change.org

I don't know how I came across the website change.org, but I'm sure glad I did. Ok, I lied, well not on purpose. I didn't remember how I came across the website but I was looking around it more than I usually do to write this post and I came across all the petitions that I have signed and found the very first one: Hershey: Raise the Bar! I had watched a documentary on the chocolate industry and slavery and there was a link for me to sign a petition for Hershey to start purchasing fair-trade chocolate. No More Slavery Chocolate! After that, it was downhill. I would get daily emails asking me to sign different petitions and how could I not? It's real people with real issues, problems and concerns.


I have two reasons for writing this post. One, when people rally together and speak out against injustice, change happens. And two, look how the internet has transformed our world and made it a tiny place!


Okay, my first point. The causes on Change.org range from animals to criminal justice to human rights to education. And daily people are winning. In one day these campaigns won!

• After hearing from more than 82,000 people, Chase Bank called off foreclosing on 78-year-old grandmother and civil rights activist Helen Bailey. "I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders," says Ms. Bailey. "I am so thankful for the support of my neighbors and the nation."
• Last week Apple customers visited stores on four continents to deliver 250,000 petition signatures demanding better working conditions at factories making iPads and iPhones. (The delivery made news on CNN, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and NPR).  Yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced immediate factory inspections, showing that the pressure is working! But experts doubt how reliable the monitoring group’s findings will be and there are still no worker-protection plans for new product releases (when workers are forced to work so hard to meet deadlines that some die of exhaustion -- and others commit suicide). Click here to keep up the pressure on Apple by sharing Mark's petition on Facebook.
  
• McDonald's finally responded to the 100,000 people  (and groups like the Humane Society of the United States) who told the fast food giant to stop sourcing pork from factory farms using inhumane "gestation crates," (cages so small that pigs can’t move or turn around).McDonald's told all of its suppliers yesterday to start phasing out the cages -- an earthquake for the food industry.
• And some big news from last week! More than 141,000 banded together to save the life of Jesus Navarro, a father who was reportedly denied a life-saving kidney transplant, despite having insurance to pay for surgery, a volunteer donor, and a benefactor to help pay for his follow-up care. But an ABC News headline gives the good news: "Dying Dad, Jesus Navarro, to Get Kidney Transplant."

And my second point. A couple decades ago it wasn't easy to know what was happening across the ocean in Europe, Africa and Asia. Or even injustices happening in the USA but now with the internet at everyone's fingertips, those injustices aren't hidden. They are out in the open for everyone to know and act, if they choose to do so. I don't always get excited about ALL the NEW technology, sometimes I just want peace and quiet but when we have the internet to use as a tool to make change in this world, that makes me pretty happy. 

I encourage EVERYONE to check out change.org and see if there is something you're passionate about and maybe you could make a difference in other's lives just by showing support and signing a petition.