“Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.’’ Robert F. Kennedy - 1966

Two weeks ago, after parking and plugging in my Prius, I walked across the Statehouse lawn in Montpelier to one of the many meetings that take up a day. Very important. Gotta be on time. Serious business.

It is always fun to walk across that lawn, which is the site of many a protest, free speech, and ultimate frisbee.

Something caught my eye on the Statehouse steps. Two people sitting in those folding chairs you get at Wal-Mart to watch your kid play sports. People don’t usually sit on the Statehouse steps under the statue of Ethan Allen. They hang out and enjoy a meal. But it was cold this morning and the night before had been very cold.

Do I interrupt my routine and indulge my curiosity and possibly be late for the meeting?

There on the steps were Brenda Siegel and Josh Lisenby. Layered in blankets and braving the weather, the two had been sleeping out in this weather for more than 20 days, protesting a proposed action to close a motel shelter program for homeless Vermonters.

Brenda and Josh believe closing the program would leave hundreds of homeless Vermonters out in the cold, vulnerable to freezing to death.

“We are not leaving until the policy is changed,’’ Brenda said.

“We are staying right here,’’ Josh said.

I have always admired and wondered what goes through the minds of people who lay it all on the line to protest for their beliefs and the welfare of others. The rest of us go to demonstrations, get on Twitter, write blog posts and then get on with our lives.

But people like Brenda and Josh go all in and risk the disapproval of others in polite society to fight for the welfare of those the society leaves behind every day. They don’t get paid. And victory brings no material reward. Rosa Parks, the Berrigan brothers, Caesar Chavez, and countless unknowns throughout history.

These folks are different than the rest of us.

We have a lot to lose. Going against the grain is tough. You have to brave the disapproval of your friends or be sneered at by the cool people at the grownups table. You are literally out in the cold.

“I was worried last night,’’ Brenda said. “It was cold.’’ Supporters had brought food and blankets. But Brenda and Josh were willing to risk it all.

Rudimentary signs were hanging from the metal bars nearby. There was no lobbyist, no PR firm drafting talking points - just two people who had run out of patience with a society that looks the other way.

After 27 days out there, the governor announced an extension of the motel program through March 1. Brenda and Josh called off the protest.

They didn’t get everything they wanted. But they now have a seat at the table to figure out how to do better for those without shelter.

The motel shelter program doesn’t start until Nov. 23 and ends March 1. As any Vermonter knows, it is cold now and the month of March can be colder.

What was it like to step over the line and risk it all for a cause? Why did they do it?

“It was scary,’’ Brenda said. “Many days I asked Josh whether we would make it. When we announced we're going to stay, we meant it. We reassessed constantly. Are we really willing to freeze to death? Every time the temperature dropped, we realized other people had nothing. I just can’t know that and not try to make a difference.”

Josh told of watching someone freeze to death outside his homeless shelter and promised himself he would act.

But why risk your life?

“I don’t have an answer for that,’’ he said. “I don’t know what got into me. I have seen a person freeze to death for no good reason. I wasn’t willing to do that anymore. Someone had to do something.’’

That is how the world changes, in small bits.

The governor’s announcement came after 27 nights of sleeping on the granite statehouse landing for people whose names they might never know. They spent their 28th night in a motel gifted to them by a friend.

Then they drove back to Newfane, where Brenda lives. Josh will return to a shelter in Vergennes. Now that they have been invited to the table for meetings about how to improve the system, he has to figure out how to get there. He has no car.

“We need to have more regular people at those tables where decisions are made,’’ Brenda said. “We need to start electing people to sit at those tables. If those aren’t the people making the decisions, we won’t get there.”

But against a world’s ills, with the federal government in tribal warfare and paralysis - what drives them?

“It’s the desperation you feel when you don’t have enough,’’ she said. “I can’t not feed my kid. Somehow we have to make sure these people live through the winter. There was no other way to do this. We couldn’t get other people to speak up.’’

And now - perversely - even harder work begins. The mundane policy discussions of how to fix a broken system and how to pay for it.

But for now, there is some satisfaction in persuading a government to change direction in favor of homeless people.

“It was the right thing to do and should have been done long before people had to sleep on the steps,’’ Brenda said.

Add Brenda and Josh to the list of real protesters. They went all the way.

“This isn’t some fun game,’’ Josh said. “This is literally life and death. We knew there was a chance we would freeze to death.’’

I kept thinking of how hard Josh and Brenda worked out there - how hard it is to be cold and hungry. But after speaking with them, you begin to realize that it’s the homeless people doing the hard work, while the rest of us are safely tucked in bed or moving on to their next meeting.