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Moonbats unite in despair
Eva Kataja remembers the day more than two decades ago when she told a friend of her desire to become more active in liberal causes — to "take responsibility" and help make the world a better place. The friend, a longtime activist, leveled with her. Don't do it, he advised. You'll lose friends. You'll become isolated. People will see you as a downer. You'll regret it.Kataja was taken aback but vowed that she would never become burned out and embittered. Fast-forward two decades through countless meetings, protests, projects, petitions, phone banks, wars, elections and Sept. 11. Now Kataja, a marriage and family therapist in West Los Angeles, says: "As the years have gone by and I've gotten in deeper, I'm beginning to experience what my friend talked about. I feel discounted and marginalized a lot of the time." Championing a particular cause or course of action often can be a lonely crusade, but these are particularly tough times for liberal activists. Red-state dominance in the last election, the war in Iraq, changes in environmental policy and the possibility of a more conservative Supreme Court have left many local activists feeling as blue as the state they live in. What they need, one longtime activist recently decided, is some therapy — a good old-fashioned support group tailored for the liberal activist in need of emotional rejuvenation. In February, the Activists' Support Circle was born. The group is the brainchild of L.A. peacenik Jerry Rubin, who said he saw his friends and colleagues hit an emotional low after the tensely fought fall presidential election. To his knowledge, he says, it's the first self-help support group in the country for activists. "Some people were talking about leaving the cause," says Rubin, who runs the Alliance for Survival, a grass-roots peace and environmental organization in Los Angeles. "But we need a healthy progressive movement. We need to share our frustrations in a safe environment and be there for each other." So far, the Activists' Support Circle has drawn about 40 people to its first few monthly meetings at the Friends Meeting Hall in Santa Monica. The meetings are informal; you won't find any 12-step program for the weary activist. But the support group functions, in many ways, like any group therapy. Participants talk, listen, cry, hug and complain. "There are so many activists who express just abject despair about what's going on in the world and in the country," says Kataja, who acted as a facilitator at a recent meeting. "It's a kind of paralyzing despair that makes it hard to get up in the morning and do the normal things in life, not just the activists' work." For some, the emotional pain related to their work is deep and long-standing. There is still bitter talk of the "stolen election" of 2000. The war in Iraq is a sore spot, as is their perception that America's international reputation has been damaged. The gathering is not aimed at work goals, however, but at the feelings generated by their work.
Posted by: Steve 2005-04-25 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=62251 |