(noon. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
So, you’ve walked streets and knocked on doors and phone-banked and given money and put yourself on the line, emotionally and physically, in a campaign that seemed to last forever, but which, in the end, reminded you (and me) that sometimes all that’s required to manifest the unlikely (or even the unbelievable) is for you (and me) to bring it about ourselves.
We won.
We won nationally and locally.
We won the narrative and substance.
We won the denotative, the connotative and the illustrative.
In short, we kicked their cynical, bloated, entitled back-sides.
Which means we’ve earned ourselves a well-deserved break!
Not. So. Much.
What we’ve earned… is the right to DO MORE.
In the greatest act of blogging hubris ever expressed by a writer of seemingly nonstop asshattery, this diary challenges each of YOU, starting with the YOU that is ME, to give 28,000 seconds a month to community service until the midterm elections.
Simpler… this blog challenges the you that is also me to finish what we’ve started.
28,000 seconds. That’s 480 minutes. That’s 8 hours, which is one long Saturday or 2 half Sundays or one 2 hour block of time each week.
This is time I know you need to do other things… moments you cannot get back… an obligation that may feel, in advance, like a burden, but I’m betting (really hoping) that we’ll all come to cherish this personal investment as the obvious embodiment of President-Elect Barack Obama’s, “We are the change we’ve been waiting for,”… which is, of course… the rhetorical grandchild of John F. Kennedy’s, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Look, we now know the time exists… we’ve just proven that and, to be honest, this is going to be easy for me, seeing as my 28,000 seconds of community service will be FAR LESS than the 2,160,000 seconds spent checking poll results and refreshing fivethirtyeight.com.
In addition, 28,000 monthly seconds making the world a better place is the bargain-basement-blue-light-extra-value-meal-cost for insuring the fact that the blue wave that’s crashed over the American shores, flooding the heartland with hope and optimism, is not as fleeting as that once-vaunted “permanent Republican majority”.
See, the “premature” death of the Republican juggernotsomuch was tied not to the country becoming more liberal, but to the conservatives demonstrating their complete and utter incompetence.
They promised shared morals and joint objectives and delivered a fetid morass of absolute-nothing.
In contrast, WE have an opportunity to brand the term progressive with images of those “CHANGE” and “HOPE” t-shirts dirtied with the sweat of work and self-sacrifice.
What, exactly, will you (and I) do?
Haven’t the foggiest, but that’s what this and subsequent Monday diaries are for.
Where do you and I go? Where are there needs unmet? Where are their communities yearning for a helping hand to pull them up that first rung? Where are their worthy organizations just waiting for the phone to ring or an unexpected volunteer to darken their doorstep? Where are the links we must follow?
Tell us (which is the addition of you and me) now so that a November of planning can lead to a December of action, which will mean that by the time the President-Elect we’ve helped to elect is sworn into office, the movement he inspired and we enacted, will already be well under way.
I hesitate to impose, and yet, given the gravity of the times, am further leery of letting the moment pass.
And so, with the self-importance that only a blogger can epitomize, I prepare to hit “PUBLISH” and ask the question: Brother, can you spare 28,000 seconds?
Tell me where to go.
Tell me what to do.
Oh, and… a place to digg.
*****
Crossposted at My Left Wing and Docudharma, two other places you should really get to know.
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Two simple things:
1. Sign the petition to our president-elect to close Gitmo right away. That’s here.
2. Make Closing Gitmo viral. Like this or this or any other way. You know how to do this.
This is the beginning of the beginning. Let’s get at it.
for solving problems here: It’s Your Government, “Share Your vision” for what America Can Be. We can keep the pressure on our Senators and Representatives. We can get active in political parties–it would be great to see a huge group of progressives stepping up and running for office–or in advocacy groups.
We’ve seen the right wingnuts beginning to defend and rally behind their new darling, Sarah Palin; 64% of Republicans want her to run in 2012. I know it’s far too easy for us to dismiss her as an idiot, unworthy of serious consideration. Unfortunately, I remember thinking the same thing about Reagan and W; I didn’t believe that anyone could seriously believe that these bumbling buffoons were Presidential material. I was wrong.
Yes, the republicans are in disarray right now, but sadly, they aren’t going to stay down. They’ll retreat, retool their strategies to make the idiots, warmongers, and corporatist robber baron leaders in their Party more superficially palatable to the great uninformed voting masses–remember almost half of the voters voted for another republican, even after the 8 years of hell that W put us through. In the days following the election, Boehner & Co have shown they are ready to continue to block, obstruct and derail as much progressive movement as possible.
So, yeah, the election was a good first step, but it’s only the beginning and the bad guys are sore losers looking to bring down the people they so viscerally hate–us. If we want to keep the wolves at bay, we can’t be complacent.
While we attempt to “look straight forward,” we need to keep our “peripheral” vision working at the same time.
Don’t forget, too, in line with Serendipity’s thoughts, the Repugs, generally, have a lot of money and can and will spend it stirring up more of their evil brew — readying themselves for a future “attack.”
The most singularly helpful thing that could happen would be Impeachment hearings — all the evil being exposed before all citizenry, so that people know, without equivocation, what has been done these past eight years — might shut some people up with TRUTH staring them in the face, maybe, even humble some!
join the party? Go to Democratic meetings? Yeah do it. You will find yourself is a strange land. Each Precinct offers you the chance to hook into your neighborhood however outrageous you deem it. Go to their meetings. You will most likely be the smartest, sanest person there. Start on your block.