AtMP in Washington DC
Embodying the spirit of service that is invoked for Martin Luther King’s birthday and Barack Obama’s inauguration, AtMP’s board of directors spent this weekend at a strategic planning retreat in Washington DC.
Although most board members had to return to their far-flung home towns (including Albany, Boulder, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and San Francisco), I am staying in DC for the inauguration. Today I attended “Driving Change: the role of activists during the Obama administration,” an Inaugural Event produced by the Alliance for Justice. Eli Pariser, Van Jones, JoDee Winterhof and Nan Aron spoke to an audience of several hundred community organizers. A couple of my key take-aways:
- at a time when the economy and war are likely to make the public fearful and reactionary, we must remind people about their shared experiences to encourage them to work together.
- politicians (like courts) rarely go out on a limb for culture change. Rather, they step into safe spaces that have been created by trends of public opinion. In other words, we should expect our leaders to follow, not lead. The job of activists and organizers is to create and give voice to public support for the policies we want politicians to enact.
