A Contest of Sorts!

I discovered this letter writing project while surfing some of my favorite craft blogs recently. I have commented on the entry and left a link to both the Swap-Bot project, and this blog.

Going Local

Change comes slowly, but it does happen. I have decided to focus my project on convincing political and community leaders towards making change at local levels...very local levels. Michael H. Shulman has two recent books about the idea; Going Local and The Small-Mart Revolution. The idea isn't to eliminate big box stores, chain restaurants, or multi-national corporations, but to show that there are alternatives, contrary to popular belief.

There is much research I need to complete, so I've listed my steps.

• I will finish reading both the above books and write about each of them on this blog.
  
• Then I will start combing the local newspaper, and The New York Times (the "newspaper of record" for the US), for stories about local businesses, good and bad. The purpose of using both papers is to make links between local and national, so that the next step in my outline will work.
• I will write one letter to the editor of each paper with specific reference to a current article and link that article to something in the other paper. This is good practice as the letters may not get printed, but it is just a step in my plan.
• I will write letters, as many as possible, to the people mentioned in articles. This is to gather connections, make my voice a bit stronger.
• On a personal level, I will document my efforts for "keeping it local," avoiding big box stores and national chains whenever possible, and if I can't avoid them, writing out the reasons why I can't avoid them. Perhaps if I journal my excuses I'll see a pattern that can be changed.

In the next few days I will update this blog with ideas, action, and questions that arise as a result of my research and writing.

Just an idea at the moment...

There is a small group of folk at Swap-Bot involved in a "swap" that we hope will start us on the road to being the change we want to see in the world. I started this blog with the hope that the other swap members will join as team members and journal their change.