Activism Log #3

Rachel Collins
Jeannina Perez
WST3015
12 April 2010

Activism: Last wednesday, I met with Nina to figure out what we're going to put into the pamphlet that we're going to hand out while we're out getting signatures on the petition. I'm glad that things are actually moving now, and even though getting signatures is still slow, I'm getting more excited and hopeful about the project. We decided that we're going to put some biographical information about Alice Paul, and each of us came up with ten points that we think are important about her. We are also going to include information about the facebook group (which now has 772 members!), contact info for the womens studies department, and a small works cited to say where we got our information from. All of the letters are pretty much sent now, but I have yet to get a response from anyone. So far, our petition has 183 signatures.

Reflection: Like I said, I’m a little frustrated by how slow the going is sometimes. I’m also frustrated by how many people cite the existence of Mother’s Day as the reason that we don’t need this. We’re not trying to replace Mother’s Day, and what would be wrong with have two holidays that relate to women anyway? Working in a group is always somewhat of a challenge for me, because I tend to want to just do everything myself. I’ve really been trying not to step on anyone’s toes or second guess anyone though. I’m glad that things are moving a little faster, and I’m encouraged by the amount of support that I’ve gotten from people that I’ve talked to about it. It’s neat to watch signatures come into the petition from people that I don’t even know, and to realize that something we created has reached out to people that we’ve never even met.

Reciprocity: I don’t think that the success of this project is the thing that’s going to teach me something. I read ahead to the activism chapter in WLMP and a phrase that encouraged me in that section was that “action always accomplishes something, and in this sense it always works” (586). I’ve found this to be true because even if the main goal of our project fails, we still started something and made people think about what their own opinions are with regard to the issue.