What (if anything) do you do to make a difference?

[AmazonQueen]

"it doesn't matter" is not exactly true, but the importance of dietary cholesterol was wayyy overblown for decades until scientists figured out that it's actually the cholesterol in your blood that matters most.

I had a leek and potato pie last night containing butter, cream, cheese, eggs and cider so veggie doesn't have to be low cholesterol!
I've never really worried about cholesterol but I have low cholesterol apparently.

 

[downtown]

My wife and I have been talking about this a lot. Where we live, making a political difference is pretty impossible...I'm in most of the most democratic congressional districts in the country, and we'll only have meaningful elections at the city or state level once or twice a decade.

This is what we do now. We'd like to do more and are talking about other ways we can best deploy our time.

1) We've become pretty waste conscious about food. We usually grocery shop at bulk type co-ops so we can avoid using as much packaging, and if it isn't bone-chilling cold, we'll walk or take the train to the store. We have reusable bags and bring tupperwares to the deli to so we dont need to waste another plastic bag. We also compost. We also don't buy meat very often at the grocery store, and when we do, it's usually white meat or fish.

2) We use a cloth diaper service instead of disposables (which would easily be our biggest source of waste).

3) We give to a variety of charities, including our church, planned parenthood, the ACLU, mico-loans in the developing world, and local food banks.

4) We are volunteers for our neighborhood park.

5) We spent the first five years of our marriage without a car. Outside of taking my children to day care, and running errands when it is REALLY cold, I don't use it very much. I work from home and prefer walking when I can.

If we can find time, I'd like to actually volunteer at the food bank, and hopefully be involved in a more meaningful way in this mayoral election, or other neighborhood groups. It sucks that more meaningful political participation, if you don't live somewhere where those elections matter, depends on how much money you have.

 

[Phrossack]

My wife and I have been talking about this a lot. Where we live, making a political difference is pretty impossible...I'm in most of the most democratic congressional districts in the country, and we'll only have meaningful elections at the city or state level once or twice a decade.

This is what we do now. We'd like to do more and are talking about other ways we can best deploy our time.

1) We've become pretty waste conscious about food. We usually grocery shop at bulk type co-ops so we can avoid using as much packaging, and if it isn't bone-chilling cold, we'll walk or take the train to the store. We have reusable bags and bring tupperwares to the deli to so we dont need to waste another plastic bag. We also compost. We also don't buy meat very often at the grocery store, and when we do, it's usually white meat or fish.

2) We use a cloth diaper service instead of disposables (which would easily be our biggest source of waste).

3) We give to a variety of charities, including our church, planned parenthood, the ACLU, mico-loans in the developing world, and local food banks.

4) We are volunteers for our neighborhood park.

5) We spent the first five years of our marriage without a car. Outside of taking my children to day care, and running errands when it is REALLY cold, I don't use it very much. I work from home and prefer walking when I can.

If we can find time, I'd like to actually volunteer at the food bank, and hopefully be involved in a more meaningful way in this mayoral election, or other neighborhood groups. It sucks that more meaningful political participation, if you don't live somewhere where those elections matter, depends on how much money you have.

Here I can't make a meaningful political difference since I'm in a blue city in a state that's otherwise still very bitter about losing the Civil War. I wish I had your problem! I'd rather not have to fight just to keep us from sliding back to the 19th century.

 

[downtown]

Here I can't make a meaningful political difference since I'm in a blue city in a state that's otherwise still very bitter about losing the Civil War. I wish I had your problem! I'd rather not have to fight just to keep us from sliding back to the 19th century.

Eh, they're different kinds of problems, but there are still problems. Just because the city is virtually 100% run by Democrats doesn't mean there aren't conservatives, or that we don't have massive ethical and corruption problems. It sucks just about everywhere, but there's plenty of gross, evil crap up here too.