On June 6th, Third Actors from Virginia, Maryland and the District gathered at the old Friends Meeting house near Dupont Circle for a daylong “Mobilization for Climate and Democracy.”
It was an inspiring day, featuring remarks by local Third Act organizers; morning and afternoon small group breakout sessions; short talks by speakers Rebecca Solnit (writer, activist, Third Act Advisor) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD 8th District); and snacks, lunch, singing, and time to chat among the 70-some attendees. All this for a voluntary contribution!
“Hope is an active commitment to the future”
Rebecca Solnit kicked things off with a lovely and stirring call for hope, which, she added, is not to be confused with optimism. “For me,” she explained, “optimism is right there with pessimism and despair: they are all forms of certainty about what will happen.” Hope, on the other hand, is “an active commitment to the future, in the recognition that the future is undecided, and that another name for that radical uncertainty is possibility, for both wonderful and terrible outcomes.” 
Third Actors have grounds to be hopeful, she said, because we have the “superpower” of “historical memory.” We have lived through the 1960s victories of the Civil Rights movement and the revolutions it inspired, from the 1970s on, among women, Native Americans, queer people, and people with disabilities. “We have good things in the present because people in the past worked to make them true and real,” Solnit said, “and we inhabit a future they could not in many ways imagine – a future more wonderful, terrible, and strange than anyone predicted.
We must now work in the present for a future we may not see, cannot imagine, knowing that it matters; that as we bless the heroes of 1974 so perhaps the people of 2074 will bless the heroes of 2024. I invite you to be one of them.”
The morning breakout sessions included “Summer of Heat Action Plan” led by Lisa Finn and Jim Lardner, where past and future DC actions were discussed. Other offerings were “Who You Callin’ Radical?” led by Lawrence MacDonald, “Storytelling for Effective Climate Conversations” by Rob Wald, and “Where is the Hope?” by Uta Allers. I attended Lisa and Jim’s session and appreciated the frank discussion about our Columbia Heights bank action earlier this year.
In the afternoon, the choices were “Election Plans: What’s the Best Use of My Time?” led by Jim Lardner; “Communicating Across the Political Divide” by Luke Nathan Philips of Braver Angels; and “Overcoming the Fear of the Ask” by Fred Solowey. I attended Fred’s session. He was fantastic! He talked about how to interact with people when you want them to give you something, drawing on his long experience in the labor movement. Then he had us role play, two at a time in front of our small group, with one person asking and the other reacting to the ask. Following the interaction, the group shared observations on what had transpired. It was an interesting and instructive exercise.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
In his afternoon talk, Jamie Raskin inspired us with quotations from Frederick Douglass (“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”) and Thomas Paine (“The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”) He talked about the value of collaborative work between old and young, describing the young-volunteer program he helped create (Democracy Summer), and encouraged us to continue taking action to help achieve a landslide in this year’s elections.
What struck me most was his optimism that democratic voices will prevail in the upcoming elections. It is so easy to feel discouraged when following the news. Rep. Raskin’s knowledge of the Constitution was impressive, and he clearly works for, and believes in, democracy. I knew that but seeing him and hearing him in person was great!
In between sessions, I talked to the people sitting around me, none of whom I knew. This was a rewarding experience, a chance to learn new things and share perspectives with people my own age.
Also, gotta love the singing! Thanks to Jesse Palidofsky for providing us these breaks and leading us in new and old songs.
I am looking forward to future involvement with Third Act DC.
–Report by Rebecca Mazur
–Photos by Rick Reinhard