Recently I saw the Czech movie "Twenty-One Spokespersons of Charter '77." What a great film for showcasing the singular courage individuals had to possess to work for change at a time no one thought change was possible. In the film, Vaclav Havel said that Western reporters would always come and interview him and then tell him that what he was trying to do was impossible. You are only risking your life, they intimated. The balance in power is too great.
A grateful Czech nation is glad he ignored that advice. He did not work alone to create change. As more and more Czechs not only didn't believe in the totalitarian system, but grew willing to show their lack of belief, Charter 77 evolved from dissident protest group to celebrated speakers of truth to power. I was struck by one of the spokeslady's comments in the film. As she watched her fellow citizens congregate in Wenceslas Square to protest, she went home. She said "her work was done and she was no longer needed." Aren't you grateful for courageous citizens like that?
A recent essay on the Huffington Post celebrates these people who take small steps to yield unforseen fruits. What steps are you comfortable taking to change your society? Are you one of the early canaries who sing in the coal mine or are you more comfortable helping later when a movement picks up steam?
Has one person's political risk-taking and actions ever inspired you? Who was it? What did they do? How did they open your mind?
Have you ever felt passionately about an issue yet kept quiet? How come? What kept you from expressing how you felt?
Two issues that inspired me to activism in my own country were protesting the Iraq War to my elected officials, including my-then United States Senator Barack Obama. What was depressing about my letters is I read them five years after I wrote them early in the war and nothing in the situation had changed. I could have sent them again and just changed the date. I'm grateful that my Senator was finally elected to the Presidency to change all that and he has.
The other issue that inspired me to activism was our recent health care debates in America. It took zero courage on my part to call my elected officials over and over and over again. It merely took time. But when the President of the United States said afterwards "thank you" to everyone who ever made a call or worked for change on health care in America, I found it deeply meaningful.
Click on my title to read the essay on Paul Loeb's book "Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in Challenging Times."
