We are a family of mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and daughters and sons who find it unacceptable that thousands die each day as a result of lack of one simple thing: clean water. We are distraught that women and children walk three hours one way to fill a bucket with dirty water…water that may quench a deep thirst, but may also kill them. We are pained that 4,500 hundred children die each day as a result of the lack of clean water in their community. We are anguished that 1.1 billion people walking this planet do not have clean water…while we have so much.

We’re moving loudly and boldly with our bodies and our hearts. We are calling attention to a cause and trying to raise ten billion dollars along the way.

Ten billion dollars and the world has clean water. Americans spend around 450 billion dollars each Christmas. Ten billion dollars and the world has clean water. We believe this can be done.

Join us. Check out charity: water. (Follow the link or click the "Water for Christmas" button on the right.) Donate under the "Water for Christmas" tab at the bottom. Every last penny will go toward the building of a well in a community that doesn’t have one.

Watch our passion as we dance for water. Dancing for water and watching the ripples.






(These videos are posted in good faith. Please read about charity: water and consider making a donation before you view. Every dollar helps build wells in places thirsty for clean water.)

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Jake -- Davenport, Iowa



I started saying the word globalization a few years ago because it was not a mainstream word yet and I thought it would make me sound smart. Today, it’s nearly impossible to open a newspaper or turn on the television without a form of that word being used. Most of us have our own definition of globalization. To me, it means we are all connected and that every one of our actions has a rippling, exponential impact on the entire world.

Should we fear this change? Well, first of all it’s not really a change as much as us finally realizing what has always been true. Ignorance is indeed bliss, and we’ve enjoyed our bliss. But mass communication is erasing our ability to be ignorant. Ignorance is no longer a product of passivity, but is now an active choice. It’s difficult to escape the pictures, videos, and stories of injustice around the world. We cannot escape the fact that there are injustices that exist because we allow them to exist.

Lack of clean water is an unnecessary injustice.

If my neighbor across the street was dying because of a lack of clean water, would I do something? Most definitely. What about a person that lived a mile away from me? I hope so. 10 miles away? In another state? In another country? On another continent? When would I start making excuses?

When does a person stop being my neighbor? Globalization is teaching us that the answer is never.

Give water to your neighbor on another continent or tell your neighbor across the street about what is going on. And if you really want to raise awareness and have some fun, go to the Skybridge in Davenport, Iowa at 11:00pm on a Saturday night and have a dance party with random high school age kids (all of whom were intrigued by the idea of dancing for water and wanted to know about the wells being dug and what they could do to help. Hopefully, we’ll see their Dancing for Water video soon). I have to apologize to the pregnant girl who allowed me to rub her belly for the camera. We just couldn’t find a way to make it fit into the video.

“Can our prizing of each human life weaken with the square of the distance between us, as gravity does?” -Annie Dillard
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1 comment:

LCMomX4 said...

For some reason I almost started crying when I watched this. I am so proud of all of you.

November 12, 2008 at 4:35 PM

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