Sonnjea's New Blog

Sonnjea of Koji's Kitchen (one of my favorite blogs, BTW) has started a new blog called "but tell me...Who Has Won?". It's much more serious than her previous limerick blog, which I really enjoyed until I ran out of limerick material/steam/whatever.

Anyway, here's how she introduced Who Has Won earlier this week on her Koji blog...

Welcome.

A new era dawned in America, and perhaps the world, a month or so ago; an era with hope and change as its watchwords and service as its credo. Unfortunately, our newfound national sense of do-gooderism comes when neither the government nor its citizens can financially afford to do… much of anything.

But if I could afford to do something, I wondered, what would I want to do? I’m concerned about climate change and environmental issues like sustainable farming and energy conservation. I worry about health care and the standard of living of our nation’s elderly. I don’t think people should wear fur.

Then I read George Clooney’s Nothing New To Report on his recent trip to Chad to visit refugees from Darfur, in which he talks about interviewing people who had been raped or maimed and the feeling that their stories were “not really tragic enough” to wrest people’s attention from such pressing matters as “the economy. Iraq. Ponzi schemes. The Oscars.”

And then I knew where I wanted to focus my do-gooderism: human rights. I’m not an expert on what’s happening around the world by any means, but that’s precisely the point of this blog. I’m going to share what I learn as I go along. I’ll give you the background on the issues, along with where to find more information and the best ways to get involved – with or without writing a check.

I can’t do it alone. I welcome your comments, feedback, suggestions and even opposing points of view. Keep in mind, this is my blog, so I’ll delete comments I find offensive, but I am interested in points of view other than my own. I hope to have guest bloggers from time to time, as well.

Why do I think I can have any impact if George Clooney, for pete’s sake, can’t get people’s attention? Because we all have different spheres of influence. Mine may be infinitesimally small in comparison to Mr. Clooney’s, but it is different. And you can influence people I can’t. So if we all start to make ourselves aware of the human rights violations that are happening in the world and letting others know about the situation, and pressuring elected officials to do something about it, and using our dollars and sense (yes, I meant to spell it that way) to pressure corporations to do something about it and supporting the organizations that are doing something about it… maybe something will be done about it.

The blog title comes from Sunday, Bloody Sunday, released by U2 in 1983 about the conflict in Northern Ireland.

And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me who has won?
How long? How long must we sing this song?

Please make a point of visiting this well-written blog (well - both of them, actually). If you've been thinking that you'd like to get involved in human rights, she's doing all the homework for you!