There is something wrong. Seriously wrong.

There is something wrong when 38.8 million people stand up in solidarity against poverty across the world in one day, and it's nowhere prominent in the major US press.  It's wrong that of those 38.8 million, yes 38.8 MILLION, North America only contributed 109,828 to that number (see at stand against poverty website).

I don't claim to be a political activist, in fact, far from it.  I have my views, but don't ask me to stand up and be able to eloquently and convincingly debate them.  I also don't claim to have the answers...did I contact the press and try to get the word out?  No. (to my defense, I had only heard about the Stand Up world-wide event less than 2 weeks before it was to happen, and did, on short notice organize a small 14 person event in my community.)  That again, to me means something is wrong.  How come I hadn't heard about it?  Moreover, how did I not hear that last year 23.5 Million people stood up for this same cause and broke a world record?  I watch the news, read the newspaper every day.  I may not be an "activist" but I do consider myself pretty well informed on world events, and a strong advocate of social justice.

I probably sound like a broken record you've all heard before, but if something's broken, shouldn't it be fixed?  All too often we hear on the nightly news and in the newspaper of the casualties of war, the killings of kids, by kids, in our own towns.   It leads a person to want to turn off their television and tune it all out.  There is too much violence, too much hurt, too many crooked politicians.  The list could go on and on.  But you know what?  There are also a hell of a lot of people out there combating every one of those issues and trying in their own way to make this world just a little better.  And the more we hear these stories, the more hope there is that one day we'll overcome these issues.

So why is it, when 38.8 MILLION people Stand Up and Speak Out for something as important as extreme poverty - something 189 world leaders pledged to eradicate by 2015, including our very own United States, it's not a MAJOR story? 

The point of Stand Up and Speak Out was to show how many people DO care, and hold the governments responsible for the promises they made.  But if 38.8 MILLION people stand up, and it's not deemed newsworthy, then something is wrong.  Something is wrong when you go to "Google News" and type in "stand up against poverty" and you have to dig 4 pages deep before you come to an article published by a US new source. 

I don't believe in the "ugly American" any more than I believe in the "Islamic terrorist" or the "lazy illegal immigrant."  Individuals are terrorists, individuals are lazy, and yes, some individual American's behave very ugly.  What I DO believe, is that humans are generally good people.  38.8 MILLION of them proved that yesterday.  But unfortunately, millions more don't know that, because apparently it's not newsworthy.

Sincerely,

Jill Allison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
ghosthair@gmail.com

This letter was sent last week to several local and national news agencies in the US.