What are you doing about it?

[Q45]

Well, we've done it. Earth's a catastrophe. Politics are a catastrophe. Everything feels hopeless. Everyone who knows anything about what's going on is complaining.

Enough complaining. Words are only noise unless they follow action.

This thread begs the question "what are you doing to make a difference?" and to share stories and ideas that can influence others to make one too.

This's NOT the place for political arguments. You want that, go to another thread. This is the place to encourage and challenge one another towards some progress we aren't seeing enough of.

We know it's pretty negative out there. Let's encourage some positive.

I'll start with a small example (I hope some of you have better ones), some websites I frequent.
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/
http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1
http://www.change.org/savethewhales/petitions
http://wwf.worldwildlife.org/site/PageServer?pagename=can_home

Those are my cards. Now it's your turn. Trump my hand.

 

[Quetzal]

Everything isnt hopeless, you have some hope just by posting this.

Despite all the gloom and doom, things arent that bad for us.

Positive enough for you?
======
I am no activist, in fact I disagree with many forms of activism, your just playing your defined negligable role as an anomaly in a system.

Anyways, what are you going to do? Its good that you want to make a change for the better in your surroundings and I wish you the best.

 

[Q45]

Everything isnt hopeless, you have some hope just by posting this.

Despite all the gloom and doom, things arent that bad for us.

Positive enough for you?
======
I am no activist, in fact I disagree with many forms of activism, your just playing your defined negligable role as an anomaly in a system.

Anyways, what are you going to do? Its good that you want to make a change for the better in your surroundings and I wish you the best.

Well the first thing I'd like to do is figure out why my thread is so hard to find now. I mean honestly, it's practically disappeared overnight.
The second thing I'll do is ignore your post from this point onward, because if everyone took the role you obviously take, there would've never been any progress made in history. MLK or Gandhi would've just thrown up their hands and said "well this sucks, but what can ya do?"
I want to know what other hypsters are doing, have done, want to do but are unsure how. Do you volunteer? Give to charities? Create new charities? write letters to congress? Driven down to an oil spill to assist in the cleanup? Share your ideas. Tell your stories. Encourage one another. Make a difference, no matter how small.

Edt: I'm sorry. that was mean. I was feeling a bit overzealous. but still, why are you against "activism" (personally I hate that label too. Don't get me wrong), or trying to do something about the problems around us? I'm not telling people to go all "V for Vendetta" or anything. Just get up off your butts, quit complaining, and as the late michael jackson said "make a change".

 

[Hobgoblin]

I dont know if I'm making such a difference but I sponsor two children. A girl in Kenya and a boy in India. I also recycle the plastic, metal, glass, paper materials that would otherwise be thrown away from my job. I wrote the President Obama about his seeming to ignore climate change and I got a generic letter back about how his administration take it seriously blah blah blah.

Politicians.

 

[Wolfwood]

I didn't kill a panda or burn down a forest today, so I like to think I did my part.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Atta boy.

 

[Q45]

I dont know if I'm making such a difference but I sponsor two children. A girl in Kenya and a boy in India. I also recycle the plastic, metal, glass, paper materials that would otherwise be thrown away from my job. I wrote the President Obama about his seeming to ignore climate change and I got a generic letter back about how his administration take it seriously blah blah blah.

Politicians.

Hell yeah buddy, Keep up the good work!

and about the letter, yeah me too. I think it's more of a volume thing. get more people to email, call, and send real letters ( I've heard their better), for them to listen.
Just make sure you personalize the letters if you get them from a website like WWF or Save The Whales or the like, so the politicians don't think it's a chain letter.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Hell yeah buddy, Keep up the good work!

and about the letter, yeah me too. I think it's more of a volume thing. get more people to email, call, and send real letters ( I've heard their better), for them to listen.
Just make sure you personalize the letters if you get them from a website like WWF or Save The Whales or the like, so the politicians don't think it's a chain letter.

I wrote the letter myself. No copy/paste here.

 

[Q45]

Oh and here's another site really worth looking into, especially if you're into punk.
watch the video, it oughtta encourage you a lot!

http://www.communityrecords.org/?page_id=3308

plus there's a petition, a place to donate, and a whole free compilation album you can download for free. Punx are like that, they dig giving away stuff

 

[UltimateJustin]

I sign a lot of petitions. So many I barely even read them. I try to eat right and do at least 30 minutes of cardio. I talk to people who don't have hope and give them some of mine; I do my part to protect Texas.

 

[Q45]

I sign a lot of petitions. So many I barely even read them. I try to eat right and do at least 30 minutes of cardio. I talk to people who don't have hope and give them some of mine; I do my part to protect Texas.

Good on ya mate.

 

[PyroChamber]

I'm just gonna watch the world burn.

 

[The Apocalypse]

I'm just gonna watch the world burn.

Some people just want to.

 

[Q45]

Another great underground organization

http://www.foodnotbombs.net/

 

[Hound55]

How's about we feed the whales to the homeless..?

 

[Immortalfire]

Nothing.

 

[Mee]

I'm posting on an internet message board.

 

[Duke]

Let's see, as of today i've done nothing.

 

[Spider-Fan83]

I donate through work to, the united way (a local charity)…
(been doing it for years, and have plenty of shirts with there logo on it, to prove it lol)

I recycle... both at home and work…
(I do maintenance work, so, I am mainly in charge of most of the recycle we do there)

the new car I brought recently gets about 30 MPG
(so, that gotta be lowing my carbon footprint abit)

but, these are just thing I do in my everyday life, not things I do, "too be actively making a difference"... I suppose little things do add up... an I guess in the long run I am making a difference

 

[GhostPoet]

My car gets 42+ miles to the gallon. I bought my wife a car that's similiar.

My wife and I also sponsor a child in India and communiate with other children in other countries who currently have a sponsor, but no one to write them. (letters are very important to the children in these countries)

We do what we can...but we've learned a lot from sponsoring in that so many freaking americans are selfish beyond belief...they will spent $30 on a data plan for a $400 smart phone...but when it comes to helping even ONE child it's "too expensive"

When I hear things like that...it makes me wonder if we even deserve to be saved at all.

 

[Hobgoblin]

My car gets 42+ miles to the gallon. I bought my wife a car that's similiar.

My wife and I also sponsor a child in India and communiate with other children in other countries who currently have a sponsor, but no one to write them. (letters are very important to the children in these countries)

We do what we can...but we've learned a lot from sponsoring in that so many freaking americans are selfish beyond belief...they will spent $30 on a data plan for a $400 smart phone...but when it comes to helping even ONE child it's "too expensive"

When I hear things like that...it makes me wonder if we even deserve to be saved at all.

Exactly. Thank you. We will spend hundreds of millions of dollars seeing crap like Transformers but we cant be bothered to send money to the needy.

 

[UltimateJustin]

Exactly. Thank you. We will spend hundreds of millions of dollars seeing crap like Transformers but we cant be bothered to send money to the needy.

That's outrageous. Surely Americans have every right to live their lives embracing the opportunities they were given. It makes sense to have a data plan on your cell and to spend money watching silly popcorn movies, because accessing the internet through your cell is highly useful for the lives WE LIVE and escapism via silly popcorn movies is a break from the stress of OUR LIVES. It's not our responsibility to notice the rest of the world.

"Things are rough all over." - Cherry Valance

 

[The Apocalypse]

Exactly. Thank you. We will spend hundreds of millions of dollars seeing crap like Transformers but we cant be bothered to send money to the needy.

That's so beyond ignorant that I don't even know what else to say.

 

[Teelie]

It's like this all the time. People always say "it's the worst it's ever been," then they forget (or it never occurs), it's been much, much worse. It could be better but it can always be better.

Pointing fingers, blaming others, grand-standing how good you are doing and helping others doesn't make a single bit of difference and despite how bad the world looks now, it's in a better place than it was even 50 years ago.

Life will not end, people aren't going to go extinct (and if we did, big deal, the rest of life will go on without us just like it did for a billion years prior). The third world is always going to be the third world compared to the rest and expectations of everyone living some high and wealthy lifestyle will never happen.

But, look at the poorest countries today. They get more aid and help than ever and even if some are still hellholes, they're hellholes that aren't ignored or exploited with blind abandon like they used to be. There is plenty of care and concern in the world and as we move on as a species gradually "third world" will end up like a modern post-industrial country is today whilst whoever's top will still be decades ahead.

 

[UltimateJustin]

It's like this all the time. People always say "it's the worst it's ever been," then they forget (or it never occurs), it's been much, much worse. It could be better but it can always be better.

Pointing fingers, blaming others, grand-standing how good you are doing and helping others doesn't make a single bit of difference and despite how bad the world looks now, it's in a better place than it was even 50 years ago.

Life will not end, people aren't going to go extinct (and if we did, big deal, the rest of life will go on without us just like it did for a billion years prior). The third world is always going to be the third world compared to the rest and expectations of everyone living some high and wealthy lifestyle will never happen.

But, look at the poorest countries today. They get more aid and help than ever and even if some are still hellholes, they're hellholes that aren't ignored or exploited with blind abandon like they used to be. There is plenty of care and concern in the world and as we move on as a species gradually "third world" will end up like a modern post-industrial country is today whilst whoever's top will still be decades ahead.

Yep. It's honestly the most arrogant thing, but many people in every generation tend to want to believe that they are somehow a part of 'the last generation', that society and living conditions have never been this bad and that everything is "just going to hell".

That's clearly not the case.