In the wake of the success from my latest Observer article, I realize that there are many people in our community (and yours too) that want to see a positive change happen locally. It’s a breath of fresh air to see such support for free speech and good teachers educators, but many people feel overwhelmed and feel like their voice doesn’t matter or can’t be heard amidst the noise. The Internet has become a real game changer for local activism and makes it possible for everyone to speak out and you don’t need to be a part of some large PAC to do it (what I like to call “decentralized activism”). So, here are some ways that you can make a change in your community.

4 Ways You Can Start Changing Your Community Today

1. Educate (Yourself)

Education is absolutely foundational to anything you do and with the Internet, our concept of education and access to it is changing. Unlike before, where education meant paying exorbitant amounts of money to a college or university just to earn a fancy piece of paper, we now have at our finger tips the ability to educate ourselves for little to no money. You can visit Coursera or iTunes University and choose from courses provided by accredited colleges, for free! Want to learn about the foundations of freedom? Visit Learn Liberty or Tom Wood’s Liberty Classroom. Economics? Visit the Mises Institute. And of course, there’s also YouTube where you can find many university lectures online. But you don’t even need those places. If you have an autodidactic nature, you can just read books. Here’s my favorite list of free books in the public domain. Don’t ever stop learning! And as you learn, educate others by sharing your resources and what you’ve learned with them.

2. Build your platform

Everyone has a voice, you just have to figure out where it is. Is it in writing? Speaking? Making videos? Singing or making music? Poetry? Acting? Making artwork? What is it that you love to do? That’s your platform. “Where your talents and the needs of the world cross; there lies your vocation,” said Aristotle. Not everyone responds to one platform. Reading a blog might not be your favorite thing to do, but maybe you are moved by music. Rest assured there are others who are also moved by music and you’ll have people inspired by your work. No one but you can create your platform and in a way that fits your personality. And once again the Internet provides an avenue, whether it be on YouTube, Facebook, WordPress, Twitter, iTunes, SoundCloud or the thousands of other places available. And while you’re educating yourself, don’t forget to learn a little bit about Internet marketing, it will go a long way to spreading your message.

3. Network

Meet new people in your community. Work with them. Volunteer. Make friends with your neighbors. A free community is close-nit and relies on each other, and this is the perfect opportunity to invest in it. It’s a great way to begin planting the seeds of change and watch them grow. We’re in this thing together and we can’t make it without each other.

4. “Be the change …

… you wish to see in the world,” said Ghandi. That’s one my favorite quotes and it’s oh, so true! It does us no good to hear the moralist shout from the rooftops, “do as I say, not as I do.” And in fact, it can burn resentment in the hearts of people and cause cynicism. People pick up on actions more than they do words, so what you do will speak louder than anything you say. You will inspire change by inspiring other to change themselves and what better, more positive way of doing it, then being the change you wish to see. So if you want to see people reaching across the isle, you should reach across the isle. If you want to see the truth reported, you report the truth. Change always begins with you!

A free society is an amazing thing and is ours for the taking if we’re willing take responsibility and own it. There is not a government on earth that will hand freedom over to you. Freedom is 90% mindset. Once you understand it, and live it, changing the laws become an easy feat. But we must experience the intellectual revolution before we can finally see the change we’re looking for.