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How to Be an Activist
Rev. Lilli Nye
February 4, 2007

Sometimes it’s the young ones who lead the way forward, the ones whose sense of the right and the good is undimmed, who have not yet become accustomed to mediocrity and numb to the troubled ways of the world.

They look, and say, “Why is it this way? Why can’t it be different?” And with a certain innocence, they just set out to change the situation. It’s that purity of intention, that simplicity in questioning, observing, and speaking, that startles stodgier adults out of their nay-saying habits and embarrasses them enough to get their butts into gear.

This morning we will hear the stories of five teens who said, “Yes, it is absolutely possible to be true to my heart, my vision, and to the good. And I will do it.”

You might wonder, as you hear theses stories read by our teens, “Why are we telling the stories of other teenagers? What about the stories of our own youth, those here today? Haven’t our kids done things worthy of such telling?” They most certainly have, and they are. We’ve been inspired by their views in the past, and we’ll have other chances to hear about them.

However, there was a pragmatic issue at work here. Taking responsibility for creating a worship service from the bottom up is a really major endeavor. The more people who are involved and working collaboratively, the more time it takes. Having done this several times in the past few years, knowing what was involved, and knowing what their own schedules and personal goals were going to be demanding of them in their junior year of high school, the teens asked for a different role this year. They asked to support a service rather than be fully in charge.

But I wanted still to keep before the congregation the inspiration that young voices and insights can offer. And so I gathered stories of five teenagers who had really put themselves out there to do something—or to be something—that they felt was necessary, both for themselves and for others.

Several of these stories are drawn from a book called What Do You Stand For? A Kids’ Guide to Building Character. This book contains about 30 accounts of teens and preteens (some of the kids profiled are elementary students), all of whom took remarkable risks to fulfill an honorable and altruistic goal. Of the 30 accounts, some are of individuals and some are of classes or groups that worked together on a project.

While most of the stories include details of how, practically speaking, these folks accomplished what they set out to do, the focus is more on their character strengths, the qualities of heart and mind and spirit that drove their efforts.

It’s from this angle that I invite you to listen and engage with these stories.

Being an activist—that is, taking intentional action to create positive change in your society—requires a certain amount of practical know-how. We may need to learn about grassroots organizing from those with more experience. We need to understand how laws are developed and passed and changed, and how to apply our own leverage as citizens to influence that process. We need to learn how to communicate and enroll others in efforts that we believe merit their attention. These are skills we can learn and teach.

But it’s the character strengths within us—passion, the willingness to really care, the capacity to be open, resourcefulness, courage, a sense of honor and justice, self-confidence, endurance, and straight-out dogged determination—these kinds of underlying spiritual and emotional strengths will actually determine how successful we will be in what we undertake. If those inner powers begin to flag and droop, it becomes difficult to do what we know we could, and should.

So, as you listen to the stories selected for this morning, listen for these qualities of spirit. Listen and be inspired, and consider your own particular inner strengths. Consider the health of your spirit, the strength of your own pulse, and vigor of your own convictions.

William, 16, Youth Advocate
(This true story was condensed from What Do You Stand For: A Kids’ Guide to Character Building by Barbara A. Lewis. It was read by Lynn Gallogly.)

When William was in the ninth grade, he decided that the youth of his town should have a voice with the mayor and the city council. He wrote a letter to [the mayor of Riverside, California], but, she didn’t answer.

[Not long afterward, riots and violence in a neighboring city prompted him to write a second letter.] This time he expressed his concern over Riverside’s problems and the riots that had happened only 60 miles away. He included a proposal for the mayor to consider.

“I thought they should start a 15-member youth council to advise the mayor and city council on the problems facing youth, and that there should be activities available for young people. I didn’t expect to hear anything from the mayor, but she actually wrote back. She said she was starting a task force…and she wanted to get youth involved.”

Bill called some of his friends, and together they wrote and passed a petition at local grocery stores and malls, collecting names of people who agreed that a youth council would be a good idea. After 19 months of lobbying, the city council finally approved the plan. The mayor appointed William to chair the Youth Council Support Campaign Team, where he worked to improve conditions in the city.

Many kids in Riverside thought that violence was a problem, so William helped to organize a youth violence forum. Police and other law-enforcement people spoke, and a reformed criminal told how he had turned his life around.

In high school, while serving on the Riverside Juvenile Justice Commission, William visited the Twin Pines Ranch, a detention center for troubled boys in the mountains near Riverside.

“I was a little nervous,” he admits…. “But, I was there for two important purposes: to try to understand why they had committed crimes, and to make sure the place was a safe and decent facility.”

“There was one kid who was about 17 years old. I think he was there on drug charges. He told me had a wife and a child, and that he was taking parenting classes and wanted to be with them. He was completing high school there, and taking trade classes. He said he really regretted what he had done. It helped me to understand where he was coming from.”

William visited 4 juvenile detention centers during his junior and senior years of high school. “I had always cared about social issues. One place I visited had both boys and girls, and a staff person told me that about 60 percent of the kids had been sexually abused. When I hear statistics like that, and talk with kids that are in trouble, I realize the horrible things that they have come through. Instead of instantly judging them for doing stupid things, you start asking yourself, what’s happened in their lives?”

William also served as a member of the Mayor’s Alliance for Youth, volunteered in the community relations division of the city manager’s office, and was appointed one of three youth commissioners for the city of Riverside.

“It’s actually very easy to get involved in government of you’re persistent,” he says. “I believe that we all have a responsibility to take action when it’s needed. People fail to realize that the government belongs to us. You shouldn’t just sit and steam about the problems around your city. Get involved. That will determine whether our society succeeds or not.”

Nick, 13, Conservationist
(This true story was adapted from What Do You Stand For: A Kids’ Guide to Building Character by Barbara A. Lewis. It was read by Colin Swanson.)

Nick had always been thrifty. He had to be, growing up on a farm. When he needed a bike in fifth grade, he rummaged through the family “parts stockpile,” salvaging wheels from one old bike, chains from another, and brake equipment from a third, creating a new bike for himself while recycling materials that someone else had thrown out.

But his conservation efforts started for real when he was in seventh grade at the Minnesota New Country School, a year-round school. On a sweltering summer day, one of his teachers led her class on a nature hike through Ney Woods, part of a wildlife game refuge near Henderson, Minnesota.

As Nick passed under some huge oaks and maples, he noticed frogs near the trees. He dove to the ground on his belly and grabbed one. But it was weird. Nick’s frog had very thin, paralyzed legs. It was almost as if there were no muscles in them. Another girl found a frog that was missing its hind legs altogether. The frogs were easy to catch because so many of them were deformed.

Scrapping the nature hike, the class headed for Ney pond, which they would visit many times in the next few months. “I found at least 100 deformed frogs myself,” Nick remembers. What was causing the deformities? To find out, the students needed equipment for testing the soil, the water, and the creatures in the pond.

Nick hit the family parts stockpile again to make invertebrate collectors and soil collectors that would allow the class to collect water samples and scoop out mud from the bottom of the pond for testing.

The class first sought the help of scientists to test their samples. Then they went to their state legislature and lobbied for funding. Nick testified before the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources. “We feel sort of attached to these frogs,” he told them. “We want to find out how to stop these deformities.”

He and his classmates gave speeches at several hearings, compelling the lawmakers to allocate $123,000 for research on the frog problem alone, and $28,500 to involve students across the state in conservation study. The Ney Learning Center received a $100,000 grant to build a classroom at the pond site. And the kids have a proposal out for nearly half a million dollars for education and further research.

In the spring, when the snows melted and the students returned to the pond, they found deformed toads and turtles and albino birds. The problem seemed to be spreading. Then they had a breakthrough. By testing the water after a heavy rainstorm they found it was loaded with nitrates. Could nitrates from fertilizer runoff be causing the deformities?

“We don’t know yet, because you have to take a whole lot of tests and put them together before you can make a good guess,” Nick says. The problem isn’t solved yet, and it may take years to correct, but Nick doesn’t doubt that humans are the cause.

He remains a confirmed conservationist and recycler. “Trees make paper for you. The food you eat comes from an animal that gave its life for you. Don’t waste paper or food. You can pick up trash and be resourceful instead of wasting things and always buying new stuff.”

Merrick, 12, Mountaineer
(This true story was condensed from What Do You Stand For: A Kids’ Guide to Character Building by Barbara A. Lewis. It was read by Meredith Gallogly.)

Merrick sat at the feet of Vernon Tejas, a mountaineering guide, listening to his stories of slippery slopes, wind pelting snow in your face, and the tremendous rush at reaching the top of a mountain. She was nine years old, and right then she knew that she’d have to climb Mt. McKinley.

Located in Alaska, Mt. McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America, 20,320 feet high. Much of it is covered by permanent snowfields and glaciers. During the 1995 climbing season, only 43 percent of the people who tried to climb it made it to the top; six climbers died, and 22 needed to be rescued.

“At first my mom didn’t take me seriously, not until I was 11,” Merrick says. She trained by doing many hours every week of gymnastics, snowboarding, and hiking in the mountains nearby.

Merrick needed a lot of courage to keep up her heavy schedule of physical activity. But she knew that if she wasn’t physically strong, she would be a danger to the others on the climb. She and her mother hiked in nearby mountains and gradually increased the loads in their packs and sleds. Merrick weighed just 90 pounds in a wet snowsuit, but she could climb with a 55- to 65-pound load. Although Merrick’s favorite pastime is talking, she learned to entertain herself with her thoughts, and often when she was so exhausted she could hardly move, those thoughts were, “I can do it, I can do it, I’m going to do it.”

Merrick decided that when she climbed Mt. McKinley, she would also do something to help other children who weren’t as fortunate as she was. She collected pledges from neighbors and other people in her community. The higher she climbed, the more money she would raise. The money would be donated to the Anchorage Center for Families, a family wellness center and child abuse prevention agency.

On June 1, 1995, Merrick, her mother, and six other people began to fulfill the dream of climbing Mt. McKinley. “My goal wasn’t to reach the top. It was to try to reach the top.” It would take more than 20 days of grueling effort, lugging supplies, fighting wind and snowstorms, and climbing, climbing, climbing dangerous slopes and faces.

On June 23rd, the climbers formed a single-rope team for the final ascent to the summit. Merrick was second in line. She concentrated on each step, knowing that the summit ridge had a 7,000-foot drop. She thought again of the abused and disadvantaged kids back at the shelter. And as she inched her way along a 100-foot ledge that was half the width of her foot, she felt grateful for those many hours of gymnastics practice.

At 1:35 p.m., Merrick heard the lead guy give an exhilarated whoop. “We were on top of the clouds,” she remembers. “I was the first one to touch the summit, and I saw a picture I will never forget. The sun was setting, making the clouds look like pink cotton candy. I could see blue shadows of the summit against the clouds. We were all struck dumb.” She snuggled next to her mom, drank in the view and felt a great rush of accomplishment.

Merrick was 12 years, five months, and five days old when she stood at the top of Mt. McKinley, the youngest person ever. Now she has her heart set on Mt Vinson, in Antarctica….

Chris, 19, Gay Youth Activist
(This true story was drawn from The Shared Heart: Portraits and Stories Celebrating Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Young People, Adam Mastoon, editor. It was read by Caitlin Colgrove.)

The beginning of my high school experience was the worst. I attended an all-boys Catholic high school. Unbearable homophobia began again on both a personal and systematic level, even though I was still denying my sexual orientation. I was beginning to feel numb and indifferent to the prejudice surrounding me.

The more I drew into myself, the more I actually liked the person I was on the inside. The more comfortable I became with myself, the more my peers tried to break my spirit. They attempted this with both physical violence and with death threats.

It was because of these threats that I was outed to my mother…. Although it took some time, she accepted me, and this was the most awakening and freeing experience…. With this new freedom I sought help from the administration at my school. They were unresponsive and blatantly homophobic, and suggested that I act a little less gay and try sports. Ultimately they suggested that I look for another school, since they were neither prepared nor willing to deal with “my problem.” I walked out and never went back.

I began to seek out other youths in my position in order to cope. I found them at a group called BAGLY (Boston Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth). This group changed my life. I learned to accept myself and to have pride in the gay community and its history. For once, I was able to discover who I was without the pressures or prejudices of others.

I was asked to speak on behalf of the Gay and Lesbian Students Rights Bill, and suddenly I was an activist. I was speaking at rallies, schools, and the statehouse. I appeared in several books, magazines and papers, and made television appearances locally and nationally. I was drunk with the attention, but in the process lost my true purpose. Eventually I couldn’t handle politics anymore, and I dropped it all and tried to be a normal teen.

Being open about my sexual orientation has tried my inner strength and my ability to face prejudice. Coming out also gave me the opportunity to educate and support a range of people, often without trying. Support is crucial. A friend or ally can help you feel safe being who you are so you can solve some of your own problems; then you can become a support to someone else.

As much as it hurts and feels unfair, it is often necessary for me to hide who I am. It hasn’t been easy to be gay and grow up in my primarily Catholic, working-class neighborhood. Even a simple trip to the store can become dangerous. Being an activist didn’t make my situation any easier. People didn’t just think I was gay, they knew I was, and worse yet, I was an uppity fag. While this made the retribution worse, it provided me with an outlet to combat homophobia. It allowed me to face the taunts with my head held high, and hold the knowledge that I was doing something to make it easier for future generations of queer youth.

Christine, 15, Women’s Self-Defense Instructor
(This true story was drawn from What Do You Stand For: A Kids’ Guide to Character Building by Barbara A. Lewis. It was read by Julia Gallogly.)

“You have to be aware of your surroundings, watch, and keep one hand free, like when you’re coming out of a grocery store,” Christine explains. She’s addressing a group of women in the self-defense class she teaches with her friend Rita. “Self-defense means that you’re in control of your body and aware of your surroundings.”

Christine and Rita grew interested in self-defense for women when they learned that girls as young as 8 months, and women as old as 80 years, had been raped or physically abused in Taos, New Mexico. Together they founded the Taos Women’s Self-Defense Project. They were the youngest of the first 12 people to be trained as instructors; the other women involved were all between 30 and 60 years old. Christine’s mother, a psychotherapist, spearheaded the project.

First, Christine and Rita had to raise money to fly trainers to Taos from the Los Angeles Commission on Assault Against Women. The trainers spent four hours with the Taos group, then left them with books and videos to study. Christine and Rita devoted two nights a week for a year to their training.

“Each of us would learn a skill and then teach the others,” Christine says. “After being certified as instructors, we taught many classes for teens and women of all ages. We taught them awareness techniques, like watching your space and paying attention to how close you are to other people, and assertiveness skills so they could stand up for themselves. We also taught them physical techniques, like kicking, punching, and how to identify targets.”

“We worked with seventh, eighth, and ninth grade PE classes. We warned them that when you’re at a party, you have to be aware and assertive if someone hits on you. You have to use your voice effectively, make eye contact, and pay attention to your body language, stand firm and don’t slouch, look strong and sound like you mean what you say. You need to be respectful in the way you speak to other people, but you should always be alert to what’s going on. You have the right to protect yourself.”

“Often women don’t know how to assert themselves” Rita adds. “In our society, girls are trained to be polite, nice, and submissive. But we can learn how to be strong individuals and follow our instincts.”

CLOSING READING adapted from Alla Renée Bozarth

Be awake to the Life that is loving you,
And sing your prayer, laugh your prayer,
Dance your prayer, run and weep and sweat your prayer,
Sleep your prayer, eat your prayer,
Paint, sculpt, hammer, and write your prayer,
Sweep, dig, rake, drive, and hoe your prayer,
Garden and farm and build and clean your prayer,
Wash, iron, vacuum, sew, embroider, and pickle your prayer,
Compute, touch, bend, fold, but never delete or mutilate your prayer,
Learn and play your prayer,
Work and rest your prayer,
Fast and feast your prayer,
Argue, talk, whisper, listen, and shout your prayer,
Groan and moan and spit and sneeze your prayer,
Swim and hunt and cook your prayer,
Digest and become your prayer,
Release, compost, and recycle your prayer,
Breathe your prayer,
Become your prayer.