Adventures in Syberspace

Today, fighting injustice is as easy as clicking on a link

Read this e-mail from the International Justice Mission:

Urge your member of Congress to support the Child Protection Compact Act today (the CPCA is groundbreaking legislation that seeks to eradicate trafficking in children in focus countries) through the current IJM Justice Campaigns Action Alert.

The CPCA holds promise for vulnerable children around the world who desperately need an ally — thank you for giving them one.

Gratefully,
Eileen Campbell
Director of Justice Campaigns

If you're even more motivated, here's more:

Commit today to attending a meeting with your Member of Congress and/or Senators in your home state/district this August and share your passion to abolish modern-day slavery.

The IJM Justice Campaigns team will schedule and coordinate these meetings for you as part of a unified month of action -- sign up online and indicate your availability.

We will guide and support you, provide you with talking points, offer trainings by phone before your meeting, and will help you connect with other advocates in your area. Take the leap and sign up today! (Please reply by July 10 — we may not be able to schedule meetings after this point.)

 

Blog Action Day

I'm joining with more than 11,000 other bloggers to bring poverty to the forefront today. It's overwhelming to think about fighting poverty when most of us are just trying to get through our daily responsibilities. But we can't let our mundane activities push out the daily struggle for millions. So here are some ideas where you can start by doing something, rather than nothing:

Join one.org and get their e-mails and sign their petitions. Start with this one.

Support a child with Compassion International.

Participate in the Advent Conspiracy this Christmas.

Buy a StreetWise newspaper from a vendor in the city.

Visit The Hunger Site regularly.

An easy way to fight injustice

A website called "Rezoom" is giving away $100,000 and one of the charities is the International Justice Mission. You can sign in once a day and vote, through August 10th. There are also some other great charities to read about. Go to www.rezoom.com and sign up.

Oh, and Tyler and Disney have a new blog from their road trip here. It's really good. Warning: Tyler does appear in his tighty-blackies.

Join the ONE Campaign

I've been wearing a "ONE" bracelet for almost two years now. It's an organization founded by Bono and leaders of non-profit groups to try to eradicate extreme poverty. There was a big deal about it on American Idol on Wednesday. They're trying to get 100,000 new members this week, and they're about 25,000 away. Sign up and be a part of that 100,000. Get all the info you need at www.one.org.

A Quick Phone Call

So I called my congressman today (Mark Kirk). I didn't talk to him, but I did talk to someone in his office. I've been getting e-mails from the "One" campaign urging me to take action so that a billion dollars of funding doesn't get dropped from helping the world's poor. I don't know what difference a phone call or an e-mail can make, but I have this image of the Jimmy Stewart movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (a movie you all should see if you haven't) with all of the letters that come in at the end, and I think: you can ignore one or two people, but not thousands. So if you've got some free time, call your Senators and Representatives today (to hear more about this specific issue, click HERE). It was a little weird talking to a stranger on the other end, but darn it if I don't feel like I actually did something to help the world's poorest today. You can find out more about the One campaign at www.one.org.

A Letter to the President of Oklahoma University

A couple of months ago, the Oklahoma Sooners football team lost a game against Oregon largely because a referee missed a call at the end of a game. That's the context for what is below (you can read more about it here). I did send this letter, and never heard from him.

September 22, 2006

Dear David Boren, President of Oklahoma University:

Earlier this week, you released a statement regarding an event in this way. “To describe [the incident] as constituting an outrageous injustice is an understatement.” One might speculate as to what would cause a university president to respond with such strong language. “Outrageous injustice?” Were you speaking of a hate crime of some kind? Was someone wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit? Perhaps a student had been wronged and you were defending her honor? Surely something truly egregious and tragic transpired to produce a statement like this. What were you referring to? A football game.