tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6811719312494990925.post-27627836620260530342007-05-28T23:32:00.000-07:002007-05-28T23:32:00.000-07:00I think this is the hardest and most important question. My partner was commenting on the fact that the last 7 or so years have been the worst in our lifetime of 30 years. However, in a strange way we as grad-school educated, progressive white people living in NY and LA have not been directly troubled by any of it. She thinks that's a sign of how stratified our country has become, and how unwillingly complicit someone like myself might be in the lack of change, and that rings true with me. We felt that after the 2004 election, the biggest problem seems to be people in different parts of this country (either physically or socio-economically) do live in parallel universes, and everyone needs to try to bridge some of those gaps. So I don't know if this would really solve any of this, but it might add some good spirit to our country, which really couldn't be bad.<BR/><BR/>So here's some things that I haven't done but think would be good:<BR/><BR/>Volunteer some time. Chances are, if I am volunteering at a hospital (either for Vets or not), a soup kitchen, after-school program, etc., I would be visiting with people who are not in the same socio-economic zone as myself.<BR/><BR/>Here's some things I have done that seem small, but something.<BR/><BR/>Donate time or money. Thinking about Memorial Day made me think about this set of links I put together as part of my job: http://boxer.senate.gov/supportthetroops/donations.cfm <BR/><BR/>You can donate money to sponsor care packages or put them together yourself. THis seems pretty good because you are sure to be giving soldiers what they want. Many of their requests are very humble (like tampons and socks), which tells you something about what they are supplied with. There are also some very non-violent options. My office did this for Operation Dreamseed ( http://operationdreamseed.org/ ), which is an AMAZING non-profit that puts you in contact with soldiers who ON THEIR DAY OFF in IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN volunteer by setting up schools for local children and teach them. Pretty humbling.<BR/><BR/>Donate to the ACLU, NOW, Planned Parenthood, or any other organization that is really fighting the administration. We can always give more.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps most importantly, volunteer as an election observer/poll worker/get-out-the-vote person in 2008. Since that gives everyone time to plan ahead, we all could do it in places that matter....like Ohio!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com