12/5/05: Much like 10/28, I took some time for myself (while on a business flight) after having worked ridiculous hours for the past five days (including all weekend), knowing that the coming week would also be very busy. This is part of my commitment to not let myself burn out on work or the Better World Project!
12/6/05: I bought a copy of the recently released book "The Emergency Teacher" by Christina Asquith, a passionate writer who I met at a screening in my neighborhood of the new anti-Wal-Mart movie (see 11/13 for more). Christina took a year off from her journalism career to become an untrained, "emergency certified" 6th grade teacher in Philadelphia, and this book is about her shocking experiences with the public education system during that year. I bought it not only to help a new writer to succeed with her first book, but also to support such experiential investigative journalism dealing with an incredibly important topic.
12/7/05: I called my Congresswoman, Jean Schmidt, to ask her to support the development of an exit strategy from Iraq that would bring our troops home in 2006. While I don't pretend to understand nearly enough to make an informed decision about what would be best for the U.S. and Iraq given the current situation, I err on the side of reducing our military occupation in such a volatile situation, and I definitely support the type of longer-term planning that doesn't seem to have occurred so far in our dealings with Iraq.
>> Read an Atlantic Monthly article that supports this position
12/8/05: Following up on yesterday's action, I signed an online petition (hosted by MoveOn) to ask Congress to develop an exit strategy from Iraq.
12/9/05: The Coalition for Smarter Growth is a D.C.-area nonprofit that advocates for transit-oriented development as the best solution to the problems caused by urban sprawl in our metropolitan area. I signed up for their newsletter so that I can hear about future opportunities to assist their efforts, and I e-mailed them to let them know how much I support the important work that they are doing!
>> Read their specific proposals for smarter growth in D.C.
12/10/05: Since the sidewalk outside of my house had frozen from the winter weather, I decided to shovel the sidewalk instead of forcing pedestrians to negotiate around the ice. I felt that it was a good way to support my community and make it more of a neighborhood instead of just treating it as the area where I happen to live. (And in fact, people walking by did indeed say "hi" and "thank you," which is definitely not the norm in D.C.)
12/11/05: I participated in a "bring something from home" gift exchange at a holiday party, and so I contributed a canvas bag with the hope that it would be used by the recipient in place of disposable (paper or plastic) bags.
>> See 9/19 for more