Couple of weeks ago I responded to a post, looking to wear how 'red in the face' I am for the anger and the embarrassment I feel because my country uses keeping me safe as an excuse to conquer an unsuspecting world through the appropriation of natural resources. So I got an idea, it doesn't involve blood in the streets but temporary tattoos. Imagine the red palm we see at traffic lights for pedestrians, on random faces walking by. I dubbed it the 'Give a Sheet' campaign and have begun trying to source their manufacturing. I can get 1,000 2x2 inch squares like this for about a dime each. Distribution is what presents me with a challenge. There are other images I thought of and would like to see as many as 7 or 8 images to fill out a 4x6 sheet for some variety and longevity.
I'm a firm believer in the notion that we can save ourselves and the world itself on a dollar a week, working from a sizable collective like DU or Common Dreams, or even the mighty readership of Huff Po. Set up a weekly mortgage raffle. Kill the long term interests of the zombie banks by paying off entirely as many mortgages as lottery pulls for that week allow. Just at two a week, you've put a premature end to the strangle hold on some who I hope are obliged in turn to pay what they can from there forward with a like process for, say, car loans at the community level.
How many here know that making just one extra house payment per year for that first few years shortens the life of the loan, thereby shrinking the yield on the interest? How significantly I'm not sure, but doesn't every little bit help?
So maybe my ideas are dorky, but I like to think it beats bitching about it and leaving it there. An hour a week? A day a month? Find something and dig in. Plant a bloom of difference to add color to a lifeless landscape.
THERE ARE MANY THINGS ALL CAN DO WITH JUST A LITTLE TIME!!!
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http://www.dosomething.org/>
Right here at just DU, a block of time over the space of a week can be used to encourage gathering in particular forums, like the state forums where folks can talk about local issues and solutions and know the folks they're talking with are assessing the same turf.
In the end the have mores think that all that counts is what cha chings when you count it. They're only correct for as long as we don't push back. Starve the beast by stopping the flow of money to machine. At the end of this day, I will have my first bit of shopping money for the big holiday gig. I won't be buying anything from any store that anyone has ever heard of outside my own neck of the woods. What little money I have to spend will stay in my community at least as it passes through my hands.
Have a safe and happy year end season.
j