Dear Activists by Janne Robinson

Posted on August 6th, 2015

Dear activists and leaders and movement makers,

If you’re not going to be a lemming, you’re going to have days where you get beat down.

People are afraid of change.

People are afraid of asking for change.

People are happier to allow the thoughts and beliefs of the past satisfy them then stand up and shout, “I have my own idea! I have my own thoughts!”

Aristotle, Einstein, Joan of Arc, Darwin, Plato, Martin Luther King, Socrates, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Anais Ninn were brilliant—they are also dead.

We need new ideas.

We need new leaders.

People who aren’t willing to stay seated in the ways their parents were accustomed to, and assume that since that’s how it’s been–it’s best.

We need new free thinkers.

Who do not quote the past, but quote themselves.

Who are brave enough to say, “I believe in my idea. It’s worthy.”

To stand up and give the world hell with their fire and not worry if it’s been done or people will like it.

We need to quit reading the greats of our past and become the greats of our future.

We need you.

What’s your idea?

Why are you sitting down?

If you are standing up, what do you have to offer our earth?

How can you heal, empower, ignite change?

People are happy to enable immobilism to avoid the confrontational conversations and situations.

People are happy to stay silent.

It is easier to stay seated.

It is easier to be an impressionable sheep, and follow mindlessly without stopping to ask, “Is this my truth?”

And once you are standing there is something incredibly important you should know.

If you make the choice to try and change the world, know that the world won’t always support you back.

The percentage of humans taking a bat to the injustices of our planet is small.

There are many humans supporting those taking a bat, but those carrying the bat and taking swings may lie somewhere around the 2% line.

If you make the choice to be in that 2% I want you to have some days where you rage at those unwilling to see your big heart tearing at the things that need light and a voice.

But more importantly I want you to allow some days where you throw the white flag over a cliff and curl up in a ball and hide.

Yes, I want you to be defeated.

I want you to realize how big our world is and the size of your hammer and throw in your activism cards.

The world won’t change overnight and all warriors, and heroes have days where they lose.

Be defeated, then wake up tomorrow, and give the world hell–because we need you.

Our world needs saving.

Our world needs you.

We can’t have too many greats, too many free thinkers.

There is space for you.

Love,

A fighter.

Comments