Today’s activists face tough odds. With an endless stream of issues to champion, they also endure comparisons to the glorified movements of the ’60s, leaving many of them paralyzed. Do It Anyway profiles eight activists who have forged ahead. The portraits are not entirely gleaming: The subjects are sometimes hypocritical and overzealous, and they often fail. Yet from these failures spring small victories, leaving us with inspiration to cast aside paralysis and reenter the fray.
This article first appeared in the January-February 2011 issue of Utne Reader.
