My new project

[ritaxis]

I have written a letter which I am sending to major newspapers in swing states.

I live in California.

But I want to talk to you, as swing state voters, about voting.

You are being courted because you have a whole vote, and because both parties can hope to win your hearts and minds. The electoral college has relegated my vote to a fraction of yours. I'm going to take my little piece of a vote and cast it in the voting booth, cast it with all my diminshed might in the direction I want to see my country go in. And if you fail to vote on that November Tuesday because you think the election is in the bag, you will have thrown away power I wish I had.

Now, I'll be voting for John Kerry. I'm looking for a president who does not count himself above the law. And I'm looking for a president who feels that he owes his position, not to just a few privileged people, but to the broad mainstream of American society -- people like my family and my neighbors. And where I see these characteristics is in John Kerry, not in George W. Bush.

You may disagree with me -- but go cast your solid, whole, full vote. Remember, there are voters in this country who don't have one.

I've sent it to the Detroit Free Press, the Miami Herald, the Jacksonville I forget what, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a newspaper each in Cincinnatti and Cleveland.  And I wrote a thousand words, skimming over the gamers explaining the genie class and writing a rather truncated version of the mugging, which I can already see how it should and can be expanded.

Oh, and I did a couple other things -- made progress on the kitchen, and went to a training for the FIrst Flush program.  No, Zara, not the kind of flush you've been talking about.  This is water quality monitoring for the grassroots coastal organization whose name I always mix up with the government one.  During the dry season, they conduct Urban Watch measurements of the runoff going into the bay.  And after the first significant rain of the season, which could happen any time now but probably not until October, we skedaddle it out to the storm drain outflows and sample the water.  I've never done it before, and I'm a little anxious because they could call at any time, and they almost always call after midnight.

This is part of my ongoing attempt to be a real person.

 

Comments

[i-ate-my-crusts.livejournal.com]

I think that's a great letter.

I feel guilty, for the first time ever, about not being able to vote here in Australia. The last 3 years have made me very angry about what the government is doing in my name, and I want to fix it, and I've left getting Australian citizenship too late to vote in this election.

..and I admire the activism. I have a strong desire that I haven't yet put into effect, but that I'm making baby steps towards. My activism has, for a long time, been a personal activism: the activism of choosing the 100% renewable or sustainable energy option from my local energy supplier; the activism of using cloth bags; the activism of not owning a car; the activism of picking up litter; the activism of eating vegetarian; the activism of working for a non-profit organisation.

But I don't feel that's enough anymore. I agreed with your statement that the world is heading for something worse than McCarthyism, and it's still just beginning...and I want to help stop it.

Thanks for being inspiring. It helps me to make my own start. I hope *that* helps you continue yours.

This comment was far longer than I intended!

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

A person should be able to vote someplace. My next door neighbor only decided a couple of years ago to get US citizenship. She figured after thirty years she probably wasn't going to go back to Canada to live. The ones who lived there a while before that were sure they were going to retire in Mexico, so they were saving their citizenship.

But I don't count this as much in the way of activism. It took me a couple of hours to write the thing, pare it down to letters-to-the-editor size, find some newspapers, and send it. I'll do another one tonight or somewhere down the road soonish, so that I'm not sending the exact same letter to everybody.

[i-ate-my-crusts.livejournal.com]

Oh.. I meant the activism comment in reference to being on call for the river watch stuff, actually..but I wasn't terribly clear. =)