It felt so good to vote yesterday. I know this might sound Pollyanna, but I get a little heady making one of the most powerful statements in our democracy. That's how voting strikes me at least. Today, however, I've felt oddly uneasy thinking, "OK, I cast my vote, now what?" The simple act of voting set off a cascade of wanting to say more, do more. Then, in my in-box arrived an email from "On Day One."
On Day One is a web site constructed by the United Nations Foundation to allow citizens to share their thoughts on what they feel our president needs to do on his/her first day in office to improve our standing in the world and the lives of our citizens. Phew, a place I can put my thoughts just at the moment I needed to.
- Email any or all of the candidates with my message
- Link my friends to the site via email
- Sign a petition to tell Congress to support full funding of the UN
- AND copy HTML code for an On-Day-One badge for my blog or web site page.
I did all of those things. In other areas of the site I can blog a post. I can upload my opinion piece in a You Tube video, or riff in their "9 for '09" section on issues like "Poverty," "Climate Change," or "Nuclear Proliferation." There are plenty of videos to watch already in all these sections, and they're from people of all ages. You can post it all to Digg.
Best of all, the site is clean and easy to use. I did not get lost in a morass of how-did-I-get-here links. It's just enough to make me feel involved, informed, and connected--not confused and overwhelmed.
It feels good to have a say in what's going on in the world today. Get it off your chest at On Day One.
P.S. I'm sure I received the On Day One email because I am a donor to the UN's Nothing But Nets campaign. Malaria kills more than 1 million people each year, and a simple mosquito net is hugely effective in protecting people from the disease. For only $10 you can buy a net and save a family.
