BITS & BITES -- July 24, 2011

Let's all help the people of Somalia

Do You Give a Buck?

The crisis in Somalia is horrific. Drought, the greed of the global capitalist system, cynical politics, and militancy have all played their part. This is one of the worst human tragedies of the past half century -- if not the worst. Would you give just one dollar to help? Just a buck? And then, would you ask your friends to do the same? And have them ask their friends? That's just one buck each. And it would add up and save many, many lives. We can hardly say that we can't make a difference. Of course, if you can give more than a dollar, awesome! If you literally don't have a dollar to spare, could you email your government and insist that they help? Many voices = change. Personally, I don't see how anyone can sit by and watch children starve to death without raising a finger to help. And I say that believing that the good in us all does outweigh the complacency, when it really comes down to it.

Click here to see the UNICEF page


Global Warming Map/Contest

Click on the link below and check out the Union of Concerned Scientists' "Climate Hot Map" competition. Good educational stuff.

Click here to see the Climate Hot Map


Norman Solomon -- An Honest Man Headed for DC

Don't forget to throw your support behind Norman in his run for Congress. I'm as cynical as anyone when it comes to politicians. But Norman is an activist and a wonderful human being, not a career politician. He's a good chance of winning his district and, once he gets to Capitol Hill, the cat will be among the pigeons. Onward!

Click here to see Norman Solomon's campaign site


Win a Book!

Don't forget, you can win a copy of Amy and David Goodman's excellent book "Standing Up To the Madness," signed!, by getting me some more followers for this blog:

Click here to enter


DemocracyNow.org Roundup

Kudos as always to Amy Goodwin and the DemocracyNow.org crew for another week of top drawer, honest reporting on everything from Somalia to the debt fiasco to the revolutions in the Mid East to that tool Murdoch and his nastiness.

Click here to go to DemocracyNow.org


Jim Morrison and the Doors -- They Got it Right

"The old get old and the young get stronger,
May take a week and it may take longer,
They got the guns but we got the numbers,
Gonna win, yeah we're taking over."

-- Lyrics from the song "Five to One," and pretty much how I feel the tide is turning in favor of the masses. Slowly but very surely.


Keith Olbermann: "Face It! We Do Not Take Care Of Each Other."

While there are one or two phrases I'd personally like to edit out, I think this monologue by TV personality Keith Olbermann is well worth watching. Seriously, sometimes you just have to get mad and DO SOMETHING:

Click here to see the Olbermann clip


Vale Amy Winehouse

It's very sad when a young person dies. And it's also sad to lose a talent like Amy Winehouse. I hope she is now at peace. Her story is a warning about the horrors of addiction. And I suspect it's also a commentary on the lack of care and compassion in the corporate-run music industry. I covered the MTV Video Music Awards in Vegas a few years ago when Britney Spears was all messed up: And I wrote a column the next day about her performance and the issue of the music industry chewing people up and spitting them out. I think Britney has stepped back from the precipice now. Good for her. But I see a pattern here.

RIP Amy.


Til next time, take care: of yourself and of each other,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at the first edition of BITS & BITES.

IT'S UP TO US!

What if this was your child? My child?

In the movie "Wall Street," Michael Douglas' character utters the now-famous words "Greed is good."

It was a great movie. But greed isn't good. It's pathetic. It's cruel. It's an abomination that creates immense suffering.

Right now in Somalia there is a crisis of incredible proportions. A drought and refugee crisis. Yes, there's always a crisis somewhere -- even in the U.S. -- and "we can't save everyone." But we should try harder than we do.

We should help on two fronts: 1/ We should give a few dollars to aid relief for Somalia -- which all but the very poorest of us can afford; 2/ We should fight the bigger problem of international greed by making our voices heard to our governments regarding things like "globalization," using our taxes for benevolent and practical purposes rather than military spending and giving tax breaks to corporations and the rich, by yelling out that we've had enough and that ordinary people are the majority and we want a fairer world!

And it should and COULD be much fairer. All the political double-speak and capitalist hoodwinking has dragged us all through the mud.

It's up to us, ALL of us, to help the people in Somalia and the poor in our own countries, to fight for a kinder world, to be active members of the human race and not just think in terms of ourselves. If we only think of our own situations, even if we are struggling, then we are greedy too.

I truly believe that ALL of us can do SOMETHING. Even if you don't have money to give, not even a dollar, you are reading this on the Internet so you can fire off emails to members of Congress and the president, sign petitions and much more. Your silence is what the greed of others feeds on. They want us to stand by and just accept it.

We must help our fellow humans. We must make ourselves heard. We have the power.

It's up to us.

[You can give via UNICEF here or do a Net search for other charities helping in Somalia.]

Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at CHILD HUNGER -- THE SCOURGE OF THE PLANET.

PS: Ironically, I'm listening to a Henry Rollins song right now called "Do It" that has the refrain: "Don't think about it/Do it/Don't talk about it/Do it." I kind of believe we get messages sometimes that we were meant to get.