On Thu, 23 Feb 1995, gretchen hughes wrote:
> Also, I would like to pose this question for response. Do
> the personal and the political intermingle in your own lives, and how or
> how not. Rather than philisophical answers, I would love to hear some of
> your own experiences from either side of the spectrum.
>
for me, "the personal is political" is a phrase which resounds with
meaning daily. without praxis, politics is meaningless.
i find fault with academics who theorize about various issues of
concern to racial and ethnic minorities (for example), without
incorporating these ideas into action. i am an academic, and i plan to
go to grad school nexts year. however, i am a women's studies major with
an african studies minor, and i am writing my honors thesis on
ecofeminist literary theory. therefore, political issues and ways in
which to make social change are part of my everyday study. similarly, i
am employed part-time as a student liaison to Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual
Concerns, another "political" action.
in terms of my commitment to environmental issues and animal rights, i am
a vegan. similarly, i try to consider the global cost of each product i
purchase, including labor, consumer boycotts, environmental impacts of buying
nonrecyclable products, etc.
most importantly, i make activism part of my everyday life. as an
upper-class person living in the u.s., i find that i have a great deal of
personal responsibility to use my privilege (though not to exploit it) to
make social justice a reality. i think that whether or not we define it
as "political," every action IS political and has an impact which is felt by
other animals (human and non-human), as well as by "nature." therefore, i
try to minimize my negative impacts, which maximizing my ability to
actualize my anti-racist, lesbian-feminist, socialist, anarchist, animal
rights ideologies.
and that's my bio and schpeal for the day! :)
-amanda
