It’s Not Easy Being a Citizen

May 4, 2008 by lamarguerite

All riled up from reading about the risk of the renewable energy production tax credit not being extended past the end of this year, I set out to see what I could do to help, as a citizen. I quickly found out, it is not easy, being a full-fledged citizen in America. I thought there would be one website for all citizen directed activism, a clearing house listing all the issues at stake, with a clearly outlined process for each, including petitions, automatic links to representatives in my district, model letters to send, and suggestions for other initiatives. What I found instead are some bits and pieces, here and there:

On the Petition Site, part of Care2, you can sing a petition letter.
On Neutral Existence you can access the contact info for your local representatives
On We Can Solve It, you get tips on how to prepare for a visit with your representative

If you know of any other resources, please share them in your comments.

Posted in Activism | Tagged Activism, carbon neutral, citizen action, climate change, Global warming, petitions, production tax credit, renewable energy, renewable energy tax credit | 11 Comments

11 Responses

on May 4, 2008 at 7:10 pm | Reply JenRob

Have you tried http://www.congress.org ?
on May 4, 2008 at 7:32 pm | Reply Jeff Huggins

Ralph Waldo Emerson and/or Michel de Montaigne apparently struggled with the idea of being a good citizen (not always easy!) too. Awhile back, I saw this quote in The New York Times, attributed to Emerson, from his “Montaigne; or, the Skeptic” (1850):

“The superior mind will find itself equally at odds with the evils of society, and with the projects that are offered to relieve them. The wise skeptic is a bad citizen; no conservative; he sees the selfishness of property, and the drowsiness of institutions. But neither is he fit to work with any democratic party that ever was constituted; for parties wish every one committed, and he penetrates the popular patriotism.”

Rather than trying to clumsily write an entire essay on this statement, and trying to discuss matters of degree, and trying to differentiate what I agree with from what I don’t agree with, and trying to relate all that to the present global warming problem, I think I’ll save the time and sweat. Besides, who are we to analyze Emerson or Montaigne??

I do have one phone number you might call, and I’ll try to find that and post it when time allows. (Although Emerson and Montaigne were smart, they didn’t have phones.)

Cheers.
on May 4, 2008 at 8:42 pm | Reply Jeff Huggins

Great Place to Contact

OK, a great place to contact (perhaps passionately and persistently) would be the U.S. House of Representatives’ “The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming”, chaired by Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts.

Their website is here:

http://globalwarming.house.gov

You can send an e-mail via their website.

And, their phone number is: (202) 225-4012 (in Washington D.C.)

And, you can also contact Representative Markey (the committee’s Chairman), or at least his staff, directly at his website, which is here:

http://markey.house.gov

I’m going to try to do all three.

Cheers.
on May 4, 2008 at 8:44 pm | Reply lamarguerite

Thanks JenRob. Great resource!
on May 4, 2008 at 8:50 pm | Reply lamarguerite

This is great Jeff. You and JenRob are proving that several heads are better than one . . .
on May 5, 2008 at 6:57 pm | Reply carleigh

Have you looked at this page on Sierra Club?

http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageServer?pagename=TakeAction_CI_Energy

They give dome good direction.
on May 5, 2008 at 7:51 pm | Reply lamarguerite

Thanks Carleigh, for another great resource.
on May 8, 2008 at 2:10 am | Reply paul t. horan

Dear Ms. Marguerite,

I appreciate your enthusiasm for inquiring into the meaning of citizenship amid our species’ emergent global emergencies.

Here are a few links I find useful, helpful, informative, etc., when aiming to learn more about citizenship, sustainable governance, etc.,:

http://www.iclei.org/

I’m pretty sure these folks were featured for a few moments in Mr. Gore’s recent ted presentation.

http://www.nrdc.org/

In terms of heavy legal-lifting, Mr. Kennedy ain’t workin’ with these folks by mistake.

http://www.thomhartmann.com/

I’m mostly familiar with Mr. Hartmann’s eco-sensible views via his radio show. His Friday’s “Brunch w/ Bernie” features the honorable Mr. Sanders from Vermont who’s quite familiar with current D. C. slug-fests to enact federal legislation that honors ecosystems, future generations and sustainability in general.

Ciao for now,

paul
on May 8, 2008 at 11:30 pm | Reply lamarguerite

Thanks Paul. I am very familiar with NRDC, as I am one of their rather active members through E2. I will check out the other two!
on May 18, 2008 at 6:38 am | Reply paul t. horan

Here’s another great resource that’s particularly good at rejuvenating one’s Global-American citizenship vibration:

Attend a Michael Franti Concert, wear your dancin’ shoes ’cause his music tends to produce happy feet which tends to be good for human souls and plan to enjoy your sweet, ever-lovin’, finger-snappin’ selves.
on May 23, 2008 at 3:49 pm | Reply lamarguerite

More resources from Meryn – http://del.icio.us/meryn/:

http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/resources

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La Marguerite

A girl’s view of sustainability and social media