Do Your Part Series Part 1 - Focus on Positive Change

2008-08-21T12:57:00.000-05:00

As Americans we are given one precious vote. So many of us get tired of the negative campaigning and end up frustrated and we waste our vote. People died for us to have the right to vote. None of us should take it lightly. As American citizens we must view that vote as a duty, not just a right. It is our duty to inform ourselves to use our vote intelligently. So if you are not registered to vote, shame on you! You can register online at:

The League of Women's Voters

Many of us feel like we are helpless in this campaign. Those of us who support Obama's message to change the way business is done in Washington are frustrated the Obama's positive message is being drowned out by the negative smears and outright lies disseminated by the powerful organizations and the endless deep pockets that fund books, ads, news organizations and web sites with the sole purpose of harming Obama's character and campaign. Soon Obama's campaign will have to move off their positive messages to respond forcefully to the negatives with their own negatives. It is already happening with some misleading ads. At that point it will just be one big nasty war with all of us focusing on what we are against instead of what we are for.

Rather than engage in a fight against the mudslinging, Americans need to show that we strongly support positive change in Washington and that we are not influenced by underhanded, negative tactics. But how do we do this?

I challenge all of you to embrace positive change by taking a positive step forward each day. I am a progressive voter so I support Barack Obama and Democratic candidates, BUT the goal of this blog is to ban together to work toward positive change in Washington. To do that, we must provide the example and speak out. While I personally hope Obama wins the election, but we are all governed by whomever is elected and we must send a message that partisan ideology and politics are not what Americans want.

The power is in the number of people we can mobilize so here are the goals:

The Goals

Stay personally focused on promoting positive change in this election, in our government and in our personal lives.
Arm yourself with facts, ignore negative smears and attacks on both candidates, but call the media and the candidates out when they lie or attempt to smear the other.

Use all of the tools you have to help. Donate money to like-minded campaigns when you can, use your e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and cell phone contacts to motivate others to participate.

Do something, anything every day to promote positive change.

Too busy? Don't worry, we will makes simple suggestions that usually take about a minute to accomplish.

Today's Challenge:

Pick one or even better, pick a couple of these suggestions:

Subscribe to this blog's feed (upper right hand corner) or bookmark this page and visit every day.

Subscribe to the e-mail alerts or subscribe to the feed at http://www.factcheck.org/. This is a nonpartisan group which investigates campaign ads, claims and e-mail attacks. They expose the lies, exaggerations and truth behind both sides and are relentless in their research.

Set up a Google page, some news feeds or just go to a credible news site and read a story about the candidates or a particular issue which concerns you.

Go to the candidates web sites and read about their approach to resolving problems with the economy. Click here for Barack Obama's Info. Click here for John McCain's Info.

Feel free to leave your comments here or post your own ideas for quick, easy things we can do to promote these goals.

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Do Your Part Series Part 1 - Focus on Positive Change

Today's Challenge: