Builidng Citizen Muscle!!!

I didn't make the up the term but I love it. Citizen muscle!

Annie Leonard, who is the creator of "The Story of Stuff," coined the term. She uses the image of a stick figure with two arms. One is bulky and muscly - that's our consumer arm. Our citizen arm, on the other...ahem...hand, is weak and useless. We are not used to exercising our strength as citizens to make the world a better place. We are fed the story that by doing "our part" by buying green packaged soaps and recycling it's easy to change the world. But that's not true. We need to break a sweat, exercise the citizen muscle and get to work!

In my mind, the small steps we are taking are the way to begin building our citizen muscle. The more we exercise, the stronger we'll get. I'm not sure I totally understand Annie Leonard's idea, but I'm going to watch "The story of change" to gain a better understanding. Want to watch it too?

If you've never heard of Annie Leonard you should definitely also check out "The Story of Stuff" which was her first video that caught the world's attention around issues of consumer culture.  It's easy to watch, funny and does not sugar coat.  Annie's work is hopeful and full of ideas for action that ordinary folks can take.  

Take some time to learn today - small steps!

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