This Sunday, I had the opportunity to hear activist John Prendergast speak about preventing genocide in the Sudan. He offered realistic steps the average person could comprehend. Essentially, by making activism available to the average person through his outline of goals, he made it sound like we all can make a difference.
Note the "made it sound".
The critical, the academic side of me asked whether his goals were realistic, or whether specific, targeted action points were too optimistic.
So I turned to my friend who works in Africa, who spends her days bringing safe water to villages which would otherwise be exposed to disease through their water supplies. While I can't remember her exact response, she did target the faith an individual must have that she can make a difference if she is going to be willing to work for bringing about change.
Academic me had to step back and think about the implications. Did I believe that?
I realized that, on some level, I did have to believe that an individual, or a set of people, can take real steps to bring about real change. I believe that this must be inherent to living in community--which we all do. We might try to elevate individualism, or to ignore our obligations to one another. But, in a basic way, our actions (and inactions) have actual repercussions for those around us. Small decisions, like how we are getting to work today, if we look the homeless man in the face when he speaks to us, whether we stop and ask how someone is doing and wait for the answer, have real influence on our lives.
Why wouldn't this be the case for fighting poverty, ending domestic abuse, preventing genocide?
These small actions I do believe are possible, they reach far beyond what I think of as a small sphere of influence.
Simply because the problem is big does not mean that it is insurmountable.
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