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Mary's avatar

I found this to be a very encouraging article. All of our collective and individual efforts shift the world, even if we don't see immediate results. I regularly do one person acts of boycotting. Even when the act itself has no noticeable effect, the conversations I've had with others about my actions have planted seeds for change and action. I believe that these conversations are the foundation of powerful grassroots movements. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and generating discussion.

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Khải Đơn's avatar

My friends and I had the same discussions over many protests we experienced and then everything went back to its norm. Our protests were about environmental issues. Many of my friends got beaten and threw to jail and were followed for years by security police. Then the question emerges, what is the point of doing that when the forests were still chopped and those protestors lost their lives in constant fear and threats.

We don't actually know. Just like the story of that father with the origami crane. Thank you for writing about that.

And at the same time, I saw how the mentality of our community changed after our friends' lives were ruined. There were people started caring about them, about the issues. Young people read and learn what forests mean (such beginning education, need to be self-educated), what fresh air means, what less noise means. The younger people I met didn't go to protests. Many of them became research fellows and scientists to talk loudly on TV and interviews explaining what that means with pollution. I learn that the seeds come from those ruined lives. I learn that I also keep writing because of those ruined lives. The forest is gone. We didn't save any of it. But we learn to keep trying.

With this war, I am doing the same. Learning the same. I try to talk about it whenever I can. I want to understand and discuss the misery of those so far away from me.

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