Pacific Views

Saturday Advocacy

Much has been written about how the Republicans have claimed the Christian vote. Yet, many religious people are inspired by the social gospel tradition and they repudiate the idea that the conservative right wing movement speaks for all Christians. A group of well-known Christians, including my friend, George Hunsinger, have joined together to remind Americans that one of the important roles of Jesus was that of the peacemaker. They've launched a site called Church Folks for a Better America where they are taking donations to get their ad placed in a number of the prominent newspapers before the election. Visit their site to see the ad, give a donation, and visit their sidebar of links for some excellent material from the Christian left.

Another group that has just launched an advocacy site is the Women's Edge Coalition. They want to make sure that women's issues are included in this year's election campaigns. They are launching the Million Women Challenge which will tell elected officials and candidates that helping poor women around the world is one of the best ways to end poverty and bring hope for the future. After all, poverty is a woman's issue and both national and international politcies affect women's and their families lives. They have a wealth of information about how womens issues are affected by public policies and what can be done to solve them. To learn more, drop by their site, learn more about womens issues and do join their challenge.

Does anyone deny that the problem of unverifiable, unauditable and unaccountable voting machines are going to be a problem in the upcoming election? Here is an important project that needs support and volunteers for protecting the vote this coming November. Dr. David Dill has a site called TechWatch where you can sign up to help on election day to monitor the polls. Check out their site, see what they are doing and what can be done to protect the vote even where touch screen systems are being used.

Find ways that you can get involved this year. And remember, although it is critical to get rid of Bush, we should be building a world that values liberal and progressive ideas at the same time. To do this, we need to make our voices heard and find ways to live our values. Besides which, when we are doing something about those things that matter to us, we are more likely to find the optimism and courage that helps us face uncertain times.

Posted by Mary at August 7, 2004 04:55 PM | Activism | Technorati links |