Being the Change

Our blog posts for the next two weeks will be dedicated to highlighting stories from our Road to Washington Campaign.

Saturday was an astounding day for me. I’ve mentioned numerous times over the past year that one of the most profound aspects of this project is watching individuals and groups embrace this project and selflessly give themselves to this cause, but Saturday was really out of the ballpark.

All day Saturday I was attached to my cell phone, anxiously awaiting pictures and updates from our amazing organizers. When I did receive a picture all I could do was show it to everybody. The events were absolutely breathtaking. Check out a couple of the pictures so far from Louisiana, Texas, Wyoming, Florida and Arizona:

 Baton Rouge, Louisiana Austin, Texas

Tallahassee, Florida  Cheyenne, Wyoming

Phoenix, Arizona

Starting Saturday night I began receiving a slew of “Thank You” e-mails and while I do appreciate them,  I honestly believe that this entire campaign was a success because of our fantastic organizers. This morning I came in to the office and the first e-mail I opened was one from Kelly Himsl Arthur and Liz Overheul Curry Co-directors of the ThinkPeace Workshop for Girls, where they shared stories from both their installations in California and New York. The stories were so moving that we’ll have to dedicate an entire blog post to them. But, one sentence about the girls resolve, that really stood out to me was “When they say they want to 'be the change' they mean it!”

This comes from Ghandi’s quote “Be the change you want to see in the world” and when I think about Road to Washington and more specifically, the journey we all took leading up to this campaign, all of our organizers and participants were being the change. These organizers didn’t just make bones, they galvanized their communities and brought the issues of genocide and apathy front and center. They’re changing the face of what we think of as “activism”.  They’re proving that indeed one person can change their community, their country and ultimately their world and I can not help but feel incredibly lucky to know them. They are the ones that deserve our biggest THANK YOU!!