I reckon that this voice is one that speaks with bravery. Saying that they will stand as a united group despite the extremists! That's a hard thing to do in their dangerous and brutal area. I have met people who were roped into a middle eastern army, and must complete their service at the age of 52, should they survive. I commend those with the bravery to speak and those who feel it is not their choice yet they have the guts to keep going. It seems that there is a feeling of yours that there is a wasted effort…perhaps you should understand within yourself what that wasted effort is! Define it instead! Then put what is wasted into the recycling, and make it purpose, make it with direction, action, and achievement.

Get involved directly and see it for yourself if you think that this is an easy thing to say. Its all so easy to stand back and rock on our heels in our western society where technological improvements to mobile phones are already piliing up waste on the net and upon the earth … this kind of thing happens instead, these are the wastes of my time looking for a new phone, as the intellect gets fascinated by comparison. These are the wastes of the mind, and money, as this technology is always sneaking up the improvement ladder, instead of paying more to charities for those who are impoverished, and in need now! Instead debating ways that things are said, picking things apart instead of picking out shards of shells and glass, all talk and no action!!

http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/the-role-of-cit...

First, because it’s impossible to know whether a particular signature reflects change-going-on within the person behind that signature: whether they learned something about themselves, about Mumbai, about terrorism, about responses to terrorism. Whether they signed that petition and said to themselves, “I feel better. That’s enough. My work is done.” Or whether they signed that petition and said, “I feel better. But that’s not enough. What more can I do?”

In other words, a sense of accomplishment — even misplaced — can compel people to take action, too, just as discomfort can.

Secondly, does this Avaaz petition strike me as superfluous? Yes, but that might be because I don’t look back a mere 40 years within my own culture to see the devastating impact of ethnic division, religious intolerance, and political instability. I sense just a little bit of what that would be like, and how comforting it might be to see the numbers of signatures on this petition rise, when I hear some members of my family take up the us-versus-them post-9/11 rhetoric common to certain Fox programming. So I imagine the language of the petition may be a very powerful antidote for people who flinch at the memories of escalating, violent retributions of only 38 years ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971

I am a HUGE fan of The Point because it DOES represent a new tool that people can use to “be the change they wish to see.” But I just can’t bring myself to renounce the petition outright.

Grrr.