So what would it look like? And what's my part?

Today's Chronicle carried an essay by Robert Jensen, a University of Texas professor who five years ago wrote a piece about 9/11 that outraged readers. Today's commentary was entitled "5 years later, still a voice crying in the wilderness" and he hasn't backed down. Here are the paragraphs that caught my attention:

Sept. 11 offered a dramatic moment in which the most powerful country on the planet could have led the world on a new course. U.S. leaders had a choice to either (1) manipulate people's legitimate fears and understandable desire for vengeance to justify wars of control and domination, or (2) help create a world in desperate need of more justice, not more war.

To choose the latter would have taken visionary leadership; a role for which, sadly, virtually no one in the Republican or Democratic parties appeared qualified, then or now. But there such voices -- not leaders but ordinary people, speaking out clearly and early . . .

He goes on to describe the thinking of the antiwar activists. What he doesn't do is describe their actions toward justice.

I think I'm ready for that article to be written. I want to do something. I want to act. But what's an ordinary woman to do?