Snowed In

My friend Katt sent me a message on Facebook about something awesome Teresa Valdez Klein did.  Fed up with ads like this:

.. which pray on our fears to try and squeeze money out of us, she started posting ads like this:

Teresa points out that you can pay as little as $5/day and reach thousands of people. If you want to buy some ad space, go here.  Teresa pointed her ads at the web site for Love Your Body Day.  If you post one yourself, I’d love it if you leave a message in the comments or link to this entry from your blog so we can all hear about it!

Thank you to Teresa for being awesome, and thank you to Katt for passing along the love!

This is one of a series of posts about Awesome Things To Do In Life.

A gang of six to ten ethically challenged Nova Scotia upperclassmen boys recently took it upon themselves to verbally harass a 9th grade boy for the high crime wearing pink to school, calling him a homosexual.

Seniors David Shepherd and Travis Price, above, decided to do something about it. Says David: “It’s my last year. I’ve stood around too long and I wanted to do something.”

What did they do? They organized a protest, using the internet to encourage people to wear pink the next day to school. They purchased 75 pink tank tops, armbands and a basketball to distribute to other boys. They guess that about half of the school’s 830 students participated.

The Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald reports on what happened:

“The bullies got angry,” said Travis. “One guy was throwing chairs (in the cafeteria). We’re glad we got the response we wanted.”

David said one of the bullies angrily asked him whether he knew pink on a male was a symbol of homosexuality.

He told the bully that didn’t matter to him and shouldn’t to anyone.

“Something like the colour of your shirt or pants, that’s ridiculous,” he said.

As for The Boy Who Was Bullied:

When the bullied student put on his pink shirt Friday and saw all the other pink in the lobby, “he was all smiles. It was like a big weight had been lifted off is shoulder,” David said. No one at the school would reveal the student’s name.

Not only to these boys seem to get bullying, they get community organizing, and they get the importance of privacy. Awesome.

Thanks to Lauredhel at Hoyden About Town, which is where I read about the story, and is one of my favorite feminist blogs.

This photo depicts several examples of awesome, but the one I want to highlight in the fourth installment of my series on Awesome Things To Do In Life is the bag on Katie’s shoulders. Check this out:

This is a reusable bag that the UCSD bookstore now offers for a few dollars. It’s available at all the registers, and store employees ask every customer if they want their books in one of these durable bags instead of doubled up disposable plastic bags. Over the next decade, this will have a measurable impact on the amount of waste generated by the bookstore.

OK, now check this out:

The reason the UCSD bookstore provides these bags is Katie.

She was disgusted by the mountains of book filled plastic bags she saw marching out of the bookstore quarter after quarter, bags which were almost uniformly destined for the trash. So she asked a clerk if she could talk to someone about it, and the clerk told her to fill out a comment card. She wrote a suggestion that they offer reusable bags, like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods to. She didn’t expect a response.

But she got a response, and the store manager asked her to help find examples of programs where her idea had worked, and it took a lot of months, but as of last week, the bags are in the bookstore.

The bags are in the bookstore. Because Katie is the kind of person who says stuff like “let’s fix this.”

Awesome.

I’ve been meaning to do it for months, and my half-roommate Gina went ahead and did it. She got pots, topsoil, plant food, a cucumber plant, two tomatoes and a basil. She’s got a green thumb so they get a lot of attention from her. They get a lot of attention from the sun too, right there outside the window.

Saves money, tastes amazing, fuels the soul, helps keep your food local. Awesome.

Check out more Awesome Things To Do In Life.

This happened way back in Feburary, but it’s still a shining example of awesomeness, so I’m posting it as the second entry in my series on Awesome Things To Do In Life. Dan Zwonitzer, a republican state representative from Wyoming, stood up against a bill that would prevent the state from recognizing civil unions. By doing so, he risked thorough political retribution from his party and his constituents, and that’s awesome. Even more awesome is his speech, which made me tear up a little due to its awesomeness.

Here’s the speech:

Thank you Mr. Speaker and Members of the Committee.

I am not going to speak of specifics regarding this bill, but rather talk about history and philosophy in regards to this issue.

It is an exciting time to be in the legislature while this issue is being debated. I believe this is the Civil Rights struggle of my generation.

Being a student of history, as many of you are, and going back through history, most of history has been driven by the struggle of man against government to endow him with more rights, privileges and liberties to be bestowed upon him.

In all of my high school courses, we only made it through history to World War 2. It wasn’t until college that I really learned of the civil rights movement in the 60’s. My American History professor was black, and we spent a week discussing civil rights. I watched video after video where people stood on the sidelines and yelled and threw things at black students walking into schools, I’ve read editorials and reports by both sides of the issue, and I would think, how could society feel this way, only 40 years ago.

Under a democracy the civil rights struggle continues today, where we have one segment of our society trying to restrict rights and privileges from another segment of our society. My parents raised me to know that this is wrong.

It is wrong for one segment of society to restrict rights and freedoms from another segment of society. I believe many of you have had this conversation with your children.

And children have listened, my generation, the twenty-somethings, and those younger than I understand this message of tolerance. And in 20 years, when they take the reigns of this government and all governments, society will see this issue overturned, and people will wonder why it took so long.

My kids and grandkids will ask me, why did it take so long? And I can say, hey, I was there, I discussed these issues, and I stood up for basic rights for all people.

I echo Representative Childers concerns, that testifying against this bill may cost me my seat. I have two of my precinct committee persons behind me today who are in favor of this bill, as I stand here opposed, and I understand that I may very well lose my election. It cost 4 moderate Republican Senators in Kansas their election last year for standing up on this same issue. But I tell myself that there are some issues that are greater than me, and I believe this is one of them. And if standing up for equal rights costs me my seat so be it. I will let history be my judge, and I can go back to my constituents and say I stood up for basic rights. I will tell my children that when this debate went on, I stood up for basic rights for people.

I can debate the specifics of this bill back and forth as everyone in this room can, but I won’t because the overall theme is fairness, and you know it. I hope you will all let history be your judge with this vote. You all know in your hearts where this issue is going, that it will come to pass in the next 30 years. For that, I ask you to vote no today on the bill. Thank you.

Awareness courtesy of Alas, a blog who got it from Pandagon.

Here’s an awesome person: Kathleen Hughes hangs her laundry instead of using the dryer. Saves money and energy, gets you out of the house, reminds you that you’re alive, goddamnit.

Check out more Awesome Things To Do In Life.