Wednesday, May 30, 2018

What's congress up to? Countable helps you track & nag your senators & representatives!

Tell me: What are they about to vote on? What are the pros & cons? How can I contact them... right now?

If you're trying to be politically active and push your elected reps to action, timing is everything! At any given moment, there are so many debates and bills and initiatives before Congress that it's completely overwhelming to track them all. The best you can do is find out what's immediately pending so you can call them and make sure your voice is heard. But this is almost impossible without some sort of automated tracking. 

That's where Countable comes in. While it can do all sorts of great stuff, I use this app/website to help me with three main tasks: 
1. Find out what is immediately pending and ready for a vote in the Senate or House.
2. Research the item that is up for a vote by reading a summary of it, as well as pro and con perspectives, so I can make up my own mind. 
3. "Click through" a dialing link and immediately phone my particular Senators & members of the House of Representatives and urge them to vote the way I want them to vote!

Sunday, May 27, 2018

How to Honor Fallen Warriors: Stop Glorifying War & Become an Activist for Peace [with Links to Many Resources]

Cover image from the enlightening website,
"War is a Crime: A Blog About a Criminal Enterprise

As a “baby boomer” growing up in the United States, I’ve lived through many, many Memorial Day commemorations and solemn memorial services. And as the years pass, I’m growing less patient with our tolerance for war. For example, has anyone really noticed that we’ve been both killing and being killed for nearly 17 years in Afghanistan? Probably few US citizens could tell you how long we’ve been in that far-away land, why we are there and if we’re making any “progress,” despite all the death, destruction, and maimings. After all, there’s no military draft that reaches into all American households and pulls out soldiers, no “war taxes,” and generally no real “skin in the game” for most of us. Aside from having our airwaves a bit cluttered with Memorial Day speeches, we are mostly able to put this messy war stuff out of our minds.

Now most of the time I try to keep these articles positive, practical or uplifting. But here I’m going to stretch things a bit and include what we old liberals call “consciousness raising.” In that spirit I’m going to share some stuff here that will help you ponder why it is we can’t seem to quit fighting and then learn how you might take action to stop the senseless killing of our kids.