The battleground for social justice in the US is vast: living wage in Miami, affordable housing in Portland, smoke free restaurants in New York, health care for the uninsured in Denver, fighting hunger in Los Angeles, safe streets in Oakland, gay marriage in Boston. Each issue is different, but each, in a fundamental way, is the same. Does that mean we can all say the same thing?

This message memo explains how these issues are different and the same, and how advocates can make the most of it in their messages. Everyone can't fight every battle at once. Yet the authors believe advocates working on issues as different as gay marriage and affordable housing can construct messages that serve their own immediate strategic needs and, at the same time, echo one another's larger goals for social change.