Post #14

I feel like being an activist takes courage, it takes having an out going personality, and a willingness to learn and share thoughts with others. bell hooks talks of a movie, The Proposal,  she watched that gave a negative portrayal of being  femenist: that the word “feminist” was used in a negative connotation and in a humerous way. She also talks about how the target audience for this film is between 12 and 16. And she used this to illustrate her point of the media’s backlash toward the feminist movement.

            Living in a competitive, consumer based society, the idea of sharing knowledge is costly. Getting a liberal arts education is costly as our student loans are constantly reminding us. Realizing this only empowers a person to challenge that system. It also allows us to see how thoroughly we are implanted into the system and that changing it will not be an over night fix

            I think my favorite activist is my father, though don’t tell him I said that. There was a time in Vermont when he was head of the United Church of Christ (UCC) . He began a movement to advocate churches to be Open and Affirming, to accept any type of member regardless of their sexual orientation, religious back round, race, or ethnicity. It was a courageous stand to make because there was a lot of back lashing that he had to personally address.

            I remember one night he came home, not a surprise considering his hours, and he told me, “I was just at a meeting where no one agreed with my point of view.” He told me recently, that he would go to meetings to hear the opinions of the few congregations that were resilient to having an open church. I think about how he must have struggled to keep his cool while all the fingers were pointing at him. That’s roughing it.