Blog Action Day: Lights out!

Today is Blog Action Day and you can do something.

Like punch the lights out on greed-catering advertising and self-oriented consumerism. Oh, wait, the stock market is doing that.

Actually, the subject of Blog Action Day is poverty, and the point is to get folks to do whatever they can to address it.

I've spent a good portion of my life below the U.S. poverty line. I'm out now, which means I'm really rich compared to folks in underdeveloped places. Still, it was tough and continues to be at times.

What did I appreciate most in poverty? People helping. People treating my mom and sisters and me like decent human beings. People sharing.

The credit crisis is indicative of what we'll do when we have access to More. We'll take it. And now that we've taken - for a long time and without many warnings of the now-coming-to-realize consequences - it isn't just us who's paying for it. The poor suffer, too. Even more than they did before.

My own contribution toward reducing global and local poverty is in the preaching against that greed-catering advertising and self-oriented consumerism. Oh, to see a new breed of advertisers and a new breed of consumers who err toward creating their own economic crisis from encouraging simplicity and from giving too much!