Because I don’t want to risk losing anyone by making you read this, the short version is: go here and sign up. Now the long version:
Many of you (if I can characterize the number of people who read this blog as “many”) have probably heard of the ONE Campaign before. But just in case you don’t know much about it, ONE is, in its own words, a “campaign to make poverty history”.
It is a nonpartisan, non-profit, grassroots organization that aims to raise awareness of world poverty, hunger and disease, and to mobilize people to not only spread the word but lobby the nation’s leaders to address the problems of extreme poverty by funding international development and relief.
You may have seen the following video on TV or the internet before, it sums things up pretty well:
Powerful stuff.
If you ask me, what ONE has managed to do so well is understand how lazy and selfish I am. What I mean is, they make it incredibly easy for you to contribute. For example, every once and a while they send you an email about an important issue currently before our nation’s leaders. By simply clicking on a link and filling in your name, zip code and maybe a few other details, you can send a letter to your representative to voice your opinion on the issue. The letter is already written for you, so you barely have to think about it (but you can edit it to your own taste, if you want).
Hopefully, you already signed-up by following the link at the top of this post, but if not, sign-up now.
Not only is it easy, but Bono is a spokesperson/co-founder, so it is cool, too.
Been listening to this one a lot, pretty much the whole way through.
This novel was published after the Chilean-Mexican author's death, and I'm not even sure if it was entirely finished or not. It is broken up into five parts which, while connected, stand pretty much on there own. I have not yet made it to the grim part about the murders of hundreds of women in Mexico, so I have so far found it enjoyable and even funny despite some dark underpinnings. It's had a ton of critical praise, and I like it much more than my last foray into the violent novel genre: Blood Meridian.