I have noticed that Americans follow similar cycle. We become unsatistifed with our current government leadership. We demonize the current president. We blame the opposite political party for all our woes. Then, we build up so much hope in the future nominees. They MUST be capable of doing a better job than this horrible president we currently have. They are elected and the majority of America celebrates (after all, the majority of America voted that person into place, they won by a MAJORITY). Then we wait for our new political savior to clean up all the messes of the president who just left office. At first, their failure to do so can be blamed on the previous president. But after a while, the same political problems remain and we can no longer hold the previous president accountable. We turn on our new golden-boy. We blame him that he couldn't fix these struggles in our nation. We look for a new golden-boy. And never, under any circumstances, are WE accountable for changing our nation. We chose the president, he fixes the problems, and it absolutely is not our fault if the problems remain.
To quote an already overquoted statement "be the change you wish to see in the world." -Ghandi
I could never describe how stressful this past week was at Invisible Children as we were in a fierce competition to win $1 million. Maybe the 4 minute video will get the point across.
Or, was it the hardest? Well, it was certainly the FASTEST $1 million Invisible Children has ever made.
As you probably noticed if you are a facebook friend of mine, Invisible Children was doing everything we could this past week to get your vote in an online competition to win $1 million. And was it EVER dramatic.
This past week, we pulled together a group of volunteers (sometimes numbering over 100) in our office to reach out and ask the general public to vote for us to win. We worked 18 hour days, even on Saturday and Martin Luther King day. We called, we emailed, we texted, we snail mailed, we faxed out press releases, we did interviews on the news and radio, and then we did it all over again. All across the country, our most committed volunteers started calling us asking how they could set up call centers in their homes to get more votes too. It was incredible.
This week-long competition was not without its moments of drama. Initially, Invisible Children and TWLOHA (To Write Love on Her Arms) were battling back and forth to hold onto the first place spot. We expected this. TWLOHA and IC both have a strong presence in youth culture and this was obviously the age group that would be voting the most on Facebook. However, the difference between the two groups was that Invisible Children had club chapters at thousands of schools across America. We discovered that as soon as we activated all these clubs asking them to find votes, that we gained an increasing pace in getting votes. Hmmm, maybe the press coverage didn't hurt too.
(Additional press included The Washington Post, CNN Tech, Fox 5 News San Diego, The San Diego Union Tribune, and 91X radio)
So, amid the fury of phone calls, helping loved ones create facebook accounts for the very first time, and the press, we missed the fact that another group, Isha, was climbing in the rankings for votes. All of a sudden, we saw that they were collecting votes three times faster than we could. "Who is Isha?" we all started googling. The answers we found were interesting. -They provided inner transformation and personal growth? http://www.ishafoundation.org/ -They were mystic? http://www.midnightswiththemystic.com/isha-foundation.html -They were a cult? http://guruphiliac.lefora.com/2009/03/17/sadhguru-and-the-isha-foundation/ -They were a yoga foundation that charges $1,800 to hear their speaker at conferences? http://www.ishafoundation.org/component/option,com_program/program_id,3119/task,details/
And who was voting for them? Well according to Facebook, people with names like Sdfj Dfsjlfkddjf or Gdfg Kcjbvkljvb. And they had never had any previous activity. Or facebook friends. Or any other info about them on their account. They were gaining votes at an almost, umm... mechanical rate. And we were starting to feel a lot like Avatars, defending ourselves against the machines.
This article seems to agree that votes were looking funky: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/fraud-in-facebookchase-co_n_433928.html
I was crying. I was praying. I was barely sleeping. I asked God to please send the money to those who needed it most. And mostly, I was just working my phone and facebook to hunt down more votes for us. No matter WHAT type of votes we had to overcome, I was going to give it my all. In the last hours of competion, our 10,000 vote lead was slimming down to 6,000, then 4,500, then 2,000. Could we hold onto first place? And then the miracle tweets started pouring in. Katy Perry tweeted us. Then Rick Warren. Then, most surprising of all, TWLOHA publicly tweeted their support for us and asked their supporters to use their remaining votes to support us. And no matter what, we just kept calling. And calling. And calling. And then when it couldn't come fast enough, 9:00 pm hit. And we won! Barely. we had 123,990, Isha had 122,742 votes (a margin of just over 1,200 votes. If Isha had kept their pace for 30 more minutes, we would have lost).
So, we screamed. And danced to "A Milli" by Lil Wayne. And cried. And hugged. And Jason reminded us that this money was not OURS. It was God's and we need to invest and multiply it in a way that would make Him proud. And then we drank pink champaign on ice (an incredible gift from someone who wanted us to RELAX)... because if ever there was a time that we deserved to celebrate, this was the night.
The quote that will live forever in our history: "If they was using robots, and we still beat them, what does that make US????" -Zach Barrows
Currently, Invisible Children is WINNING this! We have one week to win. Please vote for us on facebook. Only takes 30 seconds and as long as we continue to bring the heat, this would be the biggest blessing Invisible Children could ever ask for as we would dramatically increase our ability to implement even more successful scholarship programs on the ground in northern Uganda. C'mon. You can vote too.
I’ve also found that the more I trust in Christ’s redemption to be sufficient, the less overtly religious I am. And, quite honestly, the more suspect overtly religious people become to me. When I’m with somebody who talks zealously about faith, about Jesus, about the Bible, after a while, I find myself wondering whether or not their faith is strong at all. For instance, if I were with somebody who kept talking about how much they loved their wife, going on loudly and profusely, intuitively I would wonder whether or not they were struggling in their marriage. I would wonder whether they were trying to convince me they loved their wife, or if they were trying to convince themselves. (Now that I think of it, though, some of my favorite people talk about how much they love their wives, but these are less public proclamations and more sighs of appreciation.) Faith in Christ, for me, is similar. It’s intimate. I’m more comfortable giving quiet prayers, intimate prayers. Often alone, in fact. I speak of faith the way I speak of personal matters. Of course there is a time for proclamations, but that’s the key, isn’t it? There’s a time. Anyway, I love that the New Testament is mostly intimate letters written to small groups of people who met in homes. I like the quiet authenticity of our faith. Robertson’s loudness and shock-jock verbiage seems strange and oddly uncompassionate. It felt like he was trying to tell us how tough he was, not how compassionate God is.
You may read the article in full at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/current-events/op-ed-blog/19845-don-miller-responds-to-pat-robertson
At this stage in the game, there's two things that Haiti needs. Your man-power and your dollars.
If you are a nurse or a doctor, American Airlines will provide you with a free ticket to travel to Haiti and serve. Please call 212-697-9767 to coordinate your ticket. My roommate is from New Orleans and was there when Katrina struck. He said that the number one thing that Haitians need RIGHT NOW is just people to help them clean up the mess and take care of their basic survival needs. He said that it felt so discouraging to be in New Orleans with so much work to do and no one there to do it. If you have any way to travel there, please know that it will be the best possible time investment that you can make.
There are countless charities and non-profits on the ground in Haiti that are currently distributing basic survival supplies and I would whole-heartily encourage you to donate to one of them. One great way to donate is to give to either World Vision or the Red Cross and the corporate super-power, Salesforce, will match your donation. Please visit http://www.salesforce.com/haiti/ to make that happen.
So, this student at Glenbrook North High School lives near where I went to college and it really warms my heart to see these students rally around to support Invisible Children in very tangible ways. This story is pretty tragic because he accidently burned down his garage trying to help Invisible Children (circa minute 2:55) so, I loved hearing that this student won a trip to Northern Uganda because of his creative idea. Nathan, it's possible that you made me cry today. Hope it's a trip of a lifetime!
I can die a happy woman. Starbucks' current homepage features a breakdance crew that's been dancing to fundraise for us. Let the superpowers merge. Muhahaha.
The group is called B-Boy Crew. Thanks to the dancers. And thanks to the coffee superpower for the love.
My beloved best friend, Lauren, married an amazing, handsome, incredible man tonight. Here's a couple photos from the night. Lauren and Rob, the beautiful couple
What's FUNNY is that I stopped using my I-Pod when I learned that my Blackberry could play Pandora. Then my Blackberry introduced me to the I-Pod commericial song. I'm not compelled to buy a new Nano, but I am compelled to be happier with this song in my ears. Ugggh, I'm such a dork.
"If human love does not carry a man beyond himself, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection, it may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it."
And so, I hope to always be carried beyond myself in remarkable ways. Ways where I look back and think, wow, the only thing that could have possibly brought me to this place that I am in life is love.
Hmmm, can a new year's resolution be to have sexy hair? Because this look over here on the right (Nanette Lapore's model) but with blonde coloring is exactly what I'm gunning for this year.
