Democracy in Action

I generally avoid politics because as an engineer, I've been trained to discount emotions. After all, when we build a bridge, it doesn't stand or fall based on how people feel about it.

There are structures that we create however, that do stand or fall based on how people feel about them. I feel under-trained to venture into this arena, so I'm glad there's an organization that is helping sort this out for me.

In the words or President-Elect Obama, Change.org is "Opening the doors of government and asking us be involved in our own democracy again." The website www.change.org allows citizens to submit their own ideas for change, to discuss and promote those ideas, and as a democracy, decide what is important to us.

I encourage you to become a member of Change.org. You can start by voting for an idea that was submitted by a fellow blogger Andy Cline at Carbon Trace. His idea, the "1-Mile Solution", is to encourage leaving the car behind for the shortest of the trips we make, those less than a mile. At this distance, a walk is 15-20 minutes and a bike ride no more than 6 minutes. 28% of automobile trips are this distance or less. That's a significant number of trips.

The widget in the upper-right corner of the screen will bring you to the forum area for the 1-Mile Solution. Once on that page, you can click the "Vote" button and you'll be asked to sign in. Creating an account only requires your name and an email. You'll then be able to vote on any ideas you support and participate in the discussions. There are also tools for promoting the ideas you support.

Technology can facilitate democracy, but to make democracy work requires your involvement.