I was raised in an activist family. My childhood memories include dozens of rallies and marches, including one day at the Pentagon when I was 8 or 10 and, rolling down a hill as children do, I rolled right under the rope keeping the anti-war protesters out. When my mother would tell that story, she'd say how worried she was that I'd be shot.
As an adult, I've been deeply involved in my community and have given thousands of hours to organizations I care about. But I thought my activist days were over.
In the days following the 2016 election, in addition to feeling loss and grief, I found myself overwhelmed by the magnitude of the work ahead. I was concerned about the future of the American experiment and our democratic institutions, as well as about the future of the planet, due to climate change and the possibility of nuclear war. I worried that having so many areas of concern would lead me to feeling paralyzed.
To avoid that paralysis, I committed myself to doing what I called an "act of resistance" every day. Each act didn't have to be large or complicated, just a concrete action that had some chance, however small, of effecting change. More importantly, I tried for actions that when combined with the actions of others, had a larger chance of making a difference. My actions varied from calling one or more legislators to signing petitions to writing a letter to my state's electors to donating to effective organizations and more.
Early on, I started sharing my acts on Facebook, tagged as #ActOfResistance. I found that my friends sometimes acted on them or shared them. People told me how much they appreciated them.
Now I'm sharing my personal commitment with the movement that's grown across our country, trying to make it easy for those who've never or rarely been politically active to do so. The goal of this site is to serve as a registry for actions you can take, organized in a way that makes it quick and easy for you to find an action that fits your personality, available time, and interests.
You'll see that the name here is Acts of Conscience, not Acts (or Act) of Resistance. With the guidance of a diverse advisory group, I've chosen to focus on the positive, not the negative. By taking these actions, we are patriots, doing what our consciences require.
We can use your help to keep this site up to date. Please use our Submission page to send us acts of conscience you don't see here. We also need volunteers to help review and post submissions, as well as to run our Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Pam Austin
Jon Schuyler Brooks
Alan Mardinly
Darla Parsons-Barrett
Stever Robbins
Elizabeth Wilson