Last week, a new book, How Seniors are Saving the World: Retirement to the Rescue, was published, with a chapter in it about me. In this time of uncertainty and fear, I hope the stories in this book can help provide inspiration as well as concrete examples of how a person can help work toward peace, justice and equity.
Ever since college when civil rights and the Vietnam War were raging, I have been a social justice activist. I have volunteered on a range of issues, from reducing the risk of nuclear war to economic inequality. For 15 years I devoted myself to criminal justice reform. Our prisons currently hold 2.3 million people, far more than any other nation on earth, and those imprisoned are disproportionately black and brown. In 2005, I created UU Mass Action, a statewide Unitarian Universalist social justice network, and was President for ten years; it’s still going strong. As well as co-chairing Social Action at my UU church, I have also taught art in prison for 19 years, linking my art and social justice work.
This book has 24 chapters, each about a different person. These people have found meaning in life, and in retirement, by working for the greater good in a wide variety of ways. The chapter about my friend Peggy Ellertsen, for instance, spotlights her work to educate the public about the isolating effects of hearing loss. A link to the book is here.
