John Lennon was assassinated outside his New York City apartment building 36 years ago today.
In memory of John, you might want to make a donation to the Coalition to Stop Gun violence. If you prefer to be more hands on, you can join a local organization dedicated to stopping gun violence. For more information on how to find a group in your area, as well as other options for activism related to this issue, read my new post on the Activist Playbook blog.
The Activist Playbook is a new blog that I’m working on with my friend Stef McDonald. Stef and I met years ago when I hired her as an editor for People magazine’s website; she eventually succeeded me as managing editor there. When Stef emailed me last month asking if I would join her in a project to help people fight fascism in America, I immediately said yes. We want this website to become a centralized resource for people who wish to join the fight. I had actually been looking for this kind of site myself, because it is overwhelming to try to keep up with events and daily activism tips via dozens of separate Facebook pages, websites, and email subscriptions. Working with Stef makes it much easier and we’re happy to share what we find with everyone.
The Activist Playbook isn’t exactly gorgeous right now. We’re planning a redesign with improved navigation ASAP. We haven’t even launched all the kinds of content we want to do yet. But there’s too much at stake to wait, so we will make our improvements as we go along. We are already posting daily and month action items in the right column, which we will elaborate upon in blog posts. We’re also sharing links to important news stories and editorials; contact lists; boycott (and support) information for businesses; and stuff that makes us laugh. Hey, sometimes you gotta laugh to keep from crying!
You can read more about what we stand for (and against) here. If you are planning an event or are part of an organization and want to be listed, send your information to theactivistplaybook at gmail dot com. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a tiny town or a big city, or what state you’re in. We want to offer people as many options as possible across the U.S. If you’re doing your activist thing outside the U.S., we’re interested in that too! We look forward to hearing from you.