Bleeding Heart Post #34,876

Hi, did you miss my gratuitous political posts ala last fall?

No, huh?

Tough. My blog. My rules.

I hope no one sees this as a truly political post, although I suppose that’s inevitable. Mostly, this is a post about what we should do, as people, as Americans, to teach our generation(s) and the next what they owe to their country and fellow citizens.

I’m talking about the USA Call to Service. You can learn more about the details here, but basically it’s a call to service from President Elect Obama to do something, anything, for your community. The focus is especially on doing something on January 19th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Now, I know there are some people who are automatically going to scoff at this.

“Help people for one day, now you’re a saint?”
“Another politcal gimmick!”
“This is another ploy to get us to forget about the economy.”
“What about world affairs? Shouldn’t we be focusing on Gaza right now?”
“Pretentious liberal assholes…”

Some of this may be true, but regardless, I fail to see how encouraging and participating in a Day of Service is a negative thing. Sure, we should make it a daily focus of our lives. Sure, we do all have much to worry about these days. Yes, some people will use the system to their advantage.

But I feel that doing something, anything, is better than nothing.

On election day, Trent said to me (quite poigniantly, I might add), “OK, Mr. President, tell me what to do. If you want me to do 20 hours of community service, I will ask when and where.”

Now we have our chance. To find out more about how to participate in your area, please click here.

On a side note, I received an overwhelming response to my Kiva post last December, and even had one wonderful couple add Kiva to their wedding registry (Go Heath and Mikayla!). I’ve had a couple of emails asking to describe what Kiva actually does, as it’s pretty hard to put in to words. An amazing Kiva volunteer put together the following video, tracking one $25 Kiva loan through the entire process. It’s really a great thing to watch, I hope you do.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about farts and Space Camp again. I promise.