Awesome People Doing Awesome Things: Pick Up America

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Pick Up America is a local, regional, and nationwide initiative committed to reducing plastic waste in our communities and waterways. The Pick Up Artists will coordinate community trash clean-ups while walking across the country to encourage alternatives to our nation’s throwaway mentality. The year-and-a-half-long trek begins from Assateague Island, MD., on March 20, 2010, and spans 13 states to the San Francisco Bay, Calif., sometime in August 2011.


UPDATE


http://inews6.americanobserver.net/articles/youth-hike-across-country-pick-america

Blown: "I don't like the way black people talk"

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Something to write about: The Botswana Book Project

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My mother passed on information about an awesome program started by a friend of hers.

If you have any old books laying around this would be a great way to pass along knowledge.
BotswanaBookProject.org

1998, Pam created the Botswana Book Project as a solution to ease the book famine and to enable primary schools to set up libraries.  The Project has resulted in the creation of over 300 libraries.  Pam often says she feels "like a book farmer.... seeding the country with books."  To date, she has distributed over 270,000 books throughout Botswana. In March 2007, Pam was awarded the James Patterson PageTurner Par Excellence Award for her efforts in building libraries in Botswana.

Need an extra lift?

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listen out for the Bass line 3 and a half minutes into the song

NPR.org - Rep. Hunter: Repealing Dont Ask Will Hurt Military

LaCha thought you would be interested in this story: Rep. Hunter: Repealing Dont Ask Will Hurt Military
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123287737&sc=emaf

This message was included:
Need to redirect your anger?
Listen to Senator Duncan Hunter of Cali talk about "Gays" in the Military.

Come out Come out where ever you are--from CNN "Gates to unveil plan to abandon "don't ask, don't tell)

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Gates to unveil plan to abandon 'don't ask, don't tell'

February 2, 2010 7:40 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Plan to abandon policy will go before the Senate Armed Services Committee
  
• 'Don't ask, don't tell' was implemented 15 years ago under the Clinton administration
  
• Plan to repeal policy regarding gays in the military has met mixed reviews
  

RELATED TOPICS

• U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Robert Gates
• John McCain

Washington (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates will go before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, where he is expected to unveil the Pentagon's plan for rolling back the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gay and lesbian service members.
During last week's State of the Union address, President Obama made clear he wanted a change.
"This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are," he said, to a healthy round of partisan applause.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff sat stone-faced as the president made the announcement and have been quiet on the matter since the State of the Union speech.
A senior Pentagon official told CNN the military leaders are expected to support the president, but also will tell him to what extent they think allowing gays to openly serve will hurt the morale and readiness of the force.
"All they want is a little bit of time" to come up with ideas on how to implement a change in the policy, if it's approved by Congress, the official said of the Joint Chiefs.
The policy, implemented by President Clinton in 1993, bars openly gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals from serving in the U.S. military, and prevents the military from asking them about it.
As a first step, Gates is expected to call for no longer discharging people who are outed by others.
Since the policy was implemented, more than 13,500 service members have been discharged, according to Rep. Jim Moran, D-Virginia. In 2009, there were 428 discharges under the policy -- the lowest rate of discharge since implementation of the policy, he said. The highest year was 2001, with 1,227 discharges, he said.