One person briefly described how frustrating it can get to try to motivate people who are more interested in their entertainment options than the future of their country. Another one echoed the sentiments. Another and then another. What started out as democracy revival program was soon becoming an apparent support group for activists.

I feel their pain.

Look, I don't know if it has always been like this - whether there were people in the '60s dropping out without tuning in, whether there were people completely oblivious to suffragette moment at the turn of the century or whether there were American colonists who had no opinion on the subject of independence. I do know that there are a good number of people who would consider themselves good citizens and informed people who do not participate in their democracy. They do not vote. They do not call/write/e-mail their elected officials. They do not feel their voice has any weight or significance.

I'm not going to speculate on the reasons for the levels of disenfranchisement - countless individuals much smarter than me having been trying to pinpoint and remedy that growing phenomenon. All I'm saying is that these are the people who drive by the town greens oblivious to the activists holding signs. These are the people unaware of the policy dramas playing out at the national, state and local levels. These are the people whose attention we as activists and advocates faithfully attempt to attract.

It gets a little exhausting at times.

Don't get me wrong. No one is complaining and no one's determination is flagging. These activists at our democracy forum will still be there to turnout for events, to engage their elected officials and to do their part to hold power accountable. In a moment of honesty, they just had to put out there that they were getting a little tired. They were beginning to wonder if everything they've done, everything they're doing had any sort of impact at all. Did it even matter?

It matters.

We have no concept of how our actions impact those around us. We have no idea of how the things we say or the way we feel affect the collective unconscious of our surrounding community. An idea or belief has a way of becoming contagious if the right set of circumstances permits it to be.

A lot of people assume that Connecticut was able to pass the strongest campaign finance reform law in the nation - one that closed loopholes, banned lobbyists and state contractor contributions and established a program for publicly financed elections - because we had a governor that was sentenced to a federal prison for a year. That is not accurate. I can tell you from experience that when news of the Rowland scandal first broke, only the diehard proponents believed campaign finance reform was necessary. It only took several months, however, for the belief to spread like wildfire.
 
Connecticut passed the strongest campaign finance law in the nation because thousands of citizens told their elected officials to do it. I remember hearing a story where a legislator told his fellow state senators that he hated campaign finance reform but that he was going to vote for it because so many of his constituents were telling him he had to vote for it. It was the power of the people that made it happen.

There was a great PBS series a few years back called "A Force More Powerful," that examined how nonviolent movements were able to triumph over injustice. In one of their segments, they recounted how the people of Chile were able to express their opposition to a totalitarian regime that outlawed opposition by simply staging a work slowdown. The country was virtually shutdown. No one violated the law, but thousands performed small acts of resistance.  Eventually the regime was brought down.

History is filled with stories of the people working together and making change happen. The question that activists always come back to, however, is how do you get from a group of concerned citizens to a nation of people demanding change? 

I'm a big believer in little things. You never know what's going to tip the balance. One small detail could be the difference between success and failure (and yes, I know there is a book called The Tipping Point dedicated to that principal... I've read it and it's great.) My point is that you don't know what small thing of all the things you do will make the difference, so you should keep doing all the things you've been doing to make a difference. As hard as it may be to believe, that small act for reform - a letter to the editor, an e-mail to your congressman or a conversation with a friend - might be more important than you think. It could change the world.