CivicDictionary™	Defining a Better World

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activist (activism) - a person who engages in public discussion and deliberation, including advocacy such as supporting environmental causes or affordable housing; participates in electoral activities such as working to elect candidates to office; and mobilizes others around community-based and/or national and global concerns. >> COMMUNITY ORGANIZER, SOCIAL CITIZEN, AGENT OF CHANGE

>> Usage <<

"Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives....You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time. As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had. You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have. And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort. You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer." -- Bill Gates, Harvard Commencement address 6.07.07.



"As Michael Moore stood on the west steps of the Capitol [in Sacramento, California] on Tuesday and led 1,000 activists in chanting "It's time for them to go" -- health insurance companies, that is -- he looked less like a Hollywood director promoting his new takedown of the health care industry and more like the frontman of a national political campaign....That's because he is both." San Francisco Chronicle 6.13.07