Pay Attention

November 19 is Equal Opportunity Day in the United States. It’s great to celebrate equal opportunities, and to enforce them–but it’s a shame we even have to think on it. The odds are stacked in favor of the few; there’s much to be done to truly create equal opportunities through jobs and education in this country.

To learn more about Equal Opportunity legislation in the United States, check out the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of the Interior Office for Equal Opportunity.

World Toilet Day
No, I’m not joking–today is also World Toilet Day! We pretty much take it for granted that we’ll be able to go Number 1 or 2 when we need to in the US, but that’s simply not the case for hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. The World Toilet Organization exists to improve toilet and sanitation purposes worldwide. Visit their website to learn more, give the gift of a toilet, and get involved.

You can also take action with your own porcelain god today by:
1. Get a new toilet (only if you need one!) of the low-flow variety.This generally reduces your 5 to 7 gallon flush to a 1.5 gallon flush!
2. Save 5 to 10 gallons of water a day just by displacing your water. Weight a plastic bottle down with some pebbles and stick it in your tank, and you’re done.
3. Write your representative that letter you’ve been meaning to write while you rid yourself of the bean dip you had for lunch.
4. Check your toilet for leaks. This is easy enough: just toss a dye tablet or a bit of food coloring in your tank. If the color shows up in the bowl itself without flushing, you’ve got a leak to be repaired!
5. For goodness sake, don’t use your toilet to flush weird stuff, waste or even cigarettes. (For a really funny story about this, and other super entertaining reads, check out Best American Fantasy.)

A Rind is a Terrible Thing to Waste
OK, so you can’t really compost online. But it’s still a wicked awesome thing to do, it’s easy, and it will cut your trash in half (at least)! If you want to try, check out Care2’s guide here.

The Choking Snake
Sounds like a Kama Sutra move, eh? Actually, the Bureau of Land Management has basically decided to do some major drilling in the Little Snake region of northwest Colorado, which would suck. It’s home to a lot of wildlife and fish, and drilling there wouldn’t only harm those critters, but also affect the air quality for local residents. Don’t want the flora, fauna and folks of the Little Snake region to choke on the smoke? Act here.

I Wouldn’t Touch Him with a… 39-and-a-half Foot Pole!
Vote on this year’s St. Louis Jobs with Justice Grinch of the Year! Your options: Western Union, Senator Kit Bond (whom I have proudly NEVER voted for), the publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and more.

Impeach W
I can’t believe that it’s possible for a president to pardon himself. To stop that from happening, let’s call for his impeachment now!

Tell Indiana U to Kick Coke Off Campus
No, I don’t mean that coke. I mean Coca-Cola, the company famous for its abuse of human rights and the environment–the very same company that students at Indiana U have been begging to have removed from their school. It’s no surprise that college kids care; let’s listen to these kids imploring for a better world and act.

A Cure for Diabetes
I was floored to learn that almost 24 million children and adults are living with diabetes. Join me in asking that a cure for diabetes be a top medical priority for 2009!

Protect Bighorn Basin
Ask the Bureau of Land Management to stop plans for drilling for oil and gas in the Bighorn Basin, which would harm area wildlife, habitat, air, and people.

Not that I don’t think he will; I think it’s definitely on the agenda. But we’ve seen what eight years of complete disregard of human rights has brought us– torture, discrimination, heartache, death… just to name a few. Amnesty International is petitioning President Elect Obama to do three things:

1. Close Guantanamo Bay (and announce a timeline to do so),

2. Issue an order to ban torture and ill-treatment as defined by international law, and

3. Create an independent commission to investigate abuses during the war on terror

Sounds like a plan to me. If you agree, you can click here to sign on with Amnesty International.

Speak Out for Wolves
Also on today’s radar, the Bush Administration is trying to revoke Endangered Species protection from gray wolves in Yellowstone and the Rockies. If you object, take action with me here.

Radio host Jim Quinn of the program The War Room with Quinn & Rose said this last week: “Gay marriage doesn’t produce anything that the state has an interest in. Gay sex produces AIDS, which the state doesn’t have – or should have an interest in. They should charge homosexuals more for their – for their health insurance than they charge the rest of us.”

Wow–really? So, like, all those men and women who spread AIDS through their heterosexual exploits should be off the hook simply because one of them has indoor plumbing and the other has outdoor? That’s a relief. Here I thought we were trying to move away from discrimination in this country. I’m so happy that it’s alive and well and thriving in the minds of bumbling Stone Age thinkers who weren’t born and blessed with the ability to reason.

(Perhaps we should charge them more for health services, since their words not only cause mental terrorism on those they defame but also deplete the IQs of all their unfortunate listeners, thereby raising costs and needs for mental health services in the country?)

If you’re as pissed as I am about these homophobic, discriminatory and untrue comments being broadcast on a nationally syndicated radio show, be sure to let Clear Channel know:

Lisa Dollinger
Chief Communications Officer
Clear Channel Communications
(210) 822-2828
lisacdollinger@clearchannel.com
Kathryn Johnson
Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations
Clear Channel Communications
(210) 822-2828
KathrynMaysJohnson@clearchannel.com
Sanda Coyle
Clear Channel Radio
(210) 822-2828
sandacoyle@clearchannel.com

And here’s a quick action from Care2: If those organic, USDA Certified Lead Poisoned, blah blah blah labels have you confused, they have an easy guide for you to check out what each label means.

Want some super easy eco-advice to follow, delivered right to your inbox? Ideal Bite has some fabulous ones. You can grab the widget below, or sign up here.

Get great free widgets at <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com”>Widgetbox</a>!

Cancer Toolkit
If you or someone you know has cancer, this toolkit from the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship can help. It’s free, available in both English and Spanish, and includes twelve modules, from communication to making decisions to living beyond cancer.You can get the toolkit here.

PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA
OK, so I wanted to say it YET AGAIN. It’s super exciting, and I haven’t partied like everyone else on the planet, so I’m celebrating by keeping a daily quota of saying that 1,000 times a minute. On to the action:  Click here to ask President Elect Obama (whoopee!) to help make this a nuke-free world. You can also ask that he make poverty a priority here.

I had to throw one in.

Click here to ask PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA (yes, I’m probably posting JUST so I can type that… again) to help war victims.

And more tomorrow. So on with the bubbly!

Wow.

I am so sincerely, humbly stoked right now that I can barely even think. After a night of being so excited I couldn’t sleep (I felt like that kid on the Disney commercial), I still don’t really know how to celebrate! Did anybody else cry? I’m sure plenty of people did. What really got me going was the part of the acceptance speech where Barack talked about the elderly voter in Florida who had seen everything in the past century. It really is utterly amazing; what will our children and theirs think when they look back on this stunning, historic day? On the revolutionary administration that is sure to come? On the power of the people who, once again, came together, and will continue to do so, until this country is healed?

Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States… And Missouri, my home state, very nearly went blue–which I was desperately hoping for. But we did go blue for our Governor, and most of the offices that were up, and I am so proud of my brothers and sisters out there who stood up and said, OK, that’s enough, we are ready for something to really change Washington.

So today… let’s celebrate this victory. We still have a lot of work to do to fix this country, but just for one day, let’s breathe a collective sigh of relief and of joy. I, for one, will be able to sleep better for many nights to come, knowing who will be in the White House.

Use this Care2 guide if you need issue info, polling locations, etc. And check out the comments…some freaky-weird stuff.

Missourians, please vote Yes on Prop C for clean energy!

NOW has posted a great way to take action–actually, six of them.

Be sure to report any problems you encounter at the polls. You can find out how to protect the vote at Common Cause. You can also call 1-866-OUR-VOTE or report your experience at Twitter. Learn about election myths here.

And finally…there’s still time to volunteer for Obama! Click here to find out more. You can even do it from home, phonebanking like I do.

Now, go vote!