On the idea of an activist support group

Today as I scrubbed my kitchen floor here in Nashville (having returned a month ago and, without much thought for this blog, immediately plunged myself back into commitments here), I thought about the potential of LIVE (the group dedicated to the living wage campaign here at Vanderbilt) becoming essentially an activist support group. We are both the activists and the support group, and it's the former which necessitates the latter. Frankly, I could use up entire meetings talking about our feelings, none of which are necessarily mobilizing or inspiring or even activist: doubt, overwhelmedness, fear, anger. Anger is surely the most mobilizing -- that sense of justice violated is what motivates me to keep going. It needs to be bubbling on the surface, in order for me to truly feel invested in what I'm doing with the group.

But if we spend too much time talking about our feelings and not enough time truly ACTING, doing, then we've failed. It reminds me of a very simple strategy of mapping one's motivations as an activist: take the words Think, Feel, Act. Presented with injustice, in what order do you do those things?

Joel Dillard once responded Think, Act, Feel.
I responded Feel, Think, Act.
They're very different. You need all kinds to form an organization like LIVE.

So we must press on, occasionally taking a moment to acknowledge that what we are doing is extremely difficult. To comfort, congratulate, and motivate one another. We're coming up to a very intense phase of the campaign and will need as much emotionless (acting) time as emotional (feeling) time. This may seem overly philosophical, but it's fascinating to me.

To check out the basics of LIVE, go to www.vanderbilt.edu/students4livingwage.