Sometimes, dear readers, you take the every day and tweak it, such as the Eat for Equity dinners or forming a H.O.T.D.I.S.H. Militia for Choice. You fly Live Free Without Violence flags and sing for social justice. Among us are women gardening with purpose and saying “hello” in ways that make it a radical act. You gather neighbors into your homes to talk about gun safety.
You celebrate Menstrual Hygiene Day, help girls learn to love and respect their bodies, and are courageous women going to jail to save the environment. You survive, create, survey and bake pies.
Women among us are Gorilla Yogis, global citizen diplomats and mentors to young moms. You listen, welcome and blog for change. You influence media coverage of girls and women in sports, and call on men to step up as allies to women. You send books to women in prison and create compassionate space for women/trans/femme bicyclists.
Women in our neighborhoods are building activist communities through knitting, counting bees and learning to write and edit wikipedia entries.
You name yourselves Great Old Broads for the Wilderness and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarf. You turn class reunions into service projects and say “no” to hotels that offer pay-per-view porn.
You are amazing! And you are ordinary. Many of these actions for change are things we can all do.
In looking over all these past years of ActNow columns from the pages of the Minnesota Women’s Press there are some commonalities among the diversity in changemaking:
• Start where you are.
• Use the skills and resources you already have.
• Speak from your heart.
• Engage others.
• And most of all, just do something.
As one of the women we wrote about said, “It does not take a lot to make a difference. We have the power to change things.”
Kathy Magnuson is the co-publisher/co-editor of the Minnesota Women’s Press and has written the ActNow column for 16 years.
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