20/20 Vision
was the brainchild of Lois Barber, an art teacher, mom, and peace-group
volunteer, living in Amherst, MA.
In 1983, Lois and her colleague Nancy Foster organized the Amherst
community against the Pentagon’s plan to build a communication system intended
to allow the United States to “fight and prevail in a protracted nuclear war.”
After winning the battle in their community, they took the campaign to the
county level and won there too. Then, to stop the construction of the Ground
Wave Emergency Network, GWEN, towers anywhere in the country, they realized
they had to go national. But
how?
William
Arkin, then at the Institute for Policy Studies, encouraged Lois and Nancy to
take their show on the road and suggested they raise some money to support
their efforts. The first check
they received was for $500, and that, along with other small contributions set
them on their way to organizing in other states where GWEN towers were planned.
Three years of intense work resulted in the US Congress cutting $80 million of
funding for GWEN from the Defense Department budget. It was a huge grassroots
success.
Inspired by this progress, Lois wanted to apply what she had learned to other disarmament
issues. The obstacles were huge.
It was 1985, Ronald Reagan was in office, the Cold War was raging, and
from Lois’ perspective the peace community was not effectively drawing new
people into the movement. She
decided a new approach was needed.
That
December, during a sleepless night, she articulated the question that led to
20/20 Vision. “What,” she asked
herself, “are the obstacles that keep ordinary people from taking action on the
issues they care about?”
She
identified five key obstacles.
1.
The issues
are terrifying and people are overwhelmed with information.
2.
People don’t
understand how a bill gets through Congress and how the government works, so
they don’t know when and how to influence what it does.
3.
To be
effective people know they need to act together, not alone, and that their
actions have to be ongoing, not a one shot deal.
4.
People need
to learn the results of their actions—they need feedback.
5.
People are
busy. They need something meaningful they can do that will fit into their busy
lives
Lois
set out to design an organizing system to remove these obstacles. Such a system would identify critical
timely issues, and key policymakers.
It would limit information to what could fit on a post card. It would organize people to take action
together, every month--like paying your bills. It would report back to tell them the impact of their
actions. It had to be fast—20 minutes, tops. And it had to be a service people valued and would pay for—$20
a year.
20/20
Vision was born: 20 minutes a month—$20 a year—and a Vision of a better world.
The first 20/20 Vision post card was sent in March1986 and called for a nuclear
weapons test ban (see right). Jeremy Sherman joined forces with Lois as
Co-director that summer. The organization grew and had many successes. Seventy
local 20/20 Core Groups were started, each one led by a small group who
researched, produced, and mailed monthly 20/20 action postcards to their
subscribers in their congressional district. The Washington, DC office was opened in 1989.
Over
the years, tens of thousands of people subscribed to 20/20. They received their
monthly action postcards, and, more importantly, they did the recommended 20
minute actions. A great deal of legislation and policies were changed. It was
heartening to see that this basic element of our democracy, citizens
communicating with their elected representatives, still worked!
In
1992 Lois left the staff of 20/20 Vision to help start EarthAction, a global
network of organizations that is based on many of 20/20’s principles. She is
currently the Executive Director of EarthAction that is now a global network of
over 2,600 organizations from 165 countries that have worked together on over
80 global campaigns. For 23 years she continued to serve as President of 20/20’s
Board of Directors.
In
the summer of 2009, economic challenges here in the US proved too great and
20/20 Vision ‘closed its doors.’ EarthAction, aware that helping citizens communicate with their elected representatives about peace and environmental issues is still vitally important, offered to continue the work of 20/20 Vision. 20/20 Vision’s Board of Directors
agreed and voted to turn 20/20 over to EarthAction.
In
its new incarnation, as a project of EarthAction, 20/20 has changed from ‘Vision’
to ‘Action’. Its new name is: 2020 Action: 20 minutes a month—$20 a year—Action
for a better world.
Some
things will stay the same: the membership fee is actually going back to its
1986 price of $20 a year; 2020 members will receive one postcard every month,
each focused on one critical and timely peace or environment issue, and each
postcard will include all the information needed to send a letter, email, fax,
or phone call to a policymaker facing a decision about that issue.
And
some things will change, like the newly designed monthly postcards. Lois
decided that the new postcards should be beautiful, something everyone would
look forward to receiving each month. She says, “The new 2020 Action postcards
will each feature a photo that celebrates the beauty and wonder of the natural
world that we are working to preserve.”
The
new 2020 Action was launched in April 2010.
