Abigail E. Disney

Cofounder, President, The Daphne Foundation

The work of an activist is pointed, goal oriented, and yet strangely inhospitable to the idea of progress. One fights—and fights hard—to change a law, an ugly more, an injustice, and in the rare instances where one succeeds in this struggle, the next battle to be waged always immediately appears. Worse than this, the notion of progress has been so sullied by civic shouting—from the Left, Right, and Center—it has been twisted into an oppressive, normative, and stultifying bludgeon that shows little respect for the nuances of human life.

Still, the underlying optimism of the progressive mindset has always informed the work of the people I respect most. I have seen women face down ridicule, beatings, guns, and rape, all to remind us of the simple notion that peace is good and war is madness, and when they make this appeal collectively, as mothers, they often succeed.

While each day has taught me to set aside ideas of “forward” or “upward” as foolish and naive, I still imagine a better place in the distance toward which I strive. And these mothers have reminded me that perhaps that place is a remembered space, not some distant utopia.

I have come to believe that progress toward a peaceful civilization lies in the journey back—back to an earlier moment when even the worst of us were taught to share, admonished not to hate; when we learned that problems are best solved peacefully and life’s richest treasures are human, not material.

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