Social Ch@nge

Here’s the news you’re waking up to this morning.  Reading the news any day of the week can leave you clenching your fists. But you can do more about this than shake your head while you drink your coffee. Here’s how you can do something about news that makes you angry – get online and make a difference.

Spread the news

Tell your friends. I was not focused on the news coming out of the Gaza strip until a friend of mine linked me to this article and this one in chat, and pointed out that phosphorous bombs are banned by the UN for use on civilians (for details on how they burn skin to the bone, click the above link). Your friends respect your opinion, so tell it to them – and Tweet it, Digg it, Reddit it and Facebook it too.

Support Other People’s Efforts

Big organizations like Amnesty International can move fast when it comes to the news, organizing ways for you to help them apply international pressure. Amnesty Canada’s launched an open letter you can sign to Canada’s Foreign Minister and Amnesty USA is hosting online chats with their Gaza researcher to promote understanding of the crisis, and to talk about how you can help. Obviously Amnesty is not the only game in town, so list organisations you think we should have mentioned in the comments section of this post.

Get Your Community Non-Profit Involved

Yep, turns out acting locally has an impact for global change.  If you’re working at a non-profit, your organisation may have something to say about global news that will help convey the relevence of these issues to your neighbours. If the media isn’t calling you, call them (hint: reporters’ phone numbers are on newspaper websites). Tell them your non-profit’s stance.  If you don’t belong to a non-profit, but you have a local group or you belong to a religious community, talk together about what you can do to change the news you’re seeing. A good first step might be to call the local chapter of a big non-profit like Amnesty or the Red Cross to ask how your group can help.

Start Your Own Movement

You don’t have to wait for the big guys to get their act together (although it’s easier). Start a petition. Gather donations for a non-profit you like. Read about what your foreign minister is doing. Think it’s not enough? Send around an email to your friends that asks them to write your mp. Call your mp and tell them you’re unhappy about the news today, that you think it’s time we did something together to change it. Hey, and if noone is answering the phone?  Flash mobs aren’t just for pillow fights. Hold a flash protest.

The most important thing is – don’t just make yourself another cup of coffee and forget about the news that makes you angry. All of these things we’re talking about are easy for you to do, they bring attention to injustice and put pressure on politicians – and that’s how change happens.

————————-

We used the stories coming out of the Gaza strip as inspiration for this post, but that’s not the only news we’d like to act on. Please post organisations or other take action ideas in the comments section of this entry and help us get everyone past the shaking-their-head solution.