kathleenJ wrote:If only online petitions could change the world.
I know. But it's easy to do (which might be why they don't count much (plus how easy they are to forge at least, but I hope that site can be recognized as fairly honorable with time)). And way better than those stupid chain letters.
Incidentally, I was on a developers meeting for the [url="http://developer.skolelinux.no/index.html.en"]Skolelinux[/url] project and met up with a latvian guy and one from the US. Of course things just had to end up with political and cultural issues with time, and we ended up with some interesting conclusions.
One, being americans are generally more scared than europeans. Might come from being practically on your own if things got wrong, while european governments generally provide more safeblankets. Another point would be the country being so small, each person by themselves
would seem smaller, more insignificant.
Now the other point: Europens, recognizing things to be bad, would turn serious and angry, and try to do something with it. Americans generally see it as entertainment. "Yeah, the government is corrupt! You wanna see how Bush looks like as a baboon?"
Where's that going to bring you?
You can easily throw the same amount of jokes on europeans, no doubt.
But seriosly: You
can do something to change your world. Not much of course, but you
can be a tiny wiggle of difference. Just as much as others can make a difference to you. You can make other people see the beauty of people, even when they're far from perfect. You can pick up a pet project. Or you can contribute to a deeper understanding.
I guess it's important to be considerate, not to jump on the latest frenzy just because or turn a deaf ear on your opponents.
But come on.. without belief you'll get nowhere.