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One-Click Activism
(Lane Fisher, Hope Magazine, October 30, 2002)
TrueMajority is here to help voters tell Congress to listen up. The project will attempt to engage the 50 million "cultural creatives" named by sociologist Paul H. Ray � U.S. citizens who share, among other things, social, ecological and political values that the government is failing to address adequately. . . . Instead of being guided by the values of the American people, the government is being guided by the values of corporations � which are, essentially, to maximize profits," he says. . . . Cohen's plan is "one-click activism," a free service that he believes will help Congress act according to Americans' deeper values. The TrueMajority Website lets individuals register for email alerts that arrive once or twice a month. Complementary to Working Assets' Act for Change alerts, TrueMajority focuses exclusively on national leadership and easy action. By clicking on the URL in the TrueMajority email, members open three options: having a letter in front of them faxed with their names to their own congressional delegates or revising the letter before TrueMajority sends it. Or they can send nothing. . . . Barbara Valocore, president of Lifebridge Foundation, which is making a grant to TrueMajority, agrees. "There's a large portion of the population that feels strongly about life-enhancing and values-based issues but is not getting its voice heard. If that voice of concern was really organized, we could change things rapidly for the better for all people," she says. "It's not necessary to have 24,000 people dying every day. Poverty can be solved for a fraction of the military budget." . . . Cohen fumes at the subject of military spending. "Despite all the talk about reducing nuclear weapons, our country is developing new nuclear weapons and continues to spend about $30 billion a year on our nuclear arsenal. That's enough to blow up the entire world ten times over. That didn't make any sense before the terrorist attacks, and it doesn't make any sense after the terrorist attacks. . . . "What's really patriotic is struggling and fighting for the soul and spirit of America.... The majority of the population wants to increase spending for education. They want to take care of people in poverty at home and abroad. They want the U.S. to act in a multilateral fashion, cooperating with other countries in the world instead of ... refusing to sign international treaties," says Cohen. "These are things that are based on the traditional American values of compassion, equality, and social justice."

posted by LoZo 6:03 PM