Activist Reflection – Sustaining Ourselves for the Long Haul

Dear Friend:

What keeps you going as you seek to create a more just, peaceful and sustainable world? If you're like me, and most of the people I know, there are times when it's difficult to stay engaged. Sometimes the weight of the world's problems feels too great. I feel despair as I reflect on many decades of organizing work and what sometimes feels like few accomplishments.

There is some reality to those feelings, but there have also been significant advances as a result of our grassroots organizing, activism and cultural work. Last weekend, as I drove near Rome, NY, I thought about the work I was engaged in 40 years ago to convert major nuclear weapons facilities to the east and west of Syracuse to more useful, productive functions. Today, neither Griffiss Air Force Base (a strategic air command base with nuclear armed B-52 bombers) nor the Seneca Army Depot (a major storage and transshipment point for nuclear weapons) exist anymore. Our organizing and resistance played an important role in those changes.

As we continue our work, let's remember to celebrate the victories, take care of ourselves as we work for progressive social change, and find creative ways to attract new people into this joyous, life-affirming work.

Learn more about sustaining yourself and your activism here.

Photo: Catherine Allport, Seneca Army Depot main gate, summer 1983

 In Peace,

Andy Mager, SCW Coordinator