Change is the twinkle in the eye of history.

[pinto]

Change has become a big talking point in the Democratic campaigns, as it rightly should.

I work in HIV and Hep C prevention programs. We view change as part of a broader objective. The role of Public Health is to improve the well being of the community as a whole. While we mainly work with individuals, our first client is really the community, so our focus is on change in a bigger social context.

Truth be told, our job is to encourage individuals to help meet a big picture goal. Keeping that in mind, here’s my take on change and how it may relate to a similar political process.

Change is incremental. For most people, it’s two steps forward, one step back. Repeat as necessary. Some have that “Aha! moment”, but generally it’s a process:

1st unconsidered; 2nd considered; 3rd possible; 4th probable; 5th accomplished; 6th maintained.

Change isn’t always linear or permanent. Individuals, and communities, sometimes cycle through the process.

Change is rooted in social networks first. Professional, political and legal systems follow.

Change isn’t always easy. It involves realistic compromises between the end goals and the ways to get there.

Take infections from sharing injection equipment, for instance.

While the *ideal* may be that all injectors stop using, Public Health realizes that some people may not want to quit, some may not be able to today, right now, yet some can and will.

Keeping in mind the big picture goal of limiting blood borne infections, though, we know that many along that spectrum will be willing to use safe shooting practices. Thus, we support needle exchange programs.

Say we meet with 100 folks. 30 will likely walk away. 20 may “think about it”. And 50 of them will make some kind of change. We accept that, no strings attached.

And the success is that those 50 – 70 people lay the groundwork for change in the broader community. Each in their own way, each to the point they can accomplish.

Do those numbers sound familiar?

Put it in political terms. Out of 100 people, we may never motivate those hard core 30 right wingers to see our point of view. There may be another 20 on the fence. Yet 50 will respond to our agenda and help lay the foundation for change. Each in their own way, each to the point they can accomplish.

I think the process has been reflected in most of the major political changes we’ve seen in America over the years.

From our original founding as a country, through the abolishment of slavery, legalization of womens’ suffrage to the codification of civil rights – all were once unthinkable, then considered. They became possible, eventually probable and were finally accomplished.

Change is the twinkle in the eye of history.

When our grandchildren look back and wonder – “what the hell was the big deal about?” – we’ll all be able to grin and know we have done them, and history, well. :thumbsup:

pinto

[maddezmom]

1. great post, pinto

gives me hope not only about your program but the world at large. :hug:

[Warpy]

2. Change is incremental only in hindsight

The change brought by the Great Depression seemed instantaneous to a lot of the people who lived through it. "The money all disappeared overnight," is the most frequent description of the days after Black Friday.

To an historian, however, the change had been happening for a couple of decades as wealth concentrated into fewer hands, real estate and farm values fell, and people were offered easy credit as a way to buy into the sure thing of a rapidly inflating stock market. Their wages sure weren't going anywhere and their net worth in their real property was evaporating, so they fell for it.

The disaster this time is likely to be perceived as a sudden one, although a quick read of the economics board on DU will tell you plenty of us know what's coming and why.

[pinto]

9. Yeah it's interesting how things are perceived differently.

[varkam]

3. A K&R from me.

Whenever we have political setbacks, I always tend to get pissed off and start screaming things I'd rather not repeat here at the television or the computer screen. I will keep what you have to say in mind, though, about change and how it can be a drawn out process. Perhaps, at those times, I'll just remind myself that although the battle may be lost the war wages on.

[rasputin1952]

4. There is a commercial that starts by showing a woman saving a

pizza guy from being run over; then the commercial goes back to the beginning of the cycle. One person does something nice for another, a third notices it and "pays it forward" by doing something nice for another down the road. This cycle, of people performing acts of kindness, is seen by a third, and each time, it goes forward, until, finally, the woman is at a stoplight and pulls the delivery guy back from an onrushing car.

Small steps, each not connected, yet undeniably connected. In each instance, the simple act of looking out for another human being is picked up and transferred to another. And with each step taken, a small part of the world is made just a little better.

Change...from people in a city doing small bits to enact a change, to the world stage and everything in between. The only time change falters, is when we refuse to act, regardless of the consequences.

[pinto]

8. I like that commercial a lot. Have no idea what it's for, but the story line sticks.

[rasputin1952]

10. I went through the same thing as I wrote out the post...

I was thinking, "such a good commercial, but what were they 'selling'?"

It is rare that something like that happens, when the message shown outweighs product pitched, but it shows the power some things have in the visual/emotional mode. They hit all of the right buttons...and it is very difficult not to be moved by the humanitarian message being seen...:)

[Lisa]

12. I'm trying to remember -- was it insurance or financial services?

That aspect sticks in my memory, but I can't recall the actual company!

I have better luck recalling the American Red Cross ad that followed a similar story -- Red Cross worker comforting someone in a hospital, then that person herself becomes a Red Cross worker and helps someone else .... the story ends with the original Red Cross worker in turn being comforted as she stands outside the ruins of her house, which has been destroyed in a disaster. As you say, it was a powerful message, about humanitarian aid and how it supports our society.

[Puglover]

5. That is some

great perspective Pinto. Thanks!

[proud patriot]

6. wonderful post Pinto

[mcscajun]

7. Excellent post, Pinto!

:applause:

[Lisa]

11. “what the hell was the big deal about?” -- well put!

When a society goes from sanctioning (and encouraging) slavery, to a situation where college students do not know the meanings of terms like mulatto/quadroon/octaroon -- that were once literally life-or-death matters but are vanishing from memory ... one feels that change really can happen.

And as you say, changes lay the groundwork for things to come. I read "Bury the Chains", and the book pointed out that the techniques pioneered by abolitionists in the early 1800s (even lapel buttons, leafletting, celebrity endorsements, and ethical marketing) were used by other movements, and are still prominent today.

Going from "ridiculous" to "duh!" can take awhile ... but sometimes it happens faster than we'd believed possible. Within a human lifetime, for example.

[benld74]

13. Change is what is needed, if what you have is full of SH*T