Oct 07 2009
GTT’s idea of activism: the micro is macro
Microactivism. The hands-on kind. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the Girls Think Tank and we are a collective of women (and men) who do not sit around and arm-chair weep about the problems of the world or our community. Tired of idly passing by a homeless neighbor, our founder gathered the girls, hosted a dinner party and brainstormed action. Over bottles of wine, the tank was formed. The empowerment of women around a dinner table, calling on the skills of our gender – our compassion, mothering, leadership, resources, power, connections; combined – has changed the fabric of our community. We have magnified a collective voice and put a face on homelessness. We are expanding to combat the epidemic of violence against women, using the same wisdom of the collective. Some members focus internationally, some in our backyard, but the lessons we learn are the power of one. Individual action making a difference. A $20 donation, an hour of time. We don’t turn the other cheek because we are small in numbers, we don’t ignore the issues because we don’t have a multi-million dollar budget, indeed, we have had no budget to speak of at all. But our model has required none – only empowerment of each others’ dreams for a better world. We support each other in making things right. We create a safe place to speak up about injustice and utter words like “mass rape”. Microjustice, like microcredit, hands-on and direct, is our model. At the end of the day, we have created a hundred winter survival backpacks for our homeless neighbors and handed them out. We are lithe and fast, mobilizing as needed. Whether in San Diego or Sudan, women coming together over the dinner table make a difference. Our success story is not grandiose but every day, common and growing. We get requests from around the world by women who want to start chapters in their communities. Aren’t we not a world of micro-communities, banded together through empowerment of each over, a collective voice breaking through the silence? What a better world we will be.
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This is so good. With all the emphasis on affecting change by electing a new president or congress-people, and the decade plus that I have experienced writing and calling said congress-people and seeing so very little substantive change, I also have become convinced that change will happen from the micro to the macro. It will bubble up. Fantastic ideas and fantastic project. Keep thinking! Steve
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