3.27.11 Adam News & Info

NoAngel---- I have no problem with people learning as they go along, educating themselves on new issues, and acting in whatever way feels right to them. A few quiet words at the lunch table can be just as powerful as picketing on Capitol Hill. And it is okay if your fandom expands your worldview and your compassion, as well as your righteous outrage. Since forever, it has been often been the “ordinary” folks
who initiate social change. People who would have been content to just live their lives until
something became too horrible to tolerate; until someone they loved was hurt; until they :
could no longer look ....]

Great things are often accomplished by small means... Some bring attention to causes by making grand gestures; others bring attention to causes by living and reflecting their
messages. Both are necessary and powerful. Both are most powerfully effective when the
motivation comes from a sincere place that seeks no personal glory.

My mother has never been what I would strictly call an "activist," but she always seeks out, enjoys and honestly celebrates the differences in people. And she always immediately stops conversations that do otherwise. My mother, in her eighties, recently visited a neighbor's home for dinner when their conversation suddenly turned discriminatory. After
trying to stop the remarks twice, she finally said, "I love you, but I will have to leave your home if you continue to talk that way about other people who deserve to be loved and respected just as much as you do." The hosts apologized and the dinner went on.

Some speak out stridently and are widely visible, and that is powerful and important.
My mother taught me that quietly speaking out with love, on an individual level, is also
powerful and important. As Adam says, love overcomes hate. Anyone who lives this
principle helps activate change.

There is a season for all kinds of activism, and there are seasons when life provides different experiences to help us grow and evolve in various ways. There are some seasons when people need to spend most or all their activist hours just organizing change and love
in their own lives before they have the time and/or tools to address change in the world around them. We are all continuously evolving and changing and learning as life happens.

I don't understand those who scorn when or how someone finds more knowledge and light once they have found it and are ready to act on it.

I am thankful for everyone who shows up at the tree ready to help pass out the fruit. Great essay, NoAngel, as always!

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On another note, interesting and so smart, that Adam mentions way back in that article that talking about his private life might suffocate something good. Good for him that even
then he was already figuring out a strategy for how to give love as a celebrity its best
chance.