GET USED TO GOING PUBLIC
What happens when you see something in the world that bothers you and you keep it to yourself? Well, nothing, right?
Until we evolve into a race of mind-readers, speaking the truth is the squeaky wheel gets the grease so, gang, it’s time to say it out loud.
Take a page from my mom and pops. They’re pretty much the furthest thing from your classic activists, but they always speak up for what they want.
When my dad couldn’t find local produce in the grocery store, he made a point of complaining to the grocery manager. And when he later had a massive stroke and the hospital was going to cut off his physical rehab, my mom started calling and emailing the local MPP, minister of health and local paper to complain about systemic rehab cuts.
Their rehab was reinstated, and our planet’s can be, too, if we all speak up. And don’t forget to post your call for change on social media – and be vocal about supporting the people, orgs and businesses doing it right.
START YOUR OWN PETITION
One person Facebooking, emailing or tweeting for change is surprisingly potent, but how can you take it to the next level? Start your own petition!
Back in the day, amassing signatures around an issue was slow as mud. You had to fill up a sheet or two, then mail them in. Fast forward to 2013 and today’s online petitions get shit done at a rapid clip.
No soliciting on a street corner necessary. Petition sites like Change.org (with 25 million members, 1 million in Canada) and Avaaz.org (with 17 million) invite you to start your own petition for free, making it easy to spread the word on social media. If you’ve got a catchy petition, they might just make it front-page news and put professional campaigners on the case to help you beef up your profile.
How to ensure success? Ask for something specific as well as attainable (requesting bike lanes on every street might not accomplish much at the moment, but an appeal to the Body Shop to stop using parabens is targeted and doable).
A Change.org petition started by one young woman in Kingston stopped her local council from handing stray pets over to animal testing labs after just 72 hours in a kennel.
Some kids in the Yukon started a petition that managed to protect a watershed from mining stakes. A petition asking Gatorade to stop putting a flame retardant ingredient in sports drinks is up to 200,000 signatures and getting big-time press – all turning up the heat on Pepsico. What petition will you fire off?
Look out for Ecoholic’s petitions of the month in 2013.
BE #IDLENOMORE
Are you feeling like you’re not doing enough and have this craving to get off the sidelines and, oh, I don’t know, join a flash mob, plant a guerrilla garden, volunteer, organize a protest? There is no greater high than being part of communal forces for good.
Take a page from the wildfire movement that started in Saskatchewan with four women angry about the ecosystem-ravaging, native-rights-stripping omnibus budget bill C-43 (see last week’s Year In Review Highs And Lows).
They decided to do something and fired off a tweet that sparked an international movement with the hashtag #idlenomore. From there on in, increasing numbers started flash-mobbing in malls and taking to the streets. How will you be #idlenomore in 2013?
CHECK OUT YOUR INNER BUDDHA
If the New Agers are right and 2013 is a year of shifting/expanding consciousness, then there’s no better time to get in touch with your inner sanctum.
I’m talking about putting an end to the illusion that we all live in isolated bubbles, and meditating on the fact that we’re all interconnected, that the earth’s suffering is our suffering, and that a little compassion – for ourselves, each other and the world – is the surest road map to peace, both inner and outer.
So be a little Buddha and try to do no harm. There’s even a Random Acts of Kindness Foundation that’s full of ideas to inspire you (randomactsofkindness.org).
We’ll all have to tap into our core strength if we’re going to push for change, inspire change and be the change.
So do whatever gets you in top centred form- meditating, yoga, qigong, tai chi, tree-hugging, nature walking – then carry the mindfulness out into the world.
We’re going to need some peaceful, awakened warriors to lead the way – even if you’re still figuring out what way that is.
Got a question?
Send your green queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com | twitter.com/ecoholicnation
