Activist Burnout and the GOOD NEWS

Ok, back at the Pink House, having taken Ann Wright to the airport and gotten her opinions on how leaving Iraq is the best thing we can do for them; on Hugo Chavez and how his recent shutdown of opposition TV is bad for his international image; on her choice to become a peace activist after 29 years of military service; and on how Adam Kokesh of IVAW is facing a revocation of his honorable discharge status because of his anti-war activities and disrespect to superior officers, and how PTSD is affecting his actions.

At that comment I also think of Cindy Sheehan, who announced today that she has resigned as the “face” of the Peace Movement, in part because of criticism from the groups and people who should be on her side (my interpretation, not Cindy’s words). Commentary in the Pink House mentioned Cindy also having been affected PTSD—but also, Cindy has organizing and protesting and confronting and speaking truth to power almost nonstop since her son Casey died in Iraq 3 years ago. She has to be burnt out. And this put me in mind of a young man I met yesterday who walked with us and Nick Kimbrell on the last leg of Nick’s journey from Charlottesville to DC in support of bringing the troops home.

Jeff of World Can’t Wait is 19 years old and angry. I accused him of being cynical, but perhaps that was harsh. His anger is certainly justified—when I first got active (back in the Reagan years, which seemed so frightening then but now in retrospect seem like the “kinder, gentler” days) I was angry too. I didn’t see much hope for the future. I was furious about US interventions throughout Central and South America (it would be 10 years before I learnt about Allende in Chile and Lumumba in Zaire) and the fact that despite Roe vs Wade and a clear 2/3rd majority in favor of choice, we were still fighting that battle when there were so many more that needed out attention.

This kind of anger and energy can be good if channeled into positive action. But (with the hindsight of wisdom) I realize that I burnt out being so angry all the time, never allowing the pleasure of enjoying small gains and taking pride in small victories. It was never enough, the voice in my head always said, “Gotta do more, gotta do more”—kind of like the house in D.H. Lawrence’s, “Rockinghorse Winner”: “More money, more money.”

Now, I try to take time to realize and celebrate every victory, even the tiny ones, even the ones that seem so insignificant in the face of so much carnage and horror. The problem is, I often don’t remember to do it until confronted by someone like Jeff, who—no matter what I offered him as a positive step, had a reason why it wasn’t good enough. He’s right. It’s not good enough. It’s never going to be good enough until we have peace and justice for all people—and for the Earth as well. I returned to the US after living most of the last 15 years abroad not because I like living in the US better—I don’t, though there are definitely some wonderful things about this country that I miss when I live abroad; more about that in another missive—but because as a US citizen, even if I’m not living here, what this country does is my responsibility. What this country does reaches almost ever crack and crevice in the world—so not only is there no escaping it, there’s also no forgetting it. In order to live here, be active, and not have regular nervous breakdowns, however, I have to constantly remind myself of the positive changes that have occurred in my lifetime—even, shockingly enough, during the Bush administration. Here are a few:

• When I was 19, if someone told me that in 2007 the two leading candidates for president would be a woman and a black man, I would never have believed them. For the first time in my life, not to mention those of my parents’ and preceding generations’, Dr. King’s dream that people would be judged “not by the color of [their] skin (or their gender) but by the content of [their] character” has been actualized. Of course, that content is still questionable. But the fact that the vast majority of US people have got beyond color and gender is something of a miracle.
  
• The most powerful diplomat in the US government is a black woman. I thought having Madeline Albright as secretary of state was an accomplishment (no matter how much I disagreed with her perspective), but Condoleeza Rice is another miracle. As a feminist and a Southerner, I admire and am proud of her, although I disagree with everything she says and the administration she works for. I don’t believe that it’s better to have a woman in the job if she doesn’t do a good job—but I do believe that it’s fabulous to have women in public positions, in order to show little girls what they can do with their lives, and little boys that it’s OK for women to be powerful.
  
• The next person in line for the presidency after those two war criminals is a woman. If we can get congress to act on what are without a doubt some of the greatest crimes committed by the executive branch of the US government in history, we could even have a woman president.
• There has been a sudden, monumental shift in mainstream attitudes toward the environment and climate change. I had despaired of this ever happening; it’s my primary concern as a progressive because, hey, even if we stop all the wars and eradicate racism, sexism, homophobia, child abuse, poverty and disease, it doesn’t matter if we can’t breathe the air and drink the water or don’t have habitable land. Thank you, [legitimate President] Al Gore, and while I don’t know what kind of president you would’ve been, your work over the last couple of years is invaluable, not just to this country but to the whole world.

• And last but certainly not least, the technological revolution has made activism and organizing on a global scale not only possible, but unavoidable. I love Bob Geldof, and Band Aid and Live Aid were the greatest events of my generation, but I’m really fucked off with him about his snide remarks about Al Gore and Live Earth. This is an essential cause (see above) and, like poverty, it is a moral issue, not a political one. Raising consciousness and giving hope are absolutely imperative in these scary, dark times; and Geldof does the organizers of this event a grave disservice. Imagine what Live Aid could’ve accomplished in 1985 with the Internet? I don’t know all the details of Gore’s plan for Live Earth, but as the “inventor” of the Internet, I’m sure that the Information Superhighway will be packed with travelers for this event.

There are hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions more bits of good news here and there that we can all indulge in from time to time. So at the risk of being called Pollyanna (I have always loved the name, though), I will say before you burn out, indulge in a little good news—remember, even activists cannot live on rage alone!

kk

PS A new book out by one of my heroes, Riane Eisler, is The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economy is a great treatise on the things that are or could be (with just a little help and attention) good news and progress. Author of The Chalice and the Blade, which challenges dominator (some might call “patriarchal”) social structures as the only model, and offers up another possible—and in many places and times existing—structure, the partnership model. The Real Wealth of Nations further analyzes the potential for and current movement toward this more humane, more sustainable, and ultimately only social structure for a viable future.