Getting it together

Here's a post I've been meaning to point out, from the Daily Kos:

Learning to organize

Mary represents a lot of the people I've met since starting this blog, and before: People who see a gigantic train wreck coming down the track and believe they can still do something about it. Average citizens who are frightened at the kind of world the Bush administration is shoving down their throats and are fighting back with everything they've got. It's their first time feeling this, and they're not sure where it's going to take them, but all they know is that they want to fight it. So they do what they can.

Mary's idea is sound: There's a lot of information floating about out there which isn't being networked or funneled in a coheisve fashion that can make a difference, particularly in the blogosphere. She wants to create a clearinghouse where perhaps a cohesive strategy can be worked out for building a long-term progressive agenda.

Mary's plan actually follows more or less the prescription that I gave a group of antiwar activists in Bellingham a few weeks back, who asked me in to speak on media issues: The current media, particularly mainstream U.S. media, has become unconscionably unreliable; this is particularly true regarding antiwar activists' access to fair treatment at any level of the mainstream media, from local newspapers to Bill O'Reilly. Forget about getting your message out, or even effectively organizing, through these formerly traditional means. Ain't gonna happen.

What has to happen is that every voice out there needs to network with all those other voices. The Internet, for all its drawbacks, offers a powerful tool that way. And building an alternative network, and ultimately an alternative media, is the only solution. The bastards have taken over, and they're not giving it back.

Go join your voice with Mary's.