Practical Ideas for Ordinary Radicals

I recently stumbled across a list of things we can do to address social justice issues every day. It reminded me of our random acts of kindness day we had recently. This list was created by the Simple Way community of faith, who focus their lives around loving all people, and living in solidarity with the poor. You can view the whole list and learn more about their community here. The website encourages people to "brew up some holy mischief." I like that idea.

• Go out to eat with someone who is homeless, or invite them to your home or cafeteria to eat with you.
• Learn to sew and begin making your own clothes.
• Write one CEO a month -- affirm or critique the ethics of their company (you may need to do a little research).
• Give your winter coat away to someone who is colder than you are.
• Write only paper letters for a month (go computer free)
• Try sitting in silence for 15 minutes a day.
• Kill your TV -- or go TV free for a year.
• Go down a line of parked cars and pay for the meters that are about to expire... Leave a little anonymous note of niceness.
• Write to one social justice organizer or leader each month, just to encourage them in their work.
• Experiment with a post-oil era by going fuel free for a week -- ride a bike everywhere, carpool, walk or hitchhike.
• Gut your TV and turn it into a pot for a plant.
• Try reading only female writers for a year (since many of our problems seem to be stemming from men).
• Go to a retirement home and ask to visit a few old folks who don't get any visitors.
• Buy only used (thrift) clothes for a year.
• Cover up all brand names, or at least the ones that do not reflect the upside down economics of God's Kingdom.

What do you think? Are there ideas here that you might be willing to try? Which ones seem more radical than others? What impact do you think it would have if we all tried a few of these?