My first protest was in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama. My mom and I were sent into a Woolworth’s. We were two white people that were supposed to act totally normal when a Black couple walked in to integrate the lunch counter.

The waitress knew that a Black couple would show up but she didn’t know about us, that we were purposefully there to witness the event while acting normal. She was very scared and so nervous that she forgot to put the coffee cup inside the plastic cup holder and poured my Mom’s coffee into the empty holder. It went all over the counter and my mother. It was very funny.

I was 15 and knew what I was doing. I would have been even more involved with the protests if my Mom had let me.

Later I became involved in electoral politics and in between I was very active in the Viet Nam era. I was in college, still in Birmingham. There weren’t very many of us protesting.

I made sure our signs were about bringing our boys home, not about baby killers, in order not to offend people in that community. I found out a bit later that the FBI bugged my apartment and tapped my phone. And I had a friend who moved to Canada when the FBI threatened him after hearing a conversation we had.

Now, after we just lost this election, there aren’t a lot of tools left to try and impact the world. So you do what you can. You make donations and contributions to Wisconsin and Florida, and yeah your social media, but we can still protest.

Will we change anything? We can drive Tesla out of business. But it’s also a way to lift people’s spirits. We can’t be doormats. We have to take a deep breath and get back out there. It’s a way to say we’re still here and we’re still fighting.

OUR THIRD ACT: A COLLABORATIVE PHOTO PROJECT

Third Act MA is partnering with documentary photographer Edward Boches to capture and record the voices, wisdom and experiences of Americans over 60 who are actively working to safeguard democracy.

With portraits and text, the project hopes to preserve a record of democracy in action and to inspire others to get involved. If you would like to be part of the project, please contact Third Act MA at massachusetts@thirdact.org or Edward Boches at bochesphotography@gmail.com.

All interviews and photography © Edward Boches.

I’ve been following politics for years, but I haven’t gone to many protests until recently. I was at the Women’s March in 2017, a Tesla protest last week, and now I’m here at Hands Off.

Climate is my main issue, and I have been worried about it for a long time. I’m deeply concerned for my grandchildren. Before I started actively doing something about it, I had trouble sleeping.

After I heard an interview with Bill McKibben, read some of his articles, and learned about Third Act, I recognized that joining this group would be a way for me to get involved.

Since 2023, I’ve been writing to legislators and to newspaper editors, and a good number of my letters have been published. I work on finance issues, which surprises me because that’s not my background!

I’m part of a group working to get a fossil-fuel-free, low-cost 529 college savings option for Massachusetts, and I educate people about aligning their finances with their climate values.

I feel strongly that as older people, with more resources and experience, it’s our responsibility to do something to solve the climate crisis.

One person alone can’t solve a problem as challenging as climate, but one person doing even something small can inspire others to get involved, and together we can make progress.

The actions of the Trump administration to destroy our democracy are also devastating to our climate progress and we must call them out and resist them with everything we’ve got.

OUR THIRD ACT: A COLLABORATIVE PHOTO PROJECT

Third Act MA is partnering with documentary photographer Edward Boches to capture and record the voices, wisdom and experiences of Americans over 60 who are actively working to safeguard democracy.

With portraits and text, the project hopes to preserve a record of democracy in action and to inspire others to get involved. If you would like to be part of the project, please contact Third Act MA at massachusetts@thirdact.org or Edward Boches at bochesphotography@gmail.com.

All interviews and photography © Edward Boches.

My father was a kind of a closet Marxist. He was very interested in politics and he read voraciously. He was never an activist. In fact, he was worried when I became an activist. But he did imbue in me an awareness of what can happen in capitalist countries. I went to the High School of Music and Art in New York City and that was a very politically active space. I joined May Day rallies and I attended performances by Paul Robeson, the singer and civil rights activist, remaining active through my high school and college years.

Later, I became a teacher. In my very first year of teaching, my cousin Al Shanker, the labor organizer, led a massive strike of public school teachers. And so I went out on strike, a little dangerous to do in my very first year of teaching.

For much of the Vietnam war years I was living in Chicago. My husband and I had a new baby, but when we moved to Boston I remember joining protests at Brandeis and marching with my baby through the streets of Boston.

Now I am involved with Third Act at Carleton-Willard Village. I never imagined it would be a hotbed of political activity. But Third Act has taken hold here and now that we have a second Trump administration many residents are drawn to activism.

We hold a meeting once a month. I’m connected with a lot of outside groups, such as Mothers Out Front and the Unitarian Chuch’s Environmental Justice Committee. So I stay in touch with what’s happening and share it with the community here so we know what legislation is pending and what actions we can take. We close every meeting with a letter to either a candidate or current legislator.

Right now we’re facing a catastrophe. What’s going on is like a five alarm fire. So I and many others feel as if we have to do something. It’s important that we keep our sense of agency. It’s also important to have an in-person community, people to bond with in a sense of purpose. It’s brought me new friends that I feel a deep connection to.

We all have small day to day problems. But these larger issues, climate and democracy, and the movements to address them, will shape our lives and our children’s lives. They’re worthy of our attention

OUR THIRD ACT: A COLLABORATIVE PHOTO PROJECT

Third Act MA is partnering with documentary photographer Edward Boches to capture and record the voices, wisdom and experiences of Americans over 60 who are actively working to safeguard democracy.

With portraits and text, the project hopes to preserve a record of democracy in action and to inspire others to get involved. If you would like to be part of the project, please contact Third Act MA at massachusetts@thirdact.org or Edward Boches at bochesphotography@gmail.com.

All interviews and photography © Edward Boches.

Check out this story from the local paper: Bedford ‘Hands Off!’ Rally Attracts 1,000 People (Bedford Citizen, April 8, 2025)

And here are reflections from Third Act MA activist Marjorie Roemer, who co-organized the Bedford rally:

I thought that people my age (86) would not want to go into Boston for the big rally, especially those with canes or walkers. So, I decided to plan a smaller rally here in Bedford. Rick Johnson and I have done many smaller rallies focused on the climate, protesting the Bank of America’s investments in fossil fuel, and opposing the expansion of Hanscom here in Bedford for private jet travel. These rallies have generally been for 50 to 100 people.

Of course, a necessary part of our demonstration was Peggy McKibben, Bill’s Mom, who is a resident in our retirement community, and faithfully and enthusiastically attends our protests. It is great to have the McKibben spirit with us as we wave our signs and make some noise. The non-stop honking in our support from a steady stream of passing cars showed how many people share our views and appreciate what we are doing.

April 11 – Keep it Up!

March 31 – Spring into Action in April

March 22 – Let’s Keep Showing Up!

March 17 – Important Programs and Save the Dates – INFO ON APRIL 5th PROTEST

March – We Are In This Together – Democracy and Climate Actions for this Week

February – Much To Be Done – Democracy and Climate

late January – Reminder and Action Items

late January Announcement – Join us for our All-In Call with Four Inspiring Hopeful Guests

January Newsletter – Welcome Back – Time to Get to Work

December Newsletter — Act Locally 

November 21st Newsletter — Call your Rep re HR9594

November 1st Newsletter — Pre-Election Update

mid-October Newsletter – Third Act Massachusetts

October Newsletter – Third Act Massachusetts

September Newsletter – Third Act Massachusetts

August Newsletter, Third Act Massachusetts

July Newsletter Third Act Massachusetts

June Newsletter Third Act Massachusetts

We pulled up to the last house on our list a little before 7:00 pm on Sunday, June 9. Meg Clough, Betty Southwick, and I had been canvassing door-to-door for much of the day in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. We had missed this house on our way into the neighborhood where we had just talked to a number of people. It was getting late, we were all tired, and we had gotten back into the car ready to head to our temporary home. But there it was. After a short discussion, I agreed to take this one by myself and rang the doorbell, holding my Susan Wild for Congress literature in my hand. A man in his thirties opened the door and said that they were in the middle of putting their children to bed, but he told me to go ahead and briefly tell him why I was there. We discussed the Wild campaign and the equally important campaign for state representative, and I began to remind him about Bob Casey for Senate when he interrupted me to say, “So you mean, Vote Blue. You got it.”  I smiled, said, “Yes,” and handed him the Wild flyer, wishing him a good night. I walked back to the car with a slight bounce in my step—an energizing note on which to end our weekend canvassing trip.

The three of us were compelled to go to Pennsylvania because of the urgency of this election—a choice between democracy and autocracy—and we wanted to have an impact in a swing state. Susan Wild’s seat had been strategically chosen because it is rated as one of the most endangered Democratic seats in the country. By working in this district, we could have an impact up and down the ballot, from the state house to both branches of Congress and, of course, on the presidential election. As the voter to whom I spoke so succinctly put it, we were encouraging Pennsylvanians to embrace the importance of voting blue at every level, each one of which will play its unique role in safeguarding our democracy.

On Friday night, we met with Susan Wild’s unflappable and energetic young campaign manager, Molly, who explained that we would be engaged in what some have called “deep canvassing” with registered Democrats who had been identified as low-propensity voters. In short, it meant beginning a conversation with questions designed to elicit voters’ responses about issues that are meaningful to them. A simple idea, yet it effectively sets a non-threatening tone for these interactions.

On Saturday, Meg and I were paired together to canvas. The first voter on our list was a woman in her sixties sitting next to her husband in a lawn chair by their backyard swimming pool. Practicing our best deep canvassing, we initiated the conversation by asking what her concerns were. She talked about Medicare reimbursement and the lack of recycling in the district—something we became very aware of during our stay. Though she did not fully commit to voting in November, hopefully, as the election nears, she will remember the time Meg and I spent talking with her over her backyard fence about issues that mattered to her.

Later in the afternoon, Meg and I went to the home of two voters on our list, a fifty-year-old woman and her eighteen-year-old daughter. The husband/father came to the door and called to his wife, who came outside to speak with us. Her daughter, she said, was busy in the kitchen. After spending five or so minutes talking to us on their length-of-the-house front porch looking out over the fields, she called to her daughter. The younger woman very proudly told us that she had voted for the first time in the primary in April. We asked her what issues were important to her, and, without hesitation, she identified reproductive rights. After a bit more conversation, she agreed to work as a volunteer for the Wild campaign. Meg and I left feeling giddy about this interaction, and, perhaps, we played a small role in altering the trajectory of this young woman’s life toward becoming more involved with politics.

The lengthiest conversation I had was with a man in his mid-thirties who was sitting on the floor in his garage working on some kind of machine. He got up and told me about the positive experience he had had with Congresswoman Wild’s office after he had been laid off from his job a few years earlier, when his company closed his union workplace and he and other former union employees were denied jobs for openings at a non-union site a short distance away. Our conversation went all over the place from the state of the country to Trump’s recent convictions. This discussion was a reminder to me that it’s people like him who stand to lose a lot from a potential second Trump administration, geared to servicing the wealthiest among us. For him, I think it mattered that someone had cared enough to talk to him about his life. Making these person-to-person connections is critical to building our democracy movement.

It is, of course, difficult to measure the precise impact of the canvassing we did. Most everyone we spoke to was extremely appreciative. I have to believe that some of the goodwill that we engendered was due to the fact that we were older people engaged in this work, validating the Third Act premise that we seniors have a crucial role to play in this election. I came to see the work as lighting little sparks. We don’t know which ones will catch fire, but I have no doubt that some will. Wildfires is perhaps not the best metaphor for those of us concerned about climate change, but maybe we can all get behind the notion of lighting fires for democracy, the only way we’re going to have any realistic chance of mitigating the extent and frequency of those other types of wildfires.