What One Person Can Do

“I’m only one person, what can I do?”   How many times have you heard that, or said that yourself?

It’s an attitude foreign to the American character, and to a great extent it is the reason we
are where we are today.  I remind you of the words of Margaret Mead, "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has."

The revolutionary changes in the
world have generally come from one person, or a small group of people. Most people when they look at people who changed the world look to great leaders who engaged the passions and expressed the will of millions; think Washington, Churchill, Lincoln,
and Roosevelt. But that is not the norm. New ideas and new ways of seeing and understanding the world are given to us by individual thinkers and scientists; think Einstein, Galileo,
Newton, Darwin, Watson and Crick. New ideas about how to create a just and moral social order are also created and championed by lone reformers; think Frederick Douglass, MLK, Gandhi, Samuel Gompers, and Betty Friedan. Whether in matters of spirituality (Jesus, Mohammed, Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther), literary and journalistic endeavor (Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Orwell, Horace Greeley, and Upton Sinclair), or any other field of human endeavor, great changes come from individual human beings.

The life of a nation does not consist only of a privileged or powerful few, but of millions of unique and influential lives. I’m currently reading "1001 People Who made America" by Alan Axelrod. He gives us a glimpse of the tremendous diversity of contributions that go into creating a great nation.

In each and every one of us there is the power to make a change, large or small. Here’s
just a few of the things that don’t take much time or effort that one
person can do to make a difference.  Sometimes one person can wholly remake
the world, but that’s rare. But think what could happen if everyone committed to change their little corner of it, just a bit, for the better.   

Here’s a (not-all-that-)short list of things you can do without
having to be a revolutionary or a genius, only an American who cares where we go from here.

• Write a letter to your Representative
• Write a letter to the newspaper
• Send an email to a radio, cable or TV station’s website
• Sign a petition
• Tell your friends about a petition
• Attend a meeting
• Attend a march, a protest, a vigil
• Speak up when the opportunity presents itself
• Organize or attend a gathering of friends to discuss an issue
• Send out a press release
• Start a discussion group
• Serve as a conduit for information
• Attend a political meeting
• Speak up
• Put up posters that focus on an issue
• Write an editorial
• Hold a Party
• Show a film or DVD at your house
• Protest
• Send an email about an upcoming program to your friends
• Spread the word
• Organize a group
• Raise some money for a deserving candidate
• Organize a New England Town Meeting
• Ask a candidate to come speak to your group
• Work for a political candidate
• Send a check to your favorite cause
• Stay current with what’s going on
• Join your local political party
• Have a dessert party, a tea or some other function
• Bring together like-minded people
• Join an Internet group
• Sponsor your own mailing list
• Start a network or serve to connect two different organizations
• Write a newsletter
• Build a database of like minded people
• Get people engaged
• Start a group to protect civil rights, learn about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.
• Bring in a progressive movie to your local theatre
• Call up and complain about Right Wing dominated radio
• Don’t let the Right Wing have the last word