Four years ago I was lucky enough to run into my first zine - "Mr. Rogers Starts an A-zone." I read the zine over a couple of times. The A stood for autonomous. The idea of an autonomous zone was to have a comfortable, laid-back place for youth to hang out without having to buy a $3 cup of coffee. I went to one of the meetings. When I got there, the people were just hanging out, eating subs, and talking about what they wanted to do with the A-zone. They all agreed that they wanted to get a low rent building that they could fix up. But that was the only thing they agreed on. Some people just wanted it to be a hangout, others wanted a base for social action projects, a place to bring speakers from out of town, a place where we could bring small bands on tour to, a place where local high school bands could play, a place where lwe could have a library of anarchist and alternative literature; the list went on and on. So after a while we decided that the space would be whatever the group wanted it to be, and it was. We were able to keep the A-zone open by taking donations from members, putting on $5 punk shows, putting on multicultural dinners at my church, and whatever else we could think of. While we were open we brought speakers and bands in, had the largest collection of alternative literature in Toledo, provided a place for local youth bands to play and practice; we had our hangout spot for youth, and mostly we were able to draw together a group of like-minded people who never would have met if not for the A-zone. After a year and half we had to close our doors due to lack of funding. But none of us could have been disappointed with what we had accomplished.

"Social Action" can be an overwhelming phrase for some. But it doesn't have to be; anyone and everyone can get involved on some level. You can go out and do stuff on your own. Social action can be fun, so gather up a group of friends to help you out. "I don't have any friends." "My friends don't do that sort of stuff." "All my friends were killed in a freak zoo accident." Stop making excuses, you babies. If you can't get your friends involved, try the youth group at your church (or a local UU church). Ask them what they are involved in. If they say "nothing," then try joining them and getting them involved. If you want to start a group, it is very easy. Just find a place to hold a meeting (I would suggest getting in touch with your church). Then put out a flyer that says "Free Food" and you will get a nice crowd, mostly consisting of high school and college students.

The first step to becoming socially active is finding out what you want to do. If you find yourself short on ideas, the YRUU web site has several resources on how to do social action. The social action group I am currently involved with (TOAL - Thinking Out, Acting Loud) does work with Food Not Bombs and Habitat for Humanity. You can roll out of bed early one Saturday and go to build with Habitat for Humanity. Or you can go to a Klan rally with a big group of people and bang pots and pans to draw attention away from the rally. Go to an AIDS march, feed the homeless, raise money for a local charity, boycott something, protest something, put on a punk show, join the Peace Corps, put out an underground paper at your school, write to your congressman or representative. Just do something.