The 1990s Leap Years--22 days to go!!!!



As hard as it may be to believe (NOT!) when I was a youngster, in my 40s, and an activist my tendency was to be a hot head. I didn't have patience and felt things needed to change NOW, not later, not tomorrow, not the next day. There wasn't another minute for an injustice to continue.

I did learn that for change to take place you had to be passionate about the cause and, yes, be and express your anger at the wrongs being committed. I worked with, and saw, Larry Kramer (as one of the 'foot soldiers') express his anger at the Mayor of New York, at the Congress in Washington and the president of the USA. He was very much in their faces and to s certain extent this turned them off but they knew he believed in the cause and didn't want one more person to die of AIDS. With all his shouting, yelling, cursing he made many a change in the ways AIDS was looked at and dealt with. From having the pharmaceutical companies hurry along with their experimental drugs to getting the prices reduced by forming ACT UP and starting the Gay Men's Health organization.

Over the years I have studied people like Maya Angelou, John Steinbeck, Norman Mailer, etc., who had causes, believed in them passionately, got angry and didn't just stand by. I believe(d) in these people and what they were/are trying to do--to make a better life for everyone else.

I saw Jane Fonda, Alec Baldwin and Barbra Streisand put their causes in people's faces and whether they were right or wrong not back down because they had passion and anger and railed against what they saw as injustices being done to others.

Having passion doesn't mean being calm, cool and collected. The one thing it does mean is not being passive. Being passive means being inactive, offering no resistance, being submissive and none of that will change an injustice.

Martin Luther King and Ghandi were not passive men. They got out in the front lines, said what they stood for and what they planned to change. They expressed controlled anger and passion but they had both.

All activists are NOT passive. They are doers, ready to charge, will not stay silent and they will and do make a change. They didn't stay back and let the others do what they knew they should be doing. They offered no excuses for their passions except it was/is the right thing to do.

We are not all able to be in front of the howling crowd or even handle it but we don't have to be apathetic. We can/should work/help behind the scenes to have these people fighting the fight for what will right a wrong. They need money, volunteers, people to work in the trenches, to stuff and mail envelopes, get signatures on petitions, to demonstrate, etc., and your options to help the next generation are many.

STOP BEING PASSIVE--BECOME ACTIVE EVEN IF ONLY IN A SMALL WAY!!!