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THE LAZY ACTIVIST
Or, how to change the world while never changing
out of your house dress.
Some of us dream about changing the world. We want to free Tibet, prevent wars, feed hungry children and save the Arctic Wilderness. We admire those who forsake episodes of "Six Feet Under" to carry placards in protest parades. We revere those who eschew lolling about all day in pajamas in favor of getting up at dawn to hand out food in soup kitchens. We even send a buck or twenty to keep our reproductive rights safe — or at least to allow feminists to keep printing those flyers telling us about how we're losing our reproductive rights. But how many of us really pull ourselves away from the apathy machine — otherwise known as the television — to change a light bulb that's been burned out for six months, much less to march on Washington?
If the dismal state of our democracy is any indication, precious few of us are getting off the La-Z-Boy® to change anything more significant than the channel. One wonders, if Paul Revere and his wife had been working two jobs to support their family and spending every cent they made on consumer goods they didn't need, while getting into a quagmire of debt, would they have, when the time had come to signal the approach of the English troops, just rolled over in bed and said, "Can't it wait until tomorrow? Isn't there someone else who can go?"
If you're feeling tired, lazy and apathetic about the state of the country, you have a great deal of company. However, rampant, communal passivity is not something from which to derive comfort. It's certainly no excuse for not sending the occasional letter to your elected representative expressing concern about some injustice that is contributing to your stupor. At least, not anymore. Because now we have the internet, and with as little effort as it takes to log on and type in your name and address you can finally send that letter to the President telling him to stop nominating rabid right-wing judges to the federal bench. How can you do this, you ask? The answer is simply that a number of organizations have already done it for you.
Diverse groups, from the National Organization for Women to the long distance phone company, Working Assets, in response to the need to recruit more members of the real silent majority of disgruntled Americans, have set up web sites that make activism easy. The specific goals of the activism opportunities vary from site to site. Yet, their methods are the same. They all provide well-written form letters urging your Senator, Governor or other official to take some specific action in your name. Many of the sites also contain petitions one can sign. Additionally, all have in-depth news on topics that would likely have been crowded out of the evening news broadcast by the latest celebrity murder or marriage that you don't really care about.
If you are as complacent as most Americans you might still be hoping that someone else is going to change the world for you. Simply put, they're not. But, if situations, like being unable to stop a war with a country that we first disarmed, then accused of having weapons of mass destruction we could not find before or since our bloody conquest of them, have made you feel like you might have enough energy to at least sign your name to a letter of protest, then here is a brief list of places to begin your life as a lazy activist. Come on, you can even do this at work and get into a lot less trouble, if you're caught, than you would for downloading porn.
(Note: If you are a conservative, Christian fundamentalist or Republican looking for organizations who are working towards banning "partial birth abortions," or prohibiting gay marriage, you will not find that information here. You will have to log on to the other Rush's (Limbaugh) website for reactionary nonsense.)
Progressive Portal: Easy Online Activism
http://www.progressiveportal.org
Progressive Portal is a potpourri of reformist activism opportunities with something for every (liberal) taste. A recent list of "Top Alerts" included headlines like: Challenge Secret Government "No Fly" List: Oppose the new airline passenger profiling system; and Is North Korea Next?: Urge the White House and Senate to negotiate with North Korea. Many of PP's links will take you to other sites, like the ACLU's, where you will discover ever more topics about which to become incensed.
American Civil Liberties Union
http://www.aclu.org
Speaking of the ACLU, this venerable institution has been protecting our Constitutional rights from the diminishing checks and balances within the US government for decades. In addition to providing in-depth local and national news on issues like homeless rights and free speech violations, the ACLU site offers numerous, easy to send fax letters. With topics ranging from "Cyber-Liberties" to "Drug Policy" to "Racial Inequality," their actions cover a broad range of issues. Plus, they send the fax for you. The site also urges you to send in a donation and become a "card-carrying member of the ACLU." It doesn't cost much, and the card will be fun to carry around in your wallet next to your National ID Card, once those become mandatory.
National Organization for Women
http://www.now.org
Weren't the 60's and 70's great for women? They got birth control pills, the right to make decisions about their pregnancies, equal money for girls' sports programs and equal pay for equal work. Well, okay maybe not that last thing, but it seemed as if women's rights were progressing and the feminist movement would continue to build on those victories until there was a woman in the White House and an Equal Rights Amendment constitutionally guaranteeing parity for both sexes. Who would have thought that in a new century, women would have to refight all their battles as reproductive rights and Title IX became objects of attack by the country's conservatives? If feminist values and women's rights are your area of interest, the NOW site is the place to go. Here you will discover which judicial nominees want to send women back to a time of illegal abortions and which legislators, lobbied by lucrative male college football programs, want to return abolish Title IX. Also, read up on domestic violence, the Wal-Mart sexual discrimination suit (don't forget to boycott their stores), and the lack of family-friendly legislation in Congress. Women still have the vote, but that, it seems, is all they can be sure about.
Move On
http://www.moveon.org
Win Without War
http://www.winwithoutwarus.org/html/new.html
On Wednesday, February 26, 2003, hundreds of thousands of antiwar activists, organized by the groups Win Without War and Move On, flooded Senate phone lines as part of a "Virtual March" on Washington aimed at heading off a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Protesters called and faxed senators in an innovative action, billed as a way to affect policy "without leaving your living room." The Virtual March was great example of how you can get your fingers to do the walking and still make an impact. The group Win Without War continues to focus on the post-war doings in Iraq. Their most urgent current action implores people to write their representatives to insist that the United Nations, not the U.S. military, should direct relief and reconstruction in Iraq. Move On also offers a number of easy actions, including asking their constituency to fight corporate offshore tax dodgers.
Working Assets
http://www.workingassets.com
You love the free Ben and Jerry's ice cream you receive every month with your service. You glow with self-satisfaction about the fact that Working Assets spends a portion of their profits from your long distance phone calls to make the world a better place. However, if you feel that letting them do all the work is just too passive for you, Working Assets also has a well-organized web site that lists many activism opportunities. A recent list of letters one could easily sign and send includes topics as wide-ranging as: Tell Halliburton to do the right thing and donate Iraq War profits to American and Iraqi victims; Support Filibuster Against Estrada Nomination; Pass the Eating Disorders Awareness, Prevention and Education Act; and Tell President Bush: Working Families Count on Overtime Pay; to name just a few. The topics are well-researched and the letters are intelligently-written.
Action Network
http://www.actionnetwork.org
Has the idea of drilling for oil in the Arctic got you down? Do you worry idly while native wetlands are destroyed and endangered species perish? If so, the Action Network is for you. Action Network is a one-stop shopping site for environmental activism alerts. The site allows you to participate in several featured actions from stopping radioactive waste, to saving marine environments. Action Network is also a portal to access 20 other websites with their own environmental agendas.
Sierra Club
http://www.sierraclub.org
If he were still alive, I believe John Muir would have been proud of today's Sierra Club. Not only are they at the forefront in reporting about the environment and America's park lands, but they also offer numerous openings, even for non-members, to become involved in environmental issues. Their May 2003 site provides actions to oppose new exemptions from environmental laws for the Department of Defense, to urge Congress to tell the Bush Administration they must protect all our waters and to help pressure the auto industry by telling Ford Motors that by implementing fuel efficient technologies they can decrease America's dependence on oil and reduce global warming pollution, among others. Even if you don't want to send a letter to your congressional representative, this site will tell you where a great hike can be found in your area. Enjoy nature while you still can.
Ad Busters
http://www.adbusters.org
Ad Busters is an organization of graphic artists and writers who work in advertising and publishing who believe that it is time for the people to begin manipulating the media, instead of the converse. They sponsor a series of boycotts, among other activities. One is "Turn Off TV Week". "Make this the start of your personal mental revolution," their copy reads. "Live and breathe and think and feel." Another event they sponsor is "Buy Nothing Day." It is held on the day after Thanksgiving, purportedly the biggest shopping day of the year, and is just as it says, a day to boycott retail. What could be more subversive than not spending? Plus they support the "Got Oil?" boycott of Exxon, led by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. It's hard to know which oil company to hate the most, but this campaign is organized to promote fear in the Exxon owners' hearts and minds. Find out how to dispirit corporate America. They do it to you every day. (Also check out Ad Busters magazine.)
This list is not meant to be complete in any sense. It is just a smattering of well-organized sites with important activism opportunities. Many other worthy organizations can be found by doing simple internet searches. Choose the topic that interests you most and find out what you can do to create reform the E-Z way. Once you've sent those first few letters, you might want to consider Ad Busters' idea of turning off the TV for a week. After all, you already know in your heart that Robert Blake did it and that J-Lo will drop Ben in due course. What else can 24-hour rehashing of the news offer? In the end, a week of silence and thinking for yourself might be the most revolutionary thing you will ever do to change the world.
WITCHING HOUR ARCHIVE:
CURRENT -2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17
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The Norton Simon
 I drove by the Norton Simon Museum weekly for four years before I ever went inside. I reassured myself that it would be there next week, and the next. There was no rush, I told myself. There was no reason to go today when I could go tomorrow. Finally, the day dawned when the best new movie in the theaters starred Vin Diesel, and it occurred to me that it was time to stop procrastinating and take a gander at Mr. Simon's collection.
What a joy it was to visit this museum. The building itself is architecturally pleasing, without all the hoopla of the Getty.  Moreover, unlike J. Paul
Getty, who seemed to think collecting art was a matter of plundering any antiquity he could get his oily
hands on, Norton Simon clearly had wonderful taste in art, and acquired with the kind of discrimination that makes his ensemble a joy to behold.
The paintings and sculptures were amassed from works created during a span encompassing the 14th through the 20th centuries, with an emphasis on the 17th through the 19th — the period in which I am most interested. The 19th century collection, according to the brochure "boasts stellar examples by Impressionists and Post Impressionists,
including Monet, Renoir, van Gogh and Cézanne." Indeed, it does.
The museum is built around a relatively serene, (considering it is next to the freeway), verdant garden with pond. If I hadn't been able to hear the relentless traffic noise, I might have imagined myself back in Giverney when gazing upon the blooming lilies in the still, green water.
A beautiful place, a fine art collection, a great gift shop, only $6 admission, but the food could be better.
Norton Simon Museum
411 West Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91105
nortonsimon.org
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