Morning Pages: August 1, 2002

Injustice and oppression are complex issues rooted in social policy, the environment and the economy. Social action workers understand people may experience problems as individuals but these difficulties can be translated into common concerns.

If change must be embraced by one of the five major institutions in order for it to become mainstream that means that until a critical mass of people within one of those institutions embrace a change iti s still a grass roots effort. When the numbers embracing the change reach a certain amount, a tipping point, then the change is adopted as standard practice.

Hmmmm...

So change still starts from the ground up. Even in government, changes begin as an idea in first one person's mind, then another person's, and so on until the tipping point is reached and the change becomes standard practice or legislated. When this happens, particularly with legislation, people suggest that the change is of a top-down, imposed or mandated, nature. BUT, and I think this is critical to social action work, even things that are mandated or legislated begin as an idea in the mind of just one person. So, while it's sometimes easier to throw my hands up in despair and claim powerlessness as my excuse for inacativity or passivity, the fact is that I am only powerless if I choose to be. I could, instead, choose to create situations where change can happen, work toward reaching a critical mass. I can take action, be an agent of change. I can share with one person, who can share with another, and so on...just the way a virus spreads, first linearly, then non-linearly to epidemic proportions. I can begin to spread the virus I believe in, hoping that if I come in contact with people who are susceptible, perhaps because they find their own situation to be a miserable one or just perhaps because they want to change one person's life, they will catch the virus and then spread it around. I have to realize that not everyone I come in contact with will catch the virus. Some will be resistant to this particular strain at this particular time. That does not matter, nor will it stop my attempts. And, if by some chance I keep running into resistance to the virus that will be a signal to me to reconsider, again, the beliefs.

So, all this to say, "Hell yes, one person can make a difference!" My friend has this quote by her office door:

To the world, you are just one person. To one person, you just might be the world.

Back to those five institutions that started this rant. They are all complex institutions with many faces. They engage in social affairs in both positive and negative ways. They are good when they remember where their power comes from; bad when they forget "of the people, by the people, and for the people."