When I first began working on creating this website, I wasn’t sure that the ‘Rainbow Fist’ on the Home Page would portray the message I wanted to send. So, I sent out a ‘trial website’ to a number of friends and colleagues, requesting their comments. In particular, I asked them their opinion of the fist. It was interesting: three quarters responded that they really liked, even loved, the fist; while about one quarter said that they disliked it—and disliked it intensely. For those that liked or loved it, they said it portrayed a coming together of people to transform the wrongs and injustice of society. For those that disliked it, they felt it portrayed violence and the division of society into warring factions; some from this group suggested using hands joined peacefully together.

Obviously, the division was stark, and I wasn’t sure of what to do. But I like rainbows: formed when raindrops, acting as prisms, split the electromagnetic spectrum into seven bands of color—they create intense light and beauty. And I like fists too. To me, they can be a symbol of bringing together collective power to contest an injustice. But the friends who disliked the Rainbow Fist made a definite point that joined hands would be more peaceful, and therefore more supportive of social power and deep participation.

I have decided to keep the Rainbow Fist. But it is only with substantial reflection as to why. The reason to keep it is strongly rooted in the awareness that we are now living in an era of high instability. This is because that old societal consensus, always a bit of a mirage, sometimes expressed as the ‘American Dream’, is now gone. Societal stability that before could not even be “budged” is now in shreds, and can be knocked over with just a slight “nudge”.

It is for this reason that I choose the Rainbow Fist. The powers-that-be who are working for authoritarianism, and its corollary violence, will be quite happy if we continue to offer a peaceful hand of negotiation and compromise with no apparent agreement on true justice. But the Rainbow Fist portrays, at least from my perspective, strength in agreed-to justice and the capacity for rainbow transformation. The sunlight and raindrops crystalizing into the seven rainbow colors wound around the Fist represents the necessary transformation of negative thought-worlds; the institutions which support injustice; and the four ancient wrongs.

OK, enough about symbols. We need to get to work. But it will take many months for Fearless Change to be published. However, the time to make meaningful change is running out fast. Therefore, I will be writing a weekly blog, starting on June 1st, 2023, that should help you begin to organize deep participation groups and explore social power.

Until next time, Paula Donnelly Roark, February 2023.