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By Alexandra Paul<\/p>\n
I wanted to share with you some lessons I have learned from my activist experiences, hoping they will help you on your activist journey.<\/p>\n
My first activist act came when I was 9. I wrote to President Nixon to ask him to stop pollution. To my amazement, I got a letter back, signed by him! That meant he heard me! Even though my sister Caroline and our friend Nancy – who had also written to him – got the exact same letter, it did not dampen my enthusiasm. That moment made me believe that one person doing one small thing can have an impact. And that is a lesson I have carried throughout my activist life.<\/p>\n
Which is why I can be a real drag to grocery shop with! I agonize in the store over whether to buy the peanut butter that is fair trade but imported from far away; the peanut butter in the glass jar by a big conglomerate, as opposed to the plastic jar by a small independent company; or organic vs. conventional. I really do believe that my decisions as a consumer are very important to the wellbeing of the world.<\/p>\n
The difficulty in reconciling all my values was highlighted when I got married 25 years ago, and I chose a dress that was not made out of silk, but instead was a synthetic fiber. I have not worn anything from an animal in almost 40 years, so it seemed a natural choice. However, I received a letter from someone saying I was a hypocrite because that fiber came from petroleum and if I am driving electric cars to use less gas why would I choose clothes that were also made from oil? I wrote to him and agreed that sometimes my values conflict and I have to pick what I consider the lesser of two evils. This reminded me that being perfect is not the point \u2013 what I must strive for is to thoughtfully examine my values and do the right thing from there, knowing that sometimes I cannot fulfill all my ideals.<\/p>\n
In 2008, I was really mad that California voters had passed Proposition 8, which banned gays the right to marry. I felt compelled to show my support for gay rights, so the next day I stood on the busy intersection of 26th<\/sup> and San Vicente in Santa Monica with a sign that said \u201cStraight Against Hate\u201d and \u201cLet Gays Marry.” I had held a lot of signs at a lot of vigils and marches, but this was the first time in 25 years that I had been alone at my own protest, and I felt very vulnerable and too “seen,” but I stuck it out. Years later, I was in Whole Foods and a woman behind me at the checkout said to me \u201cI saw you on San Vicente holding those signs and I just want to thank you.” Just another reminder to me that you don\u2019t have to have a large crowd to have an effect, you can just do you<\/em>.<\/p>\n But working in a group can be uplifting and life changing. Most of my friends are people I met through activism, probably because working together for a higher goal bonds you and you often meet on a regular basis so you get to know each other naturally and easily. [Third Act SoCal comms lead] Zan and the small but mighty crew of early electric car adopters trying to keep EVs on the road 25 years ago are friends I am still close to today. My EV activism is maybe the only issue of all the ones I have been involved with that I can say definitively \u201cwe won.\u201d All the others – environment, peace, animal rights, civil rights, human overpopulation \u2013 are ones I will probably never be able to say \u201cmy work is done here.” What I have learned from that is to not go for outcome but for the journey, or you will get burned out. And having a small group of people who believe in the same goals as you can enrich your life immeasurably by giving you purpose and community and helping you keep coming back.<\/p>\n So, I do not worry about results. There is a lot of talk about being an \u201cefficient activist\u201d and \u201ceffective altruist\u201d but I don\u2019t believe that is as important as just getting out there and doing something for the world, because there really are many effects you will never see. I registered voters with my friend Chuck Levin at a card table on an LA street corner for 18 years. A lot of the time, my 2-hour stint each week would result in just one voter registered, or often no one. But Chuck would say, \u201cEven though no one registered, about 50 people walked by and were reminded of voting. And they might even mention voting to someone else.\u201d This taught me about slow and steady wins the race. Chuck says I registered about 900 people over the years. Chuck, who has been sitting at that card table all over the state since 1968, has registered 14,000 Californians.<\/p>\n When I was 18 and first moved to Los Angeles, I joined the nonprofit organization, Southern Californians for a Nuclear Free Zone. It was 1982, and I was extremely worried about a nuclear war or the detonation of one of the 57,000 nuclear weapons in the world back then. One of the main things we were doing was getting a petition signed to make the area a nuclear-free zone, and I was asked to go door to door to get signatures. Well, after an hour or so of doing that, I came back to the office in tears because I was so scared and uncomfortable getting doors slammed in my face or people ignoring me completely, and I felt so guilty<\/em> because the future of the planet was at stake and I was too chicken to ask people to just sign on a dotted line?<\/p>\n I remember Jerry Rubin was in the office when\u2014do any of you know the indomitable Jerry Rubin who is still an incredible activist in Santa Monica?\u2014and he said to me, \u201cDon\u2019t worry Alexandra, there are so many other things you can do.\u201d And I learned then that being a lifelong activist means doing what I am suited for. If you are not comfortable being in the streets with a sign, there are letters to be written, calls to be made, even signs to be made. If you don\u2019t like posting your views on social media, you can host a small fundraiser or send a check. There is a place for you and whatever your talents are, and every kind of activist is crucial.<\/p>\n One time a friend of my husband\u2019s asked me \u201cSo Alexandra what you are against these days?\u201d and I was taken aback because being against things didn\u2019t sound very good. I realized then that I wanted my messaging to be clearly for <\/em>something. I couldn\u2019t simply be against war, otherwise I would be putting war into peoples\u2019 heads and not peace. Framing matters\u2014it is a marketing truism. Tell folks what you want, don\u2019t remind them of what you don\u2019t want. It is one of the reasons the EV movement was successful \u2013 instead of being against polluting cars and against oil companies we had a solution that people and governments could clearly act on: make EVs, buy EVs, make it easier to buy EVs. We put the solution into people\u2019s heads and helped normalize it.<\/p>\n