Tomorrow, Next Week, Next Month, Next Year

It's around 11 pm here in Denver. I'm hoping that by this time tomorrow night, our country will have done its quadrennial duty and elected a new president. Ideally, we would elect (overwhelmingly) the candidate that I have previously endorsed. Also ideally, we will see an outstanding voter turnout. I think about the billions of Americans that the Obama campaign especially has registered in the last 6 months. The last time that we broke 60% turnout, we were electing Nixon, 40 years ago.

By this time tomorrow night, I want to be able to look back on this election cycle and believe that we learned some important things about our country and about our place in the world.

We shall see what we shall see.

Technorati Tags: future, politics, denver

Can you hear me now? Good.

So somebody Twittered up this article "What Happens to the Obama Network After the Election?" and it really threw me for a loop. I've had a few discussions with people about the massive success that the Obama campaign has had with social networking, in many ways changing the way that people, especially young people, interact with their elected officials. The article (in two parts) is well worth the read.

With such a huge network, there must be something that it can still do after tomorrow. Hopefully it will be more of the same, which in this case represents progressive, grassroots organizing around the issues that really resonate with "The Connected."

 
Technorati Tags: future, technology, politics

RockAfrica Denver

The Elias Fund and The 1010 Project, two Denver nonprofits, will host RockAfrica Denver, a benefit concert to raise funds and awareness for their partners in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Hearts of Palm, a local band, and Ngumo ye Rudo, a group of Zimbabwean musicians, will perform. CDs will be on sale. RockAfrica – Denver will be at 1101 S. Washington St, Denver, CO 80210. Doors open at 6 pm and the show begins at 7 pm.

Tickets are priced at a suggested donation of $15. Sponsorship opportunities are available. All proceeds from ticket sales and merchandise will go toward the work of The 1010 Project and the Elias Fund.

The 1010 Project is a 501(c)(3) humanitarian nonprofit organization providing income generating grants and guidance to indigenous development partners in Kenya while raising awareness on behalf of the global poor in the United States. The Elias Fund is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization providing hope and opportunity to Zimbabwean youth through education and community development.

For more information, visit www.the1010project.org and www.eliasfund.org.

Monopoly

The past three weeks have been spent very actively working on investigating and monopolizing my digital self. I feel as if I've wasted far too much time as it is. The diagram below is where I will be working on my presence in the months to come. If this is all very strange, it's because it is. I'm aiming for a public launch sometime in December. Hah.

Civic Duty

It's a strange thing, this American democracy we have. A federal constitutional republic, perhaps the most diverse (in any sense) in the world, full of millions of interesting people, still young, but trying its best.

I really do like it. And so I vote.

Interfaith Coalitions and Revolution

I was sitting there in my "Introduction to the Middle East and Islamic Politics" course today, listening to Dr. Hashemi lecture about the relationship between authoritarian states and their effect on political expression. He did this through a case study of Iran, explaining the ways in which politicized Islam grew to be a legitimate outlet for Iranians because there was no other outlet. This is what happens when a government squeezes its own civil society.

As he was speaking, I zoned out, and found myself wondering (because I've never checked it out) where the other religious groups stood in those months leading up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Despite Tehran's vociferous condemnations of Israel, Iran still boasts a population of 25,000-ish Jews (they've been there a very, very long time). At the time of the Revolution, there could have been as many as 80,000. There are of course Christians of various shades and Zoroastrians and probably bunches of others. I'm going to do some research and see if I can find out how involved, if at all, these groups were before, during, and after the Revolution. And of course find out if they are involved today.

It's worth noting that interfaith coalitions are really a value-added way to promote revolution/social change. Martin Luther King walked with Abraham Joshua Heschel. Gandhi collaborated with Indian Muslims and the panoply of South Asian faiths. There were Christian/Muslim/Jewish coalitions working to end apartheid in South Africa.

In all these cases, and for our current hour, the power of people of faith cooperating to do good things is readily apparent, and cannot be underestimated.

Official Endorsement of Barack Obama

I would like to announce my official endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.