Activate US!
Running With Soup Spoons and Scissors
Activate US! is a demonstration project.
We are producing video podcasts on health, media literacy, and surviving the “Tyranny of Twenty-Five.” Current projects include Prometheus Project, (Focus on health and media literacy), The World Resistance Flash Mob, and Stories of our Lives.
We are outreaching for members who wish to participate. Our members are from the U.S., U.K. and Spain. We are the worker bees; from licensed professionals and artists, to retired Seniors and teens…..From writers and welders to housewives and farmers…..We know that by actively working toward a positive end result, we reduce the fear, anxiety, sleeplessness, and helplessness that many individuals experience during times of great civic unrest and upheaval. Through working together we gain solidarity. In effect, we are one giant global support group!
The one driving force that all members share is PASSION.
How does passion come about?
Passion is driven by intense reaction to something. Perhaps it is empathy or being able to feel what another is experiencing. Perhaps it is anger at seeing something intolerable that one cannot immediately change. Or maybe for the first time in one’s life we are tuned in to others, or the world— to such a degree, that we cannot NOT see what is going on.
The schoolyard bullies of yesterday are the megalomaniacs of today.
Perhaps having had a Great Grandfather who committed suicide, (who also was a gifted engineer), I have found myself interested in this topic for 25 years or more. Both Suicide and IPV (Intimate Partner Violence) cross all socioeconomic levels. Long ago the stereotypical images of the victims of violence were dispelled. Today we know that abusers target victims who are perceived as strong as well as weak. Professionals in health fields, law, education, as well as leaders in all arenas are susceptible to IPV, workplace abuse, etc.
Thirty years ago, classroom bullying of a 4th grader resulted in attempts to implement a Peace Patrol in the grammar school. After months of Project HOPE’s advocacy toward this, and gaining nearly 100% teacher support, the proposal was shelved by the principal. The teachers were afraid of this principal, and frustrated in their perceived helplessness. This loss began to be perceived as a personal failure. Hours were spent evaluating what had failed and why. What should have been done differently?
Some years later in returning to the town, while standing in line at the local market, the teacher who had helped lead the charge for the Peace Patrol tapped my shoulder and told me, “I am so excited to be able to tell you there are now TWO PEACE PATROLS in the schools!”
The takeaway from this story is that in addition to simply planting the seed, we will win in the end. People uniting to effect a positive change will win. This is not some Polyanna-ish platitude…… This is an observation one gets to make when one has survived 74 years on the planet.
We must consider these small successes as we are faced with larger, almost insurmountable events. It is all about persistence, unity, many small acts of resistance, and being tuned in. We cannot do this alone; we all need each other.
Now, at this time in history, we need each other more than ever.
