Posts from — January 2012

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

This is to notify you that, on January 18th Prayerforce.Org, my website, is going to participate in an Internet blackout in order to bring attention to the forthcoming vote in the U.S. Senate on January 24th 2012 during which it is expected that the Senate will pass two Internet censorship bills that will change the face of the web forever.

These bills will actually make the Internet less safe and will not stop piracy.

Yet they will stop you from posting a YouTube video of your baby if there are any Disney logos on his T-shirt or if there is any music playing in the background that you did not compose and perform.

Have I got your attention?

About 60 million bloggers have a WordPress blog. I’m one of them.

Normally WordPress, the open source organization whose software is used by us, remains apolitical and rightly so.

But this is an issue that demands action on everyone’s part.

So WordPress has taken a stand, and it’s asking people to keep the Internet in the hands of those who know what they are doing, and who have the public good in mind.

WordPress – and I – am asking you to contact your U.S. Senators – the 83 men and 17 women who comprise the U.S. Senate – and ask them to vote down SOPA and PROTECT IP.

You can contact them via web forms and get their phone numbers to call them here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Here’s what the WordPress.Org blog says about it:

You are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it.

Normally we stay away from from politics here at the official WordPress project — having users from all over the globe that span the political spectrum is evidence that we are doing our job and democratizing publishing, and we don’t want to alienate any of our users no matter how much some of us may disagree with some of them personally. Today, I’m breaking our no-politics rule, because there’s something going on in U.S. politics right now that we need to make sure you know about and understand, because it affects us all.

Using WordPress to blog, to publish, to communicate things online that once upon a time would have been relegated to an unread private journal (or simply remained unspoken, uncreated, unshared) makes you a part of one of the biggest changes in modern history: the democratization of publishing and the independent web. Every time you click Publish, you are a part of that change, whether you are posting canny political insight or a cat that makes you LOL. How would you feel if the web stopped being so free and independent? I’m concerned freaked right the heck out about the bills that threaten to do this, and as a participant in one of the biggest changes in modern history, you should be, too.

You may have heard people talking/blogging/twittering about SOPA — the Stop Online Piracy Act. The recent SOPA-related boycott of GoDaddy was all over the news, with many people expressing their outrage over the possibilities of SOPA, but when I ask people about SOPA and its sister bill in the Senate, PIPA (Protect IP Act), many don’t really know what the bills propose, or what we stand to lose. If you are not freaked out by SOPA/PIPA, please: for the next four minutes, instead of checking Facebook statuses, seeing who mentioned you on Twitter, or watching the latest episode of Sherlock*, watch this video (by Fight for the Future).

Some thoughts:

In the U.S. our legal system maintains that the burden of proof is on the accuser, and that people are innocent until proven guilty. This tenet seems to be on the chopping block when it comes to the web if these bills pass, as companies could shut down sites based on accusation alone.

Laws are not like lines of PHP; they are not easily reverted if someone wakes up and realizes there is a better way to do things. We should not be so quick to codify something this far-reaching.

The people writing these laws are not the people writing the independent web, and they are not out to protect it. We have to stand up for it ourselves.

Blogging is a form of activism. You can be an agent of change. Some people will tell you that taking action is useless, that online petitions, phone calls to representatives, and other actions won’t change a single mind, especially one that’s been convinced of something by lobbyist dollars. To those people, I repeat the words of Margaret Mead:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

We are not a small group. More than 60 million people use WordPress — it’s said to power about 15% of the web. We can make an impact, and you can be an agent of change. Go to Stop American Censorship for more information and a bunch of ways you can take action quickly, easily, and painlessly. The Senate votes in two weeks, and we need to help at least 41 more senators see reason before then.

Please. Make your voice heard.

 

And now I’m asking you – contact your senator here now:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

If you do not, there is no guarantee that Prayerforce.Org – or thousands of other sites – will stay up.

We bloggers will be vulnerable to being sued for many things once these bills pass and our sites and blogs taken down forever, with no recourse.

So if you enjoy Prayerforce.Org and do not want it taken down, please take action today and contact your Senator. Tell your Senator to vote down SOPA and PIP (PROTECT IP).

Thank You!

This beautiful video features slow-motion nature photography and is accompanied by soothing music.

I watched it full-screen as a meditation and found that, after the first moments of explanatory information passed, I was able to melt into watching and listening, my mind emptied of thought.

This, as any meditator knows, is very relaxing.

It is relaxing – and such a relief – to stop thinking, because we are always thinking about something.

We are always thinking about something we could be doing, something we did in the past, something we intend to do in the future, something someone else did, something we want, something we do not want, etc.

There is no end to it until sleep comes –  which is why people become so stressed out –  unless you deliberately learn to quiet your mind through a meditation practice.

Then, through meditation, you gradually achieve a new perspective on the value of yourself and the value of your life.

Through this perspective you are better able to navigate your life toward the good experiences that you want.

So when people seek to release stress, they are really seeking a new perspective on life. [Read more →]