I spent most of my life as an activist. I’ve worked for equal rights for women, to fight oil company price gouging, for clean water and clean air, to stop nuclear proliferation, to work for better energy policy, and for single payer health care reform in the US. I’ve worked on a number of other issues, as well, to help improve democracy. I’ve worked for working people, and for the environment and to make government more effective and on and on.
Now I’m an activist in a different way. I serve as a consultant to researchers in a university setting. I help people who want to make the world a better place do it in a more effective way. I get to pass on all the tricks I’ve learned over a life time. Oddly, I find myself helping people with different political views from myself, sometimes.
The issues are still the same. Sometimes it seems like we haven’t gotten anywhere over my life times, but I still want to fight. I prefer to do it in different ways now. Bringing up my children is one way. Teaching is another. Through my art and music and writing—yet other ways. Also, I have a new issue: mental health. Now that I have personal experience with that issue, I try to advocate for and empower others who deal with these issues. I do that mostly here, because this is the only place I feel free to speak about it without worrying about it having consequences in my real life. I don’t believe I will ever live in a world where I can be open about the issues I have faced and perhaps will face again.
I just spent a week with my family. I so wanted to talk about it, but over and over they said things to make it clear that if I did say anything, I could forget about having much understanding from them in the future.