TODAY I REMIND YOU OF THE STORY OF DAVID AND GOLIATH! YOUR PARTICIPATION MATTERS SMALL FRIES !

Dear Friends, Those of you who have just joined us are wondering about the term "small fry." We launched this petition In April and worked really hard over months to circulate it. Some contributed in cash through change.org to circulate the petition in the early days, before supporters began circulating it themselves. Then on the 27th of July, another petition was created with the same goal by a different organization with a lot of Social Power; it made the long lull that we were experiencing to collect signatures seem like it was going to be impossible as regular people to make it happen. However, that new petition was actually a godsend. I hadn't thought about what would happen if the petition succeeded and what that would actually look like. Well, Fame for good works is not what I am after. (So the new petition totally took all of the heat Blessed be! I wouldn't wish fame on my worse enemy LOL!) Those Kudos get stored away in heaven and return in the form of the love of my creator. It made me think about what we are actually doing here and focused the purpose of our petition in my mind; it is about Building a community of people who want to engage in a cause that matters to them. Inclusion and camaraderie is encouraged as we stand together as small fries against a well oiled machine. People ask "what exactly is a small fry?" pertaining to this conversation. Well a small fry in terms of civic engagement, is someone who is not as powerful as others in terms of Money, Office held, or Social Capital, but still has something to add to the conversation of Civic Organization/Duty. Why? Because decisions made directly affect them. I realized the importance of this petition is Bigger then 50,000 signatures, but the act of including people on a journey towards human rights, as well as the act of promoting advocacy, civic engagement, community building ( where everyone is valued and appreciated for their contributions and ideas as well as encouraged to start their own initiatives for causes they care about with the tools learned during the course of this petitions life.) and finally, Social responsibility to one another. We are often told that the government should be limited and that its reach should only be minimal, with regards to the powers that it should hold over the people. This ideology is mainly a conservative one, however one must ask "then what is the point of having a government, if its purpose is not to take care of the people?" For government Officials to roll back services or to abolish them all together so that they can line their own pockets, defeats the entire purpose of the function of the overall Government. Of course we don't like certain things like paying taxes, traffic tickets etc. However, these elements of society go towards ensuring the well being of everyone. If the Government is taking taxes but not providing equal or greater services, for the taxes it is collecting then the Government is broken; 9 times out of 10, surely a broken government spells corruption in most cases. So what do we do when the government is broken? We engage civically. Now, in most democratic countries there are more than one level of government within its system; therefore, a population's grievance can come from any of its government's levels. whatever your grievance there is a person who is obliged to entertain your thoughts without prejudice. ideally this is how things should work. So what happens when it doesn't? you make your displeasure heard! ORGANIZE with other like minds! the article below will explain some ways that you can engage your politicians and civic duty. The Judicial System is in need of a restructuring; society in general is in need of restructuring, and the only way to do that is to civically engage. C.K did this by taking a knee. He engaged the public civically by shining light on a social problem using his social power and unfortunately the price for his speaking out lead to his black listing in the NFL. The Problem of his Black listing we will get back to in a moment, because that is not what this update is about. This update is about Civic engagement and how you can get involved as demonstrated by CK. So he's not a politician, or Social worker but still he was able to affect change. So what does that say for you my friends? Anyone that would tell you that this is not your revolution too, is a liar! You don't need to wait for someone to tell you how to think. You don't need anyone to limit you from caring about the things that matter to you by curbing your access to certain spaces or dismissing your passion for your cause. You also are human and these issues affect all of us! Your opinion is just as good as mine or anyone else's. The question then becomes how can we work towards the best solution for all? Well my friends this is actually what your government is for and why, if they are not performing, voting is really Important! Even if both candidates are not ideal you choose the lesser evil, because at least as you engage civically, there is a recourse to inequitable policies. Luckily for us there is a recourse to the current situation and we have taken it today as we signed, shared, and discussed this petition, We learned that we, even as small fries, have the biggest impact because with the little resources we do have all 3400 of us decided that today we will stand for justice and with a share, discussion or copying the link to your favourite haunts we have all joined forces to stand for one that stood for us! Please read the article and if there are any questions you can ask them when the FB page is presented. I am proud of you small fries. Let's get it! xoxo Gothic Girl