2009 February - replyforall blog

Archive for February, 2009

Bidder 70 and Civil Disobedience

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

A friend of mine passed along this website about a college student who disrupted a federal land auction. Tim DeChristopher had been protesting the auction, which put over 110,000 acres of Utah wilderness up for lease. Not just any wilderness, though. This was land near national parks. And not to just anyone, the leases were only offered to oil and gas companies for drilling. When the auction started on December 19th of last year, Tim DeChristopher walked in, was given a bidder number of 70, and proceeded to win the auctions of over 10 parcels of land.

The land is gorgeous, by the way. The scenery is iconic, and some of it being auctioned is near public parks, including Nine Mile Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument and Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. As you can imagine, this immediately caused an uproar from environmental groups. What exactly did the Bush Administration have in mind? Domestic oil, at any cost?

Here’s a short video of DeChristopher bidding on land at the auction– look for bidder 70:

His intent was to raise prices for the oil and gas companies, but once he won the leases, he needed money to pay for them. Thats where the website, bidder70.org came into play. The goal was to raise the money to keep leases of the land DeChristopher bid on, and now to pay for legal fees. Civil disobedience can mean jail time, after all, and the federal government has grounds to charge him with fraud, since he was not a representative of the oil or gas companies. DeChristopher, though, thinks it was the environment and the American people who were victims of fraud.

Luckily, it seems that with the new administration comes a new ruling on that land in Utah. The US district court ruled in early January for a temporary restraining order that prevented the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from moving forward with these leases. Namely, cashing the checks for the leases. Now, Interior Secretary Salazar has cancelled the leases altogether!

Salazar seems to understand that a rush for drilling oil and natural gas can have injurious effects for the surrounding environment, especially when there is no scientific review to demonstrate otherwise. My question is, can Tim DeChristopher still go to jail? Can he still be accused of fraud when the event he defrauded was concluded to be a fraud itself?

DeChristophers note on why he disrupted a fraudulent action sounded familiar, reflecting my own thoughts and words as well as the words of people I know. This has me thinking a lot more about what I can do as part of my generation to effect change in the government. To use DeChristophers words: If I am not willing to take a stand for my generation, then who will? This year I have come to terms with the idea that I might be my own best hope to defend my future. Hopefully all of us will realize that we are the ones we have been waiting for. Ring any bells?

So what actions should we take now? Are we willing to take action if the consequences of doing so arent ideal? Stay tuned for my next post about the Power Shift conference in Washington, D.C.– maybe I’ll have some ideas.

Fight the Good Fight,

Johanna Hudgens

Wellesley College 2009

$johanna\'s sig$

Tags: civil disobedience, Johanna Hudgens, tim dechristopher, utah
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Winner of our Your Message, Your Vote contest… The Humane Society of the US!

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

thank you voters!

we heard your message loud and clear. you cast your vote and your favorite non-profit, Humane Society of the United States won a $10,000 donation from us.

by including the organizations name in their replyforall.com email signatures, replyforall users helped spread the message about the important work of over 50 non-profits who competed in our contest that ended on December 31, 2008.

Our goal has been to provide a new and innovative way for non-profits to spread the word about their missions organically, virally, and sustainably through their most credible advocates, their existing supporters. Enmi Kendall, founder of replyforall, says the underlying value of the contest was that it “enabled our non-profit partners to highlight a key value of social media, namely leveraging their supporters established and trusted social relationships to evangelize their missions.”

Carie Lewis, Internet Marketing Manager at The Humane Society of the US, shares what replyforall’s signatures have allowed for them: “by including our organization in the signature with a live link to our on-going efforts, we were able to our expose our mission to even more potential supporters. we were delighted by the outpouring of votes from our supporters and their social networks.

don’t forget to continue including your non-profits in your signatures. each user continues to spread the non-profit cause message and helps determine how much of our quarterly donation goes to each cause.

invite your friends and family to sign-up for a replyforall signature too because every new supporter means our sponsors pay more to drive more funds overall for all of our causes. also, the impact for your cause grows by 50% with each new friend or family member that signs up; their impact is combined with yours to increase your donation to our amazing non-profits.

…congrats again, The Humane Society of the United States! to find out more about the work that The Humane Society of the United States does, check out their site .

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Oh my, oh me– life and the economy

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Were in a recession. Yes. The Dow reported the lowest January numbers ever, down 1.82 percent in the last week. How can we pull out of a 13-month recession?

Our bailout has reached the trillions, and corporate earnings have dropped. Many folks out there, my parents included, are shaking their heads to the fact that money will go to the major corporations, while were waiting for the trickle down theory to take effect. For me, I think a bailout plan is not going to fix the problem. I dont think giving huge companies billions of dollars is going to improve the lives of millions out there who are struggling as is. Most importantly, Im imagining the image of a boy sticking his thumb in a dam, trying to hold back the water that eventually will break through with devastating effects. I dont think a bailout will fix what is truly the problem.

My friends and I have rocky outlooks. As the economy darkens and fails those who already have jobsor didwhat does it look like for those of us graduating in May and June and looking to find them? After asking several friends about how the current economy has affected their lives, the answer wasnt so much in how they spend their money or how their investments have lost valuethough that is also the case. The two words to sum it all up: Job uncertainty.

Coming out of college looking for a job has many of my friends resigning to grad school, as crazy as that sounds. Looking for jobs where commitment to a year or two is required. My parents have even agreed that if I move back home, I dont have to pay rent for the first six months, because, we know what the economys like. Im not even sure I fully understand what the economys like, or even what the bailout really means for the average American. But I know I have college loans to repay. And I know I need a job to do it.

Job uncertainty is the same reason people are spending less, the same reason the Dow and Nasdaq have dropped. People are worried about job security and dont eat out as much, they dont buy the next big thingno reason to buy new things when theyll be repossessed due to defaulting on a loan or mortgage.

So what is the cause of the recession? Overspending, too be sure. Most of us are living outside of our means (though some of us are struggling to stay above the poverty line). Now, experts are saying that the biggest drag on the economy is consumer spending, which has dropped dramatically. Isnt this good news? I would laugh in the face of anyone who gave me advice to go out there and spend money. Being parsimonious seems smart to me, but thats just my opinion. Maybe our economy is living beyond its means, maybe GDP isnt the best measure for how a country is doingmaybe any economic measure isnt a good measure. Just my opinion. (Maybe businesses need to put a bit more focus on benefiting society as a whole, and less on making the most money possible for its investors. Social businesses dont seem like a bad option. Just my opinion.)

I dont want my tone to be negative. My dad told me that gratitude is riches and complaints are poverty. So is there an upside? If youre like me, youre looking for a silver lining.

While the stress over the economy is not good for anyones mental health, studies show that overall health improves with a recession. Interesting, isnt it? People eat more home cooked meals, get into fewer accidents from traveling less, and have more time to exercise and sleep. The cultural changes from a recession tend to outlive the recession itself. Read more about this in Tyler Cowens article in The New York Times, Recession Can Change a Way of Life.

Thats an upside, sure. But if youre like me, youre thinking better health doesnt mean paying the bills. And a recession might improve my health, but it certainly wont get me a job. So who knows? Maybe the short-term losses are outweighed by the long-term improvements. Short-term, weve gotta keep on keepin on. One day at a time.