What Stops You from Acting?

You can imagine how amped up I was when I noticed that the

100 Visionary widget jumped $40 this weekend. While I was amped

up about it this summer, my essays have taken over as my 

dominant focus in the last few weeks or so. I admit that this is largely

connected to the fact that  three weeks ago, I accepted that many folks

would rather just talk  about "the problem" than take action.

Which brings me to the question.

What stops you from acting?

Is it time, not knowing what do to or where to go?

For me, it is a fear of whether people will show up. 

Now this is odd, especially since I blog about a pretty

niche topic, Hip Hop, Feminism, Sexuality and Politics,

yet I have a healthy and consistent readership.

People like you show up every day to read, so part of 

me had to check myself, as that was clearly evidence

that people do show up. However, reading is not the same

as coming together the purposes of addressing an issue.

On the other hand, I believe the people want to do good. I am not

saying that I don't think they don't have a darkside, because they do.

I just also know that they want to do good as well.

I have an old friend that would always say that my naivete would get me

in trouble one day. As I have gotten older, I have learned that many

folks are out for self and that it is prudent for me to allow

their actions to confirm who they are instead of just granting

everyone the benefit of the doubt on gp.

Since deciding to do 100 V I was finding that every time I encountered

a person, I wonder are they really real or are they just talking that yack.

For instance, when thinking about the reflection retreats I mentioned to Filthy

that I should try and form like Voltron with the other bloggers and he was like,

"it is important that you keep in mind that many Bloggers, may just be that,

bloggers, they just want to talk. Just because they blog, they may not be

interested in taking action."

He didn't mean no disrespect, he was just trying to get me to recognize real.

Which brings me to the widget. 

Baldwin says to act is to commit and to commit is to be in danger.

I add on that to commit is to commit to personal transformation

and that is what stops folks from acting. To commit to transform is 

bugged out ish, because by its very nature you are stepping out on faith.

In the past three weeks I have been reading essays and books about 

Black Women Organizers, Street Harassment, The History of Black Feminism, 

Wage Suppression, German Social Theory.

The difficult part is taking what I read, sharing it, and figuring out

how to use it to address some of the ish that we face every day.

Its hard, because the whole time, in my head, "They ain't gonna show up,

folks just wanna complain, blar, blar, blar".

Then I have moments like the other day when I am in Au Bon Pain,

a fancy Starbucks like coffee and sandwich chain, and the 

Black lady operating the cash register is saying "This company don't care about

me, they don't pay me even a tiny fraction of what I make for them all day"

and I think to myself, wow, did she just do the knowledge to "surplus value"

and man I wish I had a flyer for these Hip Hop and Feminism study groups,

I would give one to her.

It was at that moment that regardless of the doubts that I had, that little moments

would come along and push me towards acting, whether I would accept them

as they nudge they were or not was up to me.

What stops you from acting when you see something taking place

that you know is wrong? 

What have you told yourself, in order to walk away from a problem?

What stops you from taking the step from talking to action?