August - 2012

“When I dream alone, it is just a dream. When we dream together, it is the beginning of reality.” –Brazilian proverb

Muses surround and inspire us. They are within us. Through our intentions and interactions, we have the power to inspire personal and political change.

The purpose of The Activist’s Muse is to:

Expand our individual and collective understanding of progressive ideas to provoke conversation and change within the progressive community
Examine my personal experience through a social and political lens
Enhance critical thought with curiosity, creativity, and compassion
Connect and build community among progressive leaders/activists around the world

This blog is my playground and laboratory. Everything that I write is intended to be the beginning of a conversation, not an ending. I invite you to play and explore with me.

“Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.” — Niels Bohr

jrdreistadt

Aug 31, 2012
1 min

Social and Political Theory

From Anger to Love

When we feel angry, we may also feel disconnected and stuck. As we come into awareness of this anger, we start to loosen up and open up. Things start to fall into place. Angst is the process of transforming anger into passion. Throughout this process, we continue opening up and aligning our life pieces. Ultimately, we find love in our hearts. We are free and wholly integrated. At any moment in time, we can be in multiple parts of this chart depending on our interpretation of

jrdreistadt

Aug 29, 2012
2 min

Social and Political Theory

The Privatization Equation

There is an ongoing movement in Pennsylvania to publicly fund private schools. Like other organizations, such as hospitals and the emerging fourth sector, for-profit organizations are touted as more efficient – and more effective – than their nonprofit counterparts. I am not able to intellectually process the efficiency argument. I envision the expenses of each entity as follows: Business expenses = costs + all taxes + profit Nonprofit expenses = costs + payroll taxes From my

jrdreistadt

Aug 28, 2012
1 min

Poetry

The Leaves

How easily individual leaves are taken for granted carelessly picked pressed too tightly between the fingers and thrown away. We sometimes don’t see the forest for the trees but also the leaves for the trees. Each leaf is the promise of life and is filled with great beauty and is central to our ecosystem. Leaves need the trees, the trees need the soil, the soil needs the sun, the sun needs the air, the air needs the trees, the trees need the leaves. #environment

jrdreistadt

Aug 27, 2012
1 min

Leadership

Charting the Organization

In an organizational behavior class last year, we were given an assignment to create an organizational chart for our place of work. I created the following chart to represent how I saw the structure of the organization. At the time, I was working at a social service/education agency serving both children and families. I felt that program participants were at the center of the organization; everything that we did as an organization was centered on their needs. I therefore repr

jrdreistadt

Aug 24, 2012
2 min

Changemaker Chats

Changemaker Chat – Kevin Easterling

How did you first become interested in social change? Well, as a Black man and descendant of American Slaves, born and living in America, (Specifically the Lehigh Valley) my life experiences (and love of true history) has made it most important that I be engaged in what is now termed social change. If I had to pick a defining point however, I would say the first time I knew I was classified as different was when I moved to Allentown in the mid 70’s…the Allentown School Distri

jrdreistadt

Aug 22, 2012
1 min

Poetry

My American Dream

People don’t deserve good jobs; we all deserve a meaningful vocation. People don’t deserve affordable housing; we all deserve a lovely home. People don’t deserve adequate nutrition; we all deserve plentiful healthy, whole foods. People don’t deserve access to health insurance; we all deserve radiant health. People don’t deserve a subsistence income; we all deserve a sustainable and harmonious lifestyle. #housing #Americandream #food #employment #healthcare

jrdreistadt

Aug 21, 2012
1 min

Leadership

The Illogical Model

Yesterday I posted a logic model for the progressive macromovement. I truly do see value in using logic models to think through our intentions and goals. Yet, we live in an illogical world where there is constant change and uncertainty. An illogical world calls for an illogical model to complement the standard logic model. The illogical model suggests that we focus on those areas where we do have control, given that we live in a dynamic and uncertain environment: our values,

jrdreistadt

Aug 20, 2012
1 min

Social and Political Theory

Progressive Macromovement Logic Model

A logic model is a visual tool to conceptualize and communicate a program, organization, or initiative from its raw materials to its ultimate ends. I have created a draft of a logic model for the progressive macromovement. Creating this model helped me think through what I see as the ultimate ends of progressive activism and what it will take to get us there. This model is certainly not representative of all people who care about progressive social change; it is heavily biase

jrdreistadt

Aug 17, 2012
1 min

Leadership

Alpha-Omega Testing

You may have heard of beta testing. This is when software companies share their most recent developments with a select audience to uncover bugs so that they can be fixed before the product’s full release. At this stage, a team of developers has likely already invested a great deal of time conceptualizing, planning, creating, and refining the software. In a wolf pack, the omega wolf is the one who is most often hurt and excluded yet creates harmony within the group; she or he

jrdreistadt

Aug 15, 2012
1 min

Poetry

My Dharma

My dharma is to feel the sunlight dance on my eyelashes. My dharma is to plant rainbow seeds in the earth and in my heart. My dharma is to hear the birds singing. My dharma is to be, to commune, to become. #dharma

jrdreistadt

Aug 14, 2012
1 min

Leadership

Je Suis Libree

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin That day came and went for me, over and over again for several years. The bud began to rot inside, starved from light and unable to grow. This is one of the reasons why I recently left a relatively secure and stable job as an executive director so that I could launch an online school for my progressive friends around the world. That particular job was occup

jrdreistadt

Aug 13, 2012
1 min

Social and Political Theory

Detachment from Dogma

My perspective is to detach from dogma and to explore possibilities. I am not a ‘pure’ post-modernist, integralist, material-realist, etc.; rather, I float within and among various positionalities as a means to expand my realm of personal understanding. As a result, I may say things that seem to be contradictory. I like to think of them as complementary instead. Each idea is but one microscopic iteration of the reality that I have observed and absorbed. I revere this as a pre

jrdreistadt

Aug 10, 2012
1 min

Changemaker Chats

Changemaker Chat: David McReynolds

How did you first become interested in social change? I suspect I became interesting quite early, in high school, partly as a result of the teachings of the Baptist church I attended, and partly as a result of following events in World War II very closely, and the aftermath of the war. How do you define social justice? Social justice would be a society in which, without trying to “level everyone,” there would be no massive concentrations of private wealth and the general popu

jrdreistadt

Aug 8, 2012
2 min

Allentown Girl

Rethinking Utopia

In 1998, I lived in a 15th floor studio apartment in West Philadelphia. At my desk overlooking both lovely Fairmount Park and the city skyline, I created a never published website simply called Utopia. The vision for the project, according to the second home page I developed, was to empower and motivate young women and men to actively construct their lives and communities in order to exist more peacefully and harmoniously with themselves, others, and the environment. I promis

jrdreistadt

Aug 7, 2012
2 min

Leadership

Defining and Realizing Success

The Sociological Images blog recently posted an article referencing the Pew Research Center’s report, The Causalities: Faith and Hard Work in Capitalism. The first extracted chart shows how people view the relationship between hard work and success. In the United States, 77% of respondents indicated that they believe success will come to those who work hard. My immediate reaction was to think of all of the other factors that influence the achievement of success such as educat

jrdreistadt

Aug 6, 2012
1 min

Poetry

The Tao of Social Change

What is, never was. What never was, will be. #poetry #socialchange #Taoism

jrdreistadt

Aug 3, 2012
1 min

Welcome

“When I dream alone, it is just a dream. When we dream together, it is the beginning of reality.” –Brazilian proverb We are all muses. Through our intentions and interactions, we have the power to inspire personal and political change. The purpose of The Activist’s Muse is to: Encapsulate the various ideas that have infiltrated my heart and my mind Explore my ideas through writing and share them with the progressive community Examine my personal experience through a social an