Monday, October 08, 2007

blog action day


The Walk for Farm Animals went really well yesterday, and as usual, it was fun to hang out in Ithaca. I am grateful for all the support and encouragement from you guys- it feels gratifying to know that there are so many people out there who want to help farm animals. I promise to report all about it and post pictures tomorrow, but today, I wanted to talk about
Blog Action Day.

The idea is that on a particular day (October 15), all bloggers will blog about a chosen theme (this year, environmentalism.) I am committed to doing this, with the idea that thousands of bloggers with hundreds of thousands of readers all talking about one thing will have an impact. Kind of like a modern-day teach-in, or do-in.


I know that the environment is an integral part of my life and this blog, and that this is true for many of you as well. Go register your blog and commit to blogging about the environment on October 15- and leave me a comment so I'll be sure to read your Action Day post! Your post can be a photo, a video or a movie. It can be a drawing, a design, or an essay. It can be fictional or real. It can be a recipe, a craft, or an event. This should be fun!

* * *

P.S. I can't let "Columbus Day" go by without voicing some dissent! It's great to have a day off of school and everything, but when are we going to stop celebrating this person and the horrible values his story represents? Or at least change the name to "Commemoration and Atonement for the Millions of Native American Lives Lost Day"?

My favorite book about the real legacy of Columbus is "The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account" by Bartolomé de Las Casas, a 16th Century missionary who gives a first-hand account of the violence and destruction that the Europeans visited on the inhabitants of the "new" world. Do you have any favorite books or articles on this subject? Let me know - I'd love to hear about them!


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17 comments:

Jen said...

Thanks for the heads-up, Bazu! I registered & added a logo to my blog.

Unknown said...

what veg*triathlete said, plus a lot of hugs!

david santos said...
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Rural Vegan said...

I hadn't heard of Blog Action Day yet, thanks!

My husband is Native American, so I couldn't agree with you more about Small Pox Day. There was a good interview on Democracy Now! last year: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/06/1350258

vko said...

I'm glad the walk went well- can't wait to see all the fun pics.

And I will definitely register for Blog Action because I can't keep my big mouth shut about what people can easily do for the environment!

Vegan_Noodle said...

What a great idea! I signed my blog up as well. Now I just have to come up with something to post! Thanks for the links and can't wait to read your post on the 15th!

Jen said...

Bazu,
Re: the 2nd part of your post, you inspired me to rummage through my shelves of my American Studies books (from my past life as a PhD student), but I couldn't find the book I was looking for. Anyway, here's a link to the page for Stephen Greenblatt's book, Marvelous Possessions.

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/7327.ctl

I think I must have brought it to a 2nd-hand bookshop in a ritual purging of my academic identity.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

glad to hear that the walk went well; and thank you for informing us about Blog Action Day - the environment is such an important topic to discuss/blog/do something about!! I look forward to reading your post on it, on October 15th.

I too believe that Columbus Day is a rather ironic holiday - to avoid celebrating this man, my family just refers to this day as "No Mail Day" :0)

Jody from VegChic said...

Hey there,

I saw Blog Action Day last night and added it to my list of stuff I should do.

Thanks from the animals for doing the walk.

Yeah, Columbus day is an odd holiday. A friend and I were debating about that this weekend.

Theresa said...

Ah, Columbus Day. Australians celebrate 'Australia Day' (very creative) ie the day James Cook 'discovered' this place. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people mark the day as "Invasion Day" or "Survival Day". There are always marches, and at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside of parliament they have a big commemoration every year.

Soleil said...

I'm looking forward to reading about the walk. Thanks for walking!

I signed up for Blog Action Day too. It'll be fun to see all the different ways people address one topic.

Anonymous said...

hey there! i registered my blog, www.nowheyjose.com for blog action day too. go check it out, we've got some great vegan recipes and such. thanks!

Kelli said...

Bazu-
Thank you for the information for Blog Action Day. I signed up to post that day.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Oh, I wish I could do this! I'm going to be so busy Monday--I've organized a tour of Oxford during the day that I have to attend, and then I'm meeting Michelle Obama that evening. Wonder if I'll still be sentient when I get home? If so I'd love to post about the environment, one of my favorite subjects!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the links!!

Unknown said...

Hi there!
My blog action is a tribute to the environment...with animated clips, award-winning short documentaries, music videos, newsbites from leading conservationists from around the globe, and reviews of films like DiCaprio's 11th hour.
Check it out.
Julian
www.ijulian.blogspot.com