Two issues which require major public awareness efforts have leaped off the pages of Daily Kos this weekend: fair elections and the potential avian flu pandemic. I am not someone who forwards every joke and chain letter that makes its way to my inbox, but I decided these two issues merited a mass mailing for my friends, family and other people who have made the mistake of giving me their addresses.
To save you having to wade through all the links (although there is some great stuff - thank you DemFromCT and Jennifer Clare) I offer my relatively succinct message for you to paste and forward(see below).
It's the Easy Bake way to get credit for doing a great deed for America, as well as your family, friends and local community!
I don't want to abuse anyone's e-mail inbox, but I felt the urgent need to pass along links on two topics that should be important to all of us.
1. Saving American democracy by ensuring verifiable elections and fair access to polling places. In a nutshell, there is a bill in Congress that should be supported (HR550) and a bad bill that would undermine fair elections (HR3910). The following link will take you to an article that explains some of the issues. Toward the bottom of the article is a link (look for the phrase, "Please click here NOW. . .") where you can sign a letter to your member of Congress and add your name to a petition.
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=176&Itemid=30
2. Oct. 9 marks the end of "Pandemic Flu Awareness Week," and I had been ignoring it but I finally read this posting today:
http://www.psandman.com/col/pandemic.htm
Experts believe that the avian flu could suddenly become a global problem and that millions will fall ill and die. Here is a key phrase from the long article:
"Virtually all meaningful emergency planning has to be local. This is especially true for pandemic planning. A pandemic by definition happens everywhere. And one of the first things that will happen in a pandemic is a huge reduction in travel -- some of it voluntary,
some mandated. There aren't likely to be a lot of unaffected communities sending help to the affected ones. National governments will do what they can to help, but they will be helping everyone at once. Most communities will cope with the pandemic pretty much on their own."
The article conveys some serious news about how vaccines are largely developed after an outbreak occurs, and how we should plan ahead to avoid crowds, provide local services (such as public education, medical care and police protection), tend to personal hygiene, and care for our loved ones while the global vaccine supply is developed.
More flu info:
http://www.fluwikie.com/index.php?n=Main.HomePage
Football fans can argue this point, but the theme tying these issues together might be that the best defense is a good offense! Thanks for your time, attention and action!