Ebony's Pearls

Wading Pool Gardens Gone Lush
Originally uploaded by nodigio

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070103936.html?hpid=sec-tech

Exactly. Unless my “click” does more than merely “click” (ie, something tangible in real life happens because of the click), I see no reason to join any of the myriad online activist groups or support groups. There are a few I have joined, but only because I could either participate in a tangible result or I could see a tangible result from joining.

I believe very much in micro-charities and micro-causes. When I first heard of these “clicker groups”, I checked them out. A few, like Burmese monks group that organized a day of action and accomplished something. Most, however, are merely “feel good” sites that accomplish nothing. They are often ephemeral, in a week, membership and activity will fall off, in a month, few will remember them. No action other than the ability to parade one’s emotional outrage or support happens. The cause doesn’t receive funds, or goods, or action that alleviates the problem being highlighted. Virtual virtue happens to click through activists, and I need more than that.

I get my hands dirty in the causes I support. I face the people and creatures who need help. I make sandwiches and give them away (Yes, I know, I said I ended the Sandwich Saturday charity, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still make and hand out sandwiches, I just no longer do it formally), I keep cases of bottled water in the car to hand out to street corner beggars (even if they are scamming people, they still need fluids), I keep brochures of addresses and numbers of groups that will help people to hand out to those who are in need, I clip and give away freebie coupons that don’t require purchases to redeem them (harder and harder to find), I teach wildcrafting and foraging and guerrilla gardening, and I’ve even taken in homeless people and critters and helped them find homes.

I don’t click; I do.