Click-Advocacy Begets Good Will and Change
My travels this week found me camping in a sweet spot wedged between the seemingly infinite Pacific Ocean and a wide swath of California farmland. I ventured out for a pre-sunrise photography walk to capture colors and shadows as day broke over the field.
Nothing like a close-up view of agriculture to appreciate what sprouts from the land. Perusing my photographs, I paused at the image of artistically arranged rows—and saw portable toilets. I wondered what it took to “encourage” farm owners to provide basic sanitation facilities for workers. And that got me thinking, ADVOCATES!
Aside from some responsible, humane farm owners, I imagine the majority didn’t concern themselves with where their workers, um, did their business during long days out in the field. Besides the hygiene aspect, for workers and for consumers of crops, human dignity also is important. Portable toilets, I’m sure, required union activists to push federal courts to rule, in 1987, that farms with 10+ workers must have portable toilets and hand-washing facilities. Is that ruling enforced? I’m not the potty police!
Ponder, for a moment, the role of advocacy in shaping our country, especially human rights. Women get to vote, African Americans now can be president, 40-hour work weeks, and the list goes on and on. These milestones didn’t occur because those in power decided to be nice. No, individuals and groups (including unions) created grassroots advocacy movements, and, after much strife and effort, improvements were enacted, and enforced.
Such is the way with Bill Tinker's Poverty Awareness Day, planned to coincide with the UN Human Rights Day, Dec. 10. Created and promoted by one of Poverty in Action’s faithful participants, Jan Lightfootlane, and her organization, Hospitality House of Maine, this unique social network advocacy effort aims to get our omniscient search engines—and star-obsessed media—to acknowledge POVERTY.
On Dec. 10, 1948, the UN adopted the 30-article statement of human rights, including rights to adequate pay and housing. We’re a tad far from accomplishing the list, but advocates such as Jan are 
pushing, this time with technology.
They want as many people as possible to look up “poverty” as many times as possible on Yahoo and Google search engines on/around Dec. 10th. They hope for 250,000 hits. The beauty of Internet advocacy is you don’t get dirty. And click, click, it’s free. Rising poverty hits will hopefully compete with the inane subjects rating high on searches. Pathetically, some media pay attention to that ranking.
Awareness is an important first step in addressing poverty. And if you have a little time this weekend, I encourage you to read the UN Human Rights statement. This link even has a “translation” for children.
Seems to me it’s time to test the theory that the Internet can change the world for the better. Make me a believer; let’s put poverty on the map.
photo by the author
Diane Nilan
is founder and president of HEAR US Inc. She travels the country chronicling poverty and homelessness.
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