“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples to build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” ― Robert F. Kennedy

It is election season. Active Leaguers are registering voters, staffing candidate forums, talking to friends and neighbors about the value of informed voting, learning about the issues that affect their lives, thinking about how they would like to see them addressed, and seeing where candidates stand on those issues.

The challenges that face our world can seem overwhelming. The momentum built into our political system makes course changes grindingly difficult. It is easy to feel powerless. But while I don’t think that I will be the butterfly who changes history, I still believe that what individuals do for their communities does matter.

This summer I had the good fortune to meet Candy Peterson while on Isle Royale. Living for months of the year on an island, she and husband Rolf Peterson, the lead researcher in the moose/wolf study of the interrelationship between prey and predator on Isle Royale, welcome thousands of visitors each year.

They are gracious and friendly hosts to any and all visitors who are interested in learning about this long-term work and in return take a warm interest in all of their visitors. After friendly preliminaries, Candy inquired, “What do you do?”  Noting the probable ages of her guests, this was promptly followed by, “And don’t tell me you are retired. What do you do now to stay engaged with your community?” She wanted to know where we volunteered and invested our energies and was keenly attuned to how these choices reflected values.

She is so right. It matters very much that we all use our talents and spend all of our years engaged and productive as we are able. League is a great place to start. Let’s make many ripples on affordable housing, inclusion, fair wages, voter participation, environmental protection, educational equity, safe communities, food insecurity, and other areas of League positions and interest. Where do your interest and concerns lie? What is your expertise? What gives you satisfaction?  You will find an opportunity there. What we do and how we think about the world and our place in it matter.

Let today’s highly engaged youth be your inspiration, your source of courage. How you engage may change from year to year, but, as life and health allow, share the bounty of you.

“The mainspring of this movement is not selfishness, but a love of justice and a desire to serve.” – Clara Ueland, first President of LWVMN