In 2002, a friend of mine gave me a report entitled, "Uniting America" by The American Assembly (founded in 1950 by Dwight Eisenhower when he was president of Columbia University). The ultimate recommendation called for a "National Dialogue" at the citizen level. They described the need for a multi-partisan, dialogue-that-leads-to-action event format that would address every social or political challenge we have!
It was the most inspiring thing I had read since Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I thought to myself, "I would love to live in a society that had a National Dialogue!"
A few years later, in 2006, while watching The Academy Awards, many actors and directors whose films had social and political story lines, were asked why they chose to make such a socio-political film . And, they all seemed to answer that they "hoped that the film would ask questions that would become a part of the National Dialogue." And, there it was again - those two words: National Dialogue. A few days later, I heard an interview between actors George Clooney and Matt Damon about being in the film Syriana, expressing that they hoped that people would go "have a drink or cup of coffee" after the movie to talk about the issue raised in the film. And I realized that I wanted to do that! I wanted to talk about the issue in a social setting... but quickly realized I had no where to go - I felt that such a place did not really exist.
So, I began talking about how I felt with people I knew and met. And, some people felt the same way - we wanted to talk about and take action on social and political issues more than we were. We also felt overwhelmed by how much information is available, and wanted to go to an event where we could express our opinions and ideas, and hopefully, take action with other like-minded people! And, lastly, we didn't want everything to be on-line, but also with some good old fashioned eye contact and face to face events.
As we talked, we realized that the most significant thing that we needed help with was connecting the dots (that's why we have three dots in the AND... ACTION! name and logo) between: accessing information, voicing opinions and taking action. We found that these three activities were most often disconnected from one another in time, and if they were more connected in a single event format and process we would speak up and take action more often!
This became the basis for Actionshops and AND... ACTION!'s mission of facilitating and empowering people to connect the dots between their freedom of expression rights of : accessing information, voicing opinions, and taking action.
To date, we have written senators, watched documentary films and news clips, read news articles, blogged, reduced our carbon foot-print, joined existing advocacy and non-profit groups and their action campaigns, and we made new friends! Click here for more information on past Actionshops.
Today, I believe there is more of a need and desire than ever to have a social, non-partisan, practice of being an engaged citizen in a democracy day in and day out, not just in times of crises, tragedies or election cycles. I believe such a cultural practice is at the heart of the intention of democracies - and that to date, democracies have focused on building governments, institutions, economies, laws and regulations, and not so much the means and processes by which a citizen is a true and fully expressed citizen.
Remember: Me and "We," (We The People) is all we'll ever be, and all I'll ever be.
Sincerely yours, Véronique C. Marchal
Founder
VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO::
Amary, TK, Wynne, Firth, Joanna, and Victoria - our first Actionshop hosts and information researchers.
Bob Peterson, Creative Director, Musical Director and Animator of our homepage actiontoon.
