Category: take action

politics, social justice and ways you can make a difference in the world around you.

Faith ideas :: Become a home for the homeless

We talked last night at our community group of some ways we can/should put the words of Jesus into real application and practice. CMS shared this idea today and thought it was a definite great idea for local churches.

It reminds me of a great point Shane Claiborne made in “Jesus for President.” He said that while many Christians will get up in arms against things like abortion, they’re rarely willing to actually put real action into their fight. He said that Mother Theresa (whom Claiborne spent several months with) was strongly against abortion, but rather than condemn a mother for considering it, or even possibly for the actions that conceived the child, she welcomed the mother and child into her home and cared for them specifically. She didn’t just tell an un-wed mother – abortion is sin – now go solve your problem. She said, “abortion is wrong but so is me putting you out on the street expecting you to deal with this issue alone. Let me help you in the midst of your crises.”
Continue reading Faith ideas :: Become a home for the homeless

Going green

Found several examples of folks getting creative with green energy sources for transportation today (mostly thanks to the MAKE blog).

Andrew, a 17 year old in Michigan has already constructing two EV (electric vehicle) cars.
He’s converted a 1988 Mazda B2200 to electric, as well as his current project, a 1992 Toyota Tercel. He get a top speed of 55 mph out of the Mazda and can get around 40 miles out of a charge. He’s hoping to get closer to 80 mph on the Tercel. You can read more about the projects on his blog.

SUNN

Another cool project is the SUNN vehicle that was designed and built a guy and several high school students in Maine as a hobby project but is now also available through the SUNN Solar Electric Kit. The car can be charged with solar panels or being plugged in directly to a wall and gets an average of 20 miles per charge. The top speed is 20-25 mph. There’s even a cool 14 min video on YouTube showing the car in action during the day and at night.

Finally, there’s the steam powered micro-car and motorbike (moped).

I also read last week about a community that told their 15 year olds they couldn’t get a driver’s license until they were able to create a vehicle that runs on something other than oil/gas based products. So they built a pickup truck that runs on burning mesquite wood.

I wonder, if we keep putting our heads together like this, what will we discover in the next 5 years? What if the next big thing in transportation is steam powered vehicles, or maybe a waste powered vehicle? What waste product can you think of would be better suited for powering the vehicles of the future?

Whether is for environmental or economical reasons, I think we’re all beginning to agree, something must be done to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Pearl Harbor (a.k.a. the start of the Vietnam War)

i heard a funny story on NPR yesterday afternoon
an author was talking about 9/11
she said she had to walk home that day because all the subways and such were shutdown
and she stopped in a bar
two business men were talking and one said, “man this is just like pearl harbor”
the other asked what pearl harbor was
he responded, “It’s when vietnam bombed the pearl harbor and started the vietnam war”

These folks vote. Beware. 🙂

40 years ago today

Loraine Hotel

Early morning (evening), April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love…

Pride (In the Name of Love)
U2

Have we changed any since April 4, 1968? Or are we just the same people, worrying about our eight dollar hotdog and ignoring our brothers and sisters around the world who are starving, thirsty and dying of treatable diseases?

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Green Tip

This came from a co-worker on our office’s Green Team:

The website changethemargins.com is calling for printer owners everywhere to take the simple step of, well, changing their margins from the current luxurious standard 1.25 inches to a the more modest .75 inches. It may sound like a small change, but if everyone in the nation did it, we’d save a little less than a Rhode Island’s worth of trees every year. Does tinkering with Word’s cumbersome preferences scare the fonts right out of you? Another goal of the site is to petition Microsoft to change the default margins on all its Office products.

Changing your margins in Microsoft Word:
Go to “File,” then “Page Setup.”
Once on “Page Setup,” click the “Default” key, and you’ll be offered “Do you want to change the default settings for the page set up? This change will affect all new documents based on the normal template.”

Set each margin to .75 and save an immense amount of paper.