As an (sort of former) activist (fighting to save High Street, etc.) I am very sympathetic to activists who contact the Newburyport Blog, hoping that I would give a plug to their cause.

This is what I learned as an activist fighting to save High Street (starting in 1999).

There are times when folks pay a great deal of attention to what you might be saying. And then there are times that no matter what you do, people simply are not listening, especially the way you might like them to. And there is really nothing an activist can do when this happens.

An activist can push their agenda during these fallow activist times, but my experience has been that if folks aren’t in the listening mood, that it could often be a waste of time and energy, which might be better saved for a more seasoned moment.

“Timing is everything,” certainly applies.

And sometimes pushing an agenda could backfire.

My experience is that after a certain point, folks in the political world know what the activist agendas are that are out there. And what I have found is that pushing an agenda when folks aren’t ready to act at that moment, could make whoever it might be, feel pushed into a corner. And instead of “cooperating,” whoever it might be, could be pushed the other way.

And as I continue to blog the Newburyport Blog, one of the things that I find that I often try to do, is try to listen to what the residents of Newburyport, MA might be willing to hear.

And if my gut tells me, don’t push that particular issue now, and then I go ahead and do it anyway, because I feel really sympathetic or pressured or whatever, it almost always backfires.

So activists out there, it’s not that I haven’t read your emails or heard your requests, it is that I am waiting for what feels to me to be the right time to blog about whatever it might be that you could be passionate about.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport