Warning, I've hatched a plan...

Alright, enough griping – for now. Instead, I am going to try to work a little more of the philosophy of a group of my all-time heroes, one of the greatest collectives of scholars and thinker, nay artists, this world has ever produced and try a little harder to always look on the bright side of life*

I raised hell last week about not loving each other and ourselves enough. Well, the crows have come home for the holidays – or some similar, slightly nonsensical old-farmer’s saying, like ‘if I were a physician, I might be facing a malpractice suit on myself’ or ‘maybe I should try practicing what I preach while I’m in the pulpit.’

So, my first contributions to this cause are that I am going to see what I can do to make it easier for people to do good things for each other and for themselves, and find ways to help people fight these terrible dragons that we are all talking about these days. Some of the things I plan to do are going to take a while. I have to try to cajole Stewart into giving me some of his office time so that we can alter my page to accommodate this plan, but I can go ahead and share my plans with you now. Maybe some of you can help me add to this as I go along. The more the merrier.
I intend to create a new section on Day Off just for the purpose of giving myself and others ideas and avenues for easy ways to help other people, support our soldiers, support our country and yet let it be known that we are not happy with the status quo.

Three things inspired this idea. Chris told me about a postcard campaign during the Vietnam war, people printed and mailed thousands of postcards to the White House, pleading for peace. I think that’s a wonderful idea, because not only is it an inexpensive mass message, that could flood the White House mailroom with something that can’t go un-noticed, but it would also flood our postal system with much needed revenue and help the economy in some small way. I am going to design a series of postcards, with the white house address already added, and put them up in a printable format so that people can print them out and send as many as they please. I may also attempt to raise enough money to have a thousand or so printed up so that I can give them out and leave them in places where people might pick them up and send them on. I think there are a few places in Asheville that might put some on their counter, and I could hand them out to folks who don’t read my page (yet!). That way they can share the web address with friends and go print and mail even more.
I will certainly "keep you all posted", aha, aha, ha. **

My good friend Carol told me about a site called “Operation Military Pride”
“Operation Military Pride is a volunteer organization with a wide range of activities – all which are to boost the morale of our troops deployed overseas. We not only send cards, letters and care packages ourselves, but also distribute troop names and addresses to patriots wanting to send cards, letters and care packages to troops. We are one of the very few groups that allow direct contact with a service member, eliminating the middle man and expenses.”
- from the “About us” section of the OMP web page.

They also offer public events and support every branch of the military service, no matter where they are deployed. They support civilian service staff as well as the animals that deploy with service men and women, with their “Kindness to K9s” program.
They offer a variety of programs and ways to help, like “Books for the Brave” (new and used paperbacks), “Holidays Hearts” (items for the current holiday), “Mission Relief” (stress relief items), and “Women in Uniform” (items for female troops), as well as many others. They make it quite clear though that the troops love to receive anything from home, and ultimately leave it up to you, the sender, to decide what you’d like to do to help.

The fact of the matter is that many of us disapprove of this war, but that doesn’t change the fact that our soldiers as well as the soldiers of our allied countries are there suffering things that most of us could never imagine – now matter WHY they’re there. During the Vietnam war, this country was torn and unfortunately our soldiers were treated incredibly disrespectfully, both by the citizens of this country and by the government. I think the ONE thing that everyone in this country can agree on right now is that this particular travesty should not be allowed to happen again. It’s plain that we are all in for the long haul, and even though you don’t support the “war effort” (ugh), you can definitely support the effort of the men and women who signed on for this job.

I will be looking for more sites and organizations like this, to offer the broadest possibilities for making a difference, and I will add them as I go along. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to e me, or post it to my guestbook.

Another effort I’d like to endorse, support and participate in is the “Sorry Everybody” site.
This site is pretty simple. It has hundreds and hundreds of photos of people from all over America and all over the world expressing their feelings about what’s happening in this country in sweet, funny, poignant, honest, and in my opinion, extremely powerful ways. It is a way for people to apologize to each other and to the world for not being able to do more about this situation, and to be able to see the faces and feel the warmth of other people who care. It is not explosive, it is not aggressive, it is EXACTLY what our mothers and teachers and Sunday school leaders taught us to do: say we’re sorry.
-from their ‘faq’ page:
"What's this site about?
Most people who think carefully understand that Americans are not really any more jingoistic or xenophobic than people in other countries, but it never hurts to reinforce, especially considering what happened on November 2nd, 2004. What must it have looked like to the world outside our borders? America proudly re-appointed her reckless, incompetent and corrupt government. How much of America? Fifty-two percent. The rest of us are aghast and dismayed.
Lots of fuss is made about the “global village.” The Internet was supposed to make communication between cultures, countries and peoples painless and easy. It was supposed to build bridges. But it doesn't do this automatically; somebody has to reach out. The Internet was supposed to lead to education and understanding. It doesn't. Rarely do people on the internet apologize. I thought it was high time. The world needs to understand that there are people in America who don't like what our government is doing. And from the mail we're receiving, there are people in the international community who appreciate this.
Also, come on, it's kind of amusing.
Why does America need to apologize?
It doesn't. Our message isn't normative; it doesn't require anything of anybody. We don't say you should be sorry or you must be sorry. Our apologies are voluntary. Situations like this are great sources of misunderstanding and rancor between cultures. We don't pretend apologies are the solution, but we don't see the harm in offering them.
This is so pointless! Why aren't you out really supporting your cause? You know, volunteering, canvassing, running for office? You should be ashamed!
Who are you to say we're not? The second picture on our front page is a gentleman who has been canvassing for Kerry for the last three months. He's walked from door to door so much that his calves have turned into carbide steel. Don't you dare assume that we're not doing our part, just because we spared ten seconds to hold a sign up to a camera.
Why don't you just accept that Bush won and get on with your lives?
We have. That's why we're so sorry."
***

Most of all, these three things have made me feel like I CAN make a difference, that I can have a voice, and they make me feel less hopeless and helpless. We all need that right now. We feel that our rights and freedoms are being stripped from us, that we are being herded or railroaded by the moneyed few (and ignorant many), and we feel like this war is out of control and that our soldiers are at terrible risk for a cause that we are uncertain of. These are all ways that we can help and feel like we have more control. These are ways that we can be a unified force without having to completely disrupt our lives and the working order of our communities and country. These are peaceful, loving ways to fight all the wrongs, and isn’t that what we really want?
It’s what I want, and I hope you’ll join me.

I’ll leave you all with these things to consider, and tomorrow (‘Lord willin’ and the creek – or fever – don’t rise), I’ll be back with more.
Much love,
-Sam


*Yes, I know that this is impossible to actually always do, but I’m willing to bet a LOT that I could certainly do it MORE.
**nanny ogg would call this a "triple intender".

other python songs and sound bites, just for the happy heck of it:
the unofficial monty python home page (with mp3’s and wavs and au.s),
a fan page with more python music,
and other odd little british sounds from a site that adores eric idle. yay!