If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that if you want change, you have to instigate it. We all see and experience things that we feel need changing: an injustice to humanity, a wrong done to the world. It can be as small and insignificant as a porch not swept or a perceived slight by a neighbor or as immense as an entire forest being bulldozed for luxury penthouse or being told that you have no rights in the eyes of the prevailing heirarchy because of one's race, ethnicity, gender, or any of a million reasons.
What to do...What do most of us do? Unfortunately, most of us, at one time or another (some for their entire lives) find it easier to complain to friends, family, those around them. "It's just so unfair!" they'll say. "Just because I'm male/female/gay/black/white/Asian/mid-Eastern/disabled/et cetera, they won't let me apply for the job." Other problems could be the closing of a local library, the laying off of teachers (and the "dumbing down" of classes), destruction of woodlands, as well as a host of other wrongs. But what do we do? Complain among ourselves.
Here is where writers must act to help promote change. Write letters to the editor. Write articles for the newspaper. Write books. Insight people to want change.
How does this help? you might wonder. Ever hear of Rachel Carson? She was a scientist and writer who did a little number titled Silent Spring. It was what started the chain of events that got DDT pulled from the agricultural scene. Anne Frank's Diary and Elie Wiesel's Night helped bring the horrors of the Holocost to the forefront. Ever hear of Alexander Sclzenitzen? Had the Soviet Union's leaders scared enough to send him to Siberia for daring to tell the truth about the way the government treated their dissidents.
The list goes on. But writers are only the beginning. If a decent writer can convince even one person to use intelligence, non-violence, and reasoning to speak up, think what good could happen.