We are, each one of us, worlds unto ourselves. We feel strongly about the beliefs we hold precious. This is human nature. Yet sometimes we have to come to terms with what others believe. We have to engage. We have to partner. We have to collaborate. We have to, in the end, negotiate, in order to achieve a space in this world in which we can exist together. Harder said than done. An activist is nothing more than a publicly active person attempting to bring some public issue to light in the hope of finding a solution. We all either witness, perhaps experience, or perhaps read about injustices in our communities. Most of us, and for the most part this was me for most of my life, don’t know where to begin, or don’t even feel as if our voice matters, so we do little to nothing. The truth is, every single voice matters, and if we join our voices we could change the way things are in our own backyard. Activists, or active people, help us do this. When we don’t get started, when we don’t know where to start, when we don’t have the courage to start, we lean on those who get things started. Usually, it is an “activist.”

Throughout history, we have needed the activist.

I was trying to make a distinction between bad and good advocacy by attaching several criteria to what makes good advocacy work. In doing so, I wrongly called bad advocacy activism. This is where my word choices could have been better. However, I still believe that to be a good advocate, or a good activist (whichever you prefer), one has to be willing to be as open about the work as we would like our public officials and public institutions to be, and be willing to negotiate for the greater good in such a way that it creates a foundation for long-term sustainable change and solutions that create opportunities for everyone to engage and benefit.

You bring up some excellent points about the difference between what is good and bad activism. I would add to this discussion the following: in a society that demands instant gratification, bad activism provides the illusion of action when in fact more work necessarily comes out of the spontaneous reactions brought about by bad activism.

When I was in college, student activism was rife with ‘bad activism’ simply because of the nature of the population - we were captive audiences with a short shelf life (4-6 years in most cases). In college, in order to get an issue addressed, students feel they have to take radical steps to have their needs met immediately, or else thet feel it was not worthwhile to become active. I observed this type of activism all the time at my university, and for the most part, i was disenchanted.

Now, through working with a couple of different organizations throughout the city and observing how systems and people do business in a community, I feel that I can take part in educated, well-informed, activism, which is very different from the bad activism which you seek to describe. ‘Good’ activism takes a lot of work, dedication, and cooperation. This type of activism does not necessarily produce immediate results, but for those who are dedicated to this community, the long-term benefits are boundless.

I challenge those who seek to make a positive impact in our community to take up the mantle of good, informed, hard-working activism. I applaud those who are interested in making New Orleans a better city by taking up the causes of those less fortunate or disenfranchised. It would be a tremendous disservice to these people to provide them with false hopes and illusions of immediate change when a protracted, careful plan is in order.