"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
How we approach citizenship is how we share space, handle conflict, and shape what we all live with.
To that end, nonviolence isn’t necessarily avoiding disagreement. Often, it's finding ways of changing things in ways that don’t destroy the people and systems we will still be in relationship with after.
Similarly, when I fold, I can’t force the paper without weakening it. I have to work with the constraints of the pattern and material limits.
Respect them, and my actions support a beautiful end result. Disregard them, and both the form and the pleasure fail.
You could say life comes to us “pre-folded” with our country's unique history, laws, and tensions — we don’t start with a blank sheet. As such, if citizenship is our part in the shared shape of things, nonviolence is how we change that shape without breaking it.
Today I'm practicing nonviolent citizenship by attending to the way I participate when there is disagreement in my community.
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