About

About Me

My name is Jim Driggers, and I first became a reluctant political advocate in 1990. Why reluctant? Because political advocacy is something I do out of a sense of guilt and duty. In a perfect world, I would spend my time doing other things, but the world isn’t perfect, and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to improve the world.

I believe in the statement “with many blessings come many responsibilities.”  I was born with many, many blessings. I’m a white male born and living in the United States. My father was an airline mechanic in a union and earned middle class wages. I went to public schools, served in the U.S. Coast Guard, and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from California State University East Bay, a public university. I’ve toured many parts of the world. I’ve always had a roof over my head, food for my stomach, and the support of family. Because of these blessings, I believe I have a responsibility to help those less fortunate.

While studying sociology in college in 1990, I heard of an advocacy group called RESULTS and joined as a volunteer. Since that time, I’ve learned how to effectively lobby members of Congress, especially for programs and funding that help the least advantaged people on Earth move out of poverty. Being a RESULTS volunteer and lobbying Congress to help those impoverished have been passions of mine for most of my adult life.

I’ve always been interested in the social sciences: psychology, sociology, economics, political science, geography, etc. A few years ago, I read The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt. I was impressed by the depth and breadth of Haidt’s research, and his research brought together many of my own observations of human thought and behavior. His book inspired me to lead a monthly discussion group of the material he presented, and how to apply what we discussed to improve our advocacy with members of Congress and others who have different moral perspectives.

As I said earlier, I’m a reluctant advocate. Besides being a RESULTS volunteer, I’m many other things, including a recovering addict. Since 2010, I’ve received professional counseling–including residential treatment–and participated in 12-Step recovery programs. All those have required me to look deeply at my feelings, thinking, and behavior and consciously change my thinking and behavior in ways people not afflicted with mental illness haven’t had to.

About the Blog

This blog began in June of 2011 with the name “Tales of a Reluctant Activist”. I started that blog so I could share my experiences and perspectives as a RESULTS volunteer. On January 18, 2021, Martin Luther King day, I relaunched it with the present name. It felt like the best way I could honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of a nation in which he said, “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” My dream is that all humanity will recognize and accept we are all brothers and sisters created by some higher power as equals.

Sadly, my reluctance got the better of me, and I spent the next three years avoiding my blog. I had to work on my willingness to confront the fears at the heart of that avoidance. Now in January 2024 I’m again dedicating myself to this blog and to these three purposes:

  • Help people better understand and appreciate each other–especially those they don’t agree with
  • Help reconnect people with their political power
  • Inspire compromise and bipartisanship

Like blind people feeling an elephant, I believe we all have different perspectives that come from our individual beliefs and experiences. No matter how true we believe our individual perspectives are, we’re doomed if we think our individual perspective is the only right one. It’s only together we can find and implement what works better than what we have now.

This blog is my effort to share what I’ve learned from social sciences, RESULTS, and addiction recovery; to share my unique perspective, experience, strength, and hope to those who I hope will be inspired to examine their own thinking, thoughtfully look at what works for them and others, and finally to join with others to make the world a better place. We must bridge our differences, so we can together create the world we want for us and our children.