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Aligned and Well

S
Pr

Activis

It didn't end with the 1960s,

Young Jewish activists are
canvassing, calling and
petitioning for everything
from animal rights to
global security.

WENDY ROLLIN

Special to The Jewish News

his new genera-
tion — it ain't
what it used to
be. So went a
commonplace of
the 1980s. Students and
twentysomethings, it was
said, had traded in their
causes for perks and profits,
their banners for sheepskins
that read "M.B.A."
But as society turns the

'90s corner, activists do not
appear to be an endangered
species. Aligned and well,
they're out there canvass-
ing, calling and petitioning.
Some, stepping deep into
controversy, find themselves
labeled — or mislabeled —
depending on whom you
ask. One person's noble
idealist is another person's
misguided guerrilla in our
midst.
Now, speaking for them-
selves, five young activists
tell who they are, what they
do and why.

JACKIE VICTOR:

Nothing Short of
Changing Society

"I want you to put on
your pearls and your three-
piece suits, and go run for
Congress."
When Jackie Victor heard
those words, an activist was
born. The time: spring 1985.
The occasion: an Ann Arbor
address by Dr. Helen Caldi-
cott, founder of WAND,
Women's Action for Nuclear
Disarmament.
With facts and pictures,
Dr. Calidcott had just

Wendy Rollin is a freelance
writer in West Bloomfield.

28

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1990

described a beautiful planet
imperiled by the arms race.
Concluding her presenta-
tion, she exhorted the
women in her audience to
work for peace through
political power.
Among those in atten-
dance, at least one person
listened particularly well.
Jackie Victor, then a
University of Michigan
political science major, felt
Dr. Caldicott was speaking
directly to her.
"I was really inspired,"
she says. "I knew I needed to
do something."
Today, Ms. Victor, 25, is
program director of
Michigan Sane/Freeze:
Campaign for Global Securi-
ty. Putting in between 40
and 80 hours each week at
the organization's Nine Mile
and Woodward office, Ms.
Victor publishes a statewide
newsletter, oversees mon-
thly forums, recruits
volunteers and lobbies.
It isn't a string of pearls
on Capitol Hill, but she says,
"This is - it for me. This is
what I want to do — work in
grass-roots activism."
Sane/Freeze's objective is
bilateral and verifiable
nuclear disarmament.
Along with that goal, Ms.
Victor seeks a redefining of
national priorities.
"In the next five years,"
she says, "the military
budget must be cut by 50
percent, with the money go-
ing to human needs, en-
vironmental needs, and the
deficit — in that order."
One way or another, Ms.
Victor has been working
toward those ends ever since
she heard Dr. Caldicott
speak. She's canvassed in
Ann Arbor, worked against
U.S. intervention in Central
America and actively oppos-
ed military research on cam-
pus. In the 1987 Michigan
Peace March for Global
Disarmament, she walked
750 miles from Sault Ste.
Marie to Detroit.
What makes someone go
all that way?
Indeed, Dr. Caldicott lit a
path. But long before that,