a few morsels of Solnit’s wisdom. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book to read more.

“Your opponents would love you to believe that it’s hopeless, that you have no power, that there’s no reason to act, that you can’t win. Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away.”

“Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes—you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. …It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterward either, but they matter all the same.”

“It’s important to say what hope is not: it is not the belief that everything was, is, or will be fine. The evidence is all around us of tremendous suffering and tremendous destruction. The hope I’m interested in is about broad perspectives with specific possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act. It’s also not a sunny everything-is-getting-better narrative, though it may be a counter to the everything-is-getting-worse narrative. You could call it an account of complexities and uncertainties, with openings.”

“Authentic hope requires clarity—seeing the troubles in this world—and imagination, seeing what might lie beyond these situations that are perhaps not inevitable and immutable.”

“We cannot eliminate all devastation for all time, but we can reduce it, outlaw it, undermine its sources and foundations; these are victories. A better world, yes; a perfect world, never.”

“…You’d have to be an amnesiac or at least ignorant of history and even current events to fail to see that our country and our world have always been changing, are in the midst of great and terrible changes, and are occasionally changed through the power of popular will and idealistic movements.”

“Much has changed; much needs to change; being able to celebrate or at least recognize milestones and victories and keep working is what the times require of us. Instead, a lot of people seem to be looking for trouble, the trouble that reinforces their dismal worldview. Everything that’s not perfect is failed, disappointing, a betrayal. There’s idealism in there, but also unrealistic expectations, ones that cannot meet with anything but disappointment. Perfectionists often position themselves on the sidelines, from which they point out that nothing is good enough.”

“I have found that…a lot of people respond to almost any achievement, positive development, or outright victory with ‘yes but.’ Naysaying becomes a habit. It [boils] down to: we can’t talk about good things until there are no more bad things.”

“How do we get back to the struggle over the future? I think you have to hope, and hope in this sense is not a prize or a gift, but something you can earn through study, through resisting the ease of despair, and through digging tunnels, cutting windows, opening doors, or finding the people who do these things. They exist.”

“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal… To hope is to give yourself to the future — and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.”

All this being true, it’s also important to recognize that it’s an entirely normal (and unavoidable) emotional response for humans of conscience and compassion to feel despair sometimes, to temporarily lose hope, and to need a break (from the news, from our own efforts, from people, etc.). We must give ourselves permission to feel what we feel and to take care of ourselves. We can’t be effective activists or helpful to others when we’re broken down. We must all take turns taking breaks when we need them. Remember that the struggle is not on any one person’s shoulders, and you are not alone; others will carry on on the days when you can’t. And when you’ve recharged and regained some active hope, you can carry on for others.

Also see Rebecca Solnit’s July 2016 essay on this theme published in The Guardian, as well as her May 2016 essay in Harper’s magazine, “The Habits of Highly Cynical People.” Solnit is a contributing editor at Harper’s.

You can also follow her daily musings and posts on her Facebook page.

Also see this post:

Great Quotations: An Index

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December 30, 2016
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Online Petition Sites: Make Your Voice Heard

Online activism is sometimes disparagingly called “slacktivism.” While it’s true that more direct actions (e.g., phone calls, marches, protests, boycotts, face-to-face conversations, and personal letters) can sometimes be the most effective ways to effect change, online petitions and information-sharing through social media are essential parts of grassroots communication and participation these days. And well-crafted petitions that get a lot of signatures do get noticed by their recipients and can be very effective.

I often sign at least one or two online petitions a day. It only takes a couple of minutes, and I’ve been heartened to see that many of those past petition campaigns have been successful in effecting their intended changes.

unknownIf you’re not already on the mailing list to get emails from the organizations and websites listed below, you might want to check some of them out. The first set of sites feature petitions that are focused primarily on environmental campaigns, while the second set have petitions on a variety of social, economic, environmental, and political causes. On a few of the sites (including Change.org, CivicShout, Care2, and MoveOn), you can also create your own petitions.

These sites are focused primarily on efforts in the United States. If you know of good environmental petition sites for other countries or international issues, please mention those in the Comments!

Note: This is not an endorsement of all of the petitions that appear or have appeared on these sites. While I have often found many of their petitions to be sound, I don’t necessarily agree with the opinions expressed in every petition from these sources.

Earthjustice
http://earthjustice.org/action

Union of Concerned Scientists
http://www.ucsusa.org/take-action

350.org
http://350.org/campaigns

League of Conservation Voters
http://www.lcv.org/act
Also look up your state-level Conservation Voters group to find petitions that are directly relevant to your state.

Sierra Club
http://sierraclub.org/take-action
AddUp
https://www.addup.org

The Rainforest Site / GreaterGood
http://therainforestsite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/trs/take-action

NRDC
http://www.nrdc.org/action

 

Eko
https://www.eko.org

Civic Shout
https://civicshout.com 

Change.org
https://www.change.org/petitions

Care2 / The Petition Site
http://www.thepetitionsite.com

MoveOn
http://petitions.moveon.org

Courage Campaign  (for California)
http://couragecampaign.org/take-action

 

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January 15, 2016
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Climate and Energy-Related Solutions, Tips, and Resources

The following are the posts on The Green Spotlight that provide information and links that are related to climate or energy/power—with a strong focus on solutions. (Scroll to the bottom for a list of organizations and media focused on the climate emergency and related issues.)

SLB102_Blk_LimeGrThese posts are the most directly related to climate and energy:

And these posts are also related to energy and climate issues, in ways that might be less obvious but are equally important:

In the future, we will be adding posts on community solar and microgrids; solar-wind hybrid systems; the most efficient, quiet, and bird-safe types of wind turbines; carbon farming and other natural carbon sequestration initiatives; family planning, reproductive rights, women’s rights, and population; and other important efforts to slow/mitigate the progression (and severity) of climate change.

Here are some organizations and online resources for good information related to climate change and climate solutions:

Also see the topic-specific links/sections related to Organizations within the posts that are shown in the first section of this post.

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September 21, 2014
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Words of the Wise: On Progress and Action

Progress tends to take longer than we’d like. Change is almost always incremental: it happens through a series of steps (and sometimes it’s two-steps-forward, one-step-back), in part because many people are resistant to or fearful of change. However, small steps gradually lead to larger strides. Individual actions often have a ripple effect. And small changes made by growing numbers of people can add up to a big impact. We shouldn’t let ourselves get paralyzed into inaction or apathy because we feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of a problem or we think our actions won’t make a difference.

Doing something constructive to address a problem is better than doing nothing. Wise thinkers throughout history—from Euripides to Lily Tomlin—have come to this conclusion, and they have articulated it in a variety of ways:

[UPDATE: A few more quotations were added in July and September 2012.]

“Slight not what’s near, when aiming at what’s far.” — Euripides

“Nobody made a bigger mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” — Edmund Burke

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.” — Chinese proverb [click on link to see the quotation in graphic form]

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” — Voltaire

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” — Lao Tzu

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.” — Jonathan Kozol

“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.” — Marian Wright Edelman

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.” — Edward Everett Hale<strong

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James

“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” — Arnold Glasgow

“The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you can alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change the world.” — James Baldwin

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

“If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” —Bette Reese

“Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions. Instead, they are most often solved by a sequence of small solutions.” — Chip Heath and Dan Heath (This statement is excerpted from their book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.)

“Discontent is the first necessity of progress.” — Thomas Edison

“I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.” — Lily Tomlin

For other words of wisdom, check out the Quotations page, and please feel free to add your own favorites in the Comments section.

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March 12, 2010
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Welcome

The Green Spotlight (TGS) presents concise information and useful links related to green practices and policies, social action, green living, green building and design, and green business. Its brief blurbs highlight noteworthy ideas, products, services, events, websites, publications, organizations, and other resources that support the transition to an environmentally sustainable lifestyle, economy, and society.

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mlandman-logo-smallTGS is published by M. Landman Communications & Consulting. M. Landman is an experienced eco-advisor, writer, and editor. She provides practical guidance on sustainability, climate stabilization, ecological land use, and a wide variety of environmental and social issues that affect the common good.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed, and/or receive periodic email updates (we send no more than one update per month) summarizing the latest content posted on TGS. (Subscriptions are free.)

We hope you enjoy reading The Green Spotlight.

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January 25, 2009
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