Soul of a Citizen

Without online technologies, Barack Obama would never have gotten past the primaries.

One way to do this outreach while simultaneously building a base for the future is to work toward engaging those face-to-face communities we're already part of.

When we become frustrated in working for change, we might remember how hope can come from unexpected places and historically resistant constituencies. Rich Cizik's efforts to engage his fellow evangelicals on global warming exemplifies this.

Effective activism's a long-haul process, not "save the Earth in 30 days, ask me how." But there are some principles that seem to reoccur for people addressing every kind of challenge.

"I started out just an apathetic drunken party girl, with no clear path in my life," Angie said. "Now I'm implementing our campus sustainability plan. People change and even massive institutions can change."

America has made significant changes since Paul Loeb initially wrote Soul of a Citizen; it's time for new voices to once again be inspired by this groundbreaking effort.

If we want our children to lead generous-spirited lives, we need to give them ideals to inspire them.

The reason many of us retreat from social involvement is not that we think all is well with the world. Rather, what leaves too many of us sitting on the sidelines is what psychologists call learned helplessness.

We often hold back because we're unsure how our efforts will play out, because they seem contradictory in their approaches, and because we're uncertain whether they'll do justice to the crises we seek to address.

We never know how the new-found involvement of those we engage will play out in the rest of their lives, but if we inspire enough people to take those first steps in speaking out for justice we can sometimes transform history.

It's tempting to dismiss the criminals in our jails as irredeemable problems. Yet when they transform themselves and help heal the wounds that they've helped create, they can offer powerful lessons.

The full story of Rosa Parks reminds us that her tremendously consequential act, along with everything that followed, depended on all the humble, frustrating work that she and others had undertaken earlier on.

A long-powerful strain in our culture posits all businesspeople and politicians as corrupt, all religious leaders charlatans, all journalists hacks--and all who'd dare to try to work to change their society naïve fools.