Are you an activist?

I’m not an activist. What I try to do is make my little corner of the world better in any way I can.

I’m too lazy to be an activist, so I guess that’s a no.

I’m still stuck trying to make a difference in my own life. Once I figure that out, then, I will consider changing the world. Until then, I will continue to roll my eyes at people who are hoping for and expecting a zombie apocalypse.

I am… but I don’t get into peoples’ faces about it.

I believe in and fight for rights for the Deaf community to exist as the cultural entity that it is, and not be looked at as a diseased or disabled group. I also am passionate about educational rights and how the education system should work. I was created into an activist/advocate when I was 12 years old and raised by a community of activists/advocates. I just recently moved into a community of very strong activists and I definitely feel at home.

Several threats on my life scared me enough to make me back down and hide for a while, but the ‘voice’ is coming back. I can get really firm on my soapbox with that, but I tend to try to work with what other people understand and offer a different perspective.

What really, really gets my craw is how people who have no clue how the Deaf community lives think they can formulate an opinion about the Deaf community or Deaf people. It’s like me walking into the Botanical Gardens and deciding that, just because I’ve been there, I know about plants when I know next-to-nothing about botany.

Nope. I don’t give enough of a shit about anything. I donate money to various charities and my time to kitchen downtown. That’s about the extent.

Yes.

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This company will never see a dime of my money because of their Rachael Maddow- Bill Maheresque, rhyme over reason left wing statement adverts.

I know nobody cares, especially them. In fact my not supporting them likely would be considered a win in their eyes. I say so what.

They have enough capital to alienate potential customers? Not because of me.

I spent most of my life as an activist. I’ve worked for equal rights for women, to fight oil company price gouging, for clean water and clean air, to stop nuclear proliferation, to work for better energy policy, and for single payer health care reform in the US. I’ve worked on a number of other issues, as well, to help improve democracy. I’ve worked for working people, and for the environment and to make government more effective and on and on.

Now I’m an activist in a different way. I serve as a consultant to researchers in a university setting. I help people who want to make the world a better place do it in a more effective way. I get to pass on all the tricks I’ve learned over a life time. Oddly, I find myself helping people with different political views from myself, sometimes.

The issues are still the same. Sometimes it seems like we haven’t gotten anywhere over my life times, but I still want to fight. I prefer to do it in different ways now. Bringing up my children is one way. Teaching is another. Through my art and music and writing—yet other ways. Also, I have a new issue: mental health. Now that I have personal experience with that issue, I try to advocate for and empower others who deal with these issues. I do that mostly here, because this is the only place I feel free to speak about it without worrying about it having consequences in my real life. I don’t believe I will ever live in a world where I can be open about the issues I have faced and perhaps will face again.

I just spent a week with my family. I so wanted to talk about it, but over and over they said things to make it clear that if I did say anything, I could forget about having much understanding from them in the future.

No. I’m suprised I even responded to this…

Yes. I volunteer; I read the theory and studies and help discuss things with those whom I know are passionate but don’t have the time or interest to do those things themselves, and then also discuss them with those who don’t already agree with me and get in their face; I help organize people; and I try to help make safe spaces for certain people so they can get away from the bullshittery ever now and then.