[aishah]

thinking about the situation in syria (and elsewhere) has got me pondering political participation more generally.

okay. here's the thing. i don't feel powerless in my local community - i know i can do things to create change. i would say on some level, having spent the last several years doing disability justice organizing on a national level, i can see even beyond my own community. i have a job now that's a soulless government cubicle job, but i love it more than any job i've ever had (where i was working for someone else instead of myself, anyway) because i get to directly assist people who are dealing with terrible situations and i can help make their lives better. there are some places where i feel that i do have the power to make things better.

but when it comes to some things - man. i feel really fucking powerless. we're told that voting for the president matters, and on some level i know it does - i know the world would look a lot different right now if mccain had won instead of obama, for example. but i still don't feel my vote for obama was exercising any power or control to change something important - his support of drone strikes and his relationship with israel has directly impacted the lives and safety of my friends in the middle east and there is literally nothing i can do to control any of that. my one vote won't change that. i can know all of the history and the current politics and know what is going on and still - i feel powerless to create change or to affect things on an international level.

no amount of checking in with my friends who are living in war zones or posting articles on facebook or signing petitions has ever actually created meaningful change in what's going on on an international level. and i cannot participate directly/physically in international politics on the same level i do in politics and social justice in my local community - or at least i don't feel like i can. i don't feel like i have the ability to affect anything. in the last few years it's gotten to the point where i just don't even want to read the news because it makes me feel so powerless.

i know a lot of us are watching this situation with syria as we have watched so many tense political situations before. i remember watching the news when we went into iraq - i was, i think, 15 at the time. do you guys feel powerless? what do you do to cope with that? how do we affect meaningful change?