10/3/05: Like many people, my brother and sister-in-law weren't recycling everything they could – not because they didn't want to, but because they weren't sure what they could recycle and how to do it. Since I was staying at their new apartment, I investigated their local recycling options, explained their options, and started a collection pile in their place. Hopefully, this will spur them to keep recycling after I leave!
10/4/05: Mailing a bag of books from the United States to Zambia (see 9/26) was a more complicated process than mailing your average package, but it mainly involved researching a lot of complicated U.S. Postal Service regulations. When my Mom mentioned that some of her friends might be willing to send books to help the Lunga Library Project, I decided to write up and e-mail out a guide to help others do exactly that. The potential impact of compiling and distributing such a guide is far greater than what I was able to do with my small donation of books, and all it took was for me to take the time to explain the things that I had already learned.
10/5/05: I watched and rated the five finalist films in the Amazon.com Short Film Festival, a competition offering exposure to independent filmmakers. Besides helping to determine who will win the competition, viewing the films encourages the advertisers funding the $50,000 prize to continue to support independent filmmakers in the future.
10/6/05: The No Dirty Gold campaign, run by Earthworks and Oxfam America, claims that gold mining is one of the world's dirtiest industries: "It uses cyanide, generates heaps of wastes, and leaves a long-lasting scar on landscapes and communities." Although I'm sure that the extent of the impacts can be debated, I have come to implicitly trust the work of Oxfam. In support of the campaign, I signed the No Dirty Gold pledge, sent a letter to jewelry retailers asking them to pressure the mining industry to make reforms, and sent a letter to Alicia Keys (a participant in the World Gold Council advertising campaign) asking her to support the campaign.
>> Learn more about the No Dirty Gold campaign
10/7/05: I had been using craigslist to search out housing in the DC area. I found it to be an incredibly powerful tool for this purpose, though the commercial posts (spam) detracted from its usefulness. Craigslist is designed to be community moderated, meaning that a post would immediately be removed if enough users designated it as spam. This was clearly not happening, and so instead of ignoring the problem I posted a message reminding users of their responsibility to moderate the list.
10/8/05: I received a DVD from the American Civil Liberties Union containing an episode from their 10-part TV series, "The ACLU Freedom Files." I watched it, and found it to be an informative show. Instead of just throwing it away or storing it, I decided that I could best support the ACLU's efforts by passing along the DVD to someone else. Freecycle worked perfectly for this purpose, which I first learned about on 9/25.
10/9/05: Similar to my actions on 9/30 and 10/1, I wrote a letter to Senator Mike DeWine (one of my Ohio Senators), letting him know about my AmeriCorps experiences and encouraging him to take steps to show support for national service. I also mentioned that I had received letters from Congresswoman Schmidt and President Bush thanking me for my AmeriCorps service. If by some chance he decides to undertake a similar project because of my letter, I would consider it a huge victory, since that would mean at least one of his staffers would have to spend a good bit of time focusing solely on AmeriCorps (something that I suspect does not currently occur).