I have a ritual in the morning when I get to work that generally includes checking the top news stories on Yahoo! & CNN. Usually I just breeze through them, realizing that there will, of course, be more deaths in Iraq today, Paris Hilton has probably done something stupid, and someone has probably shot or kidnapped someone else somewhere in this country. I'm not sure why I feel compelled to keep up to speed on current events, but I do. Today was a little bit different. I followed a link on Yahoo! talking about some ads that an organization called ONE had made. We all know that Bono and various other celebrities have been on a crusade of sorts for assistance in dealing with poverty and AIDS in Africa. It's been a story ever since the G8 summit in 2005. But it has become, for me, something that I hear about all of the time. I see Oprah on her show building schools for children in need of an education. We hear about Madonna building orphanages in Malawi. Apple has created red ipods, among other things, to bring attention to this problem.
For some reason, this morning, I paid closer attention.
The ONE campaign has a fantastic web site and has made some really powerful commercials. Their goal is to support the fight on AIDS and poverty by asking Americans to support a one percent contribution of the US budget (roughly 25 billion dollars) to this problem. ONE isn't asking for anyone's money. This is a non-partisan issue. There are republicans and democrats, liberals and conservatives in support of this issue. Don't let the appearance of all of the left wing celebrities persuade you that this is a one sided issue. ONE just wants a signature, in virtual form. They ask for an email address, but who doesn't have a junk mail account? You won't even notice the extra mail. It doesn't ask for any other contact info. Go to the web site, ONE.org, and watch the commercials. Read what they have to say, and sign the petition. Or, go to YouTube and watch the commercials and some behind the scenes interviews. http://www.youtube.com/theonecampaign
That is all.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
ONE
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Hey Melanie! I work with the ONE Campaign and I just came across your blog and wanted to say thanks so much for such a great post! I also wanted to see if it might be possible for ONE to add your blog to our blog roll, as one of our supporters? We're currently in the process of updating our list in an attempt to build up the poverty/AIDS blogoshpere, and we would love to add your link to our page! Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you might have, at: meagan@data.org. Thanks again for your support, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Meagan McManus
The ONE Campaign
meagan@data.org
Post a Comment