10. MAXIMIZE YOUR 401K to only what your company matches. Choose a treasurey money market fund, not a stock fund that you may not understand. 401K's have big penalty fees if you need to withdraw it early, so keep this in mind. Paying off a mortgage has equal value protecting you in retirement.
11. GROW some of your own food when possible. Plant an apple or pear or cherry tree (or all three). These mentioned grow even in colder climates. If you have the blessing of a large garden, learn to plant vegetables. Once grown, this produce is CAPITAL. Trade and/or sell it locally.
12. BUY SMALL CARS! (or used) Unless you have 6 children, you have no need for a gas-guzzling SUV.
13. SHOP GARAGE SALES for things you need, and exchange goods/services on "http://www.craigslist.org.
14. IF YOU HAVE EMPLOYER PRIVATE INSURANCE- LIKE BLUE CROSS- USE IT- GO GET YOUR MAMMOGRAM OR COLONOSCOPY, ANNUAL CHECK UPS AND PAPS.-GET YOUR FLU SHOT THAT IS FREE !!!
- IF YOU HAVE MEDICARE OR MEDICAID OR STATE JOB INSURANCE- KEEP UP ON PREVENTIVE CARE BUT DONT ABUSE IT!
15. BUY NECESSITIES and GAS in the lower income areas near you, so the tax revenue goes to that area, not the higher income regions where it's not needed.
16. RECYCLE and make your own COMPOST. Make efforts to reduce trash and weight of trash- which not only helps the environment, but cuts expense for trash in your town. The more trash weighs the more taxpayers pay. Demand your public works enforce recycling and composting of yard waste.
17. REDUCE MEAT CONSUMPTION- which is a huge corporate factory lobby for DC (unless locally raised beef).
STEP TWO - PUBLISHING INFORMATION:
We all owe a great debt of gratitude to people like Naomi Wolf, Alex Jones, Lou Dobbs, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul for getting this info out to us, and their only reward will be an FBI file. And to great website like OpEdNews for publishing and interviewing Naomi Klein, Naomi Wolf, and many others. We also owe the Youtubers and Diggers who blast this info out everyday.
But now, we have enough information.
Our government systems are so corrupt that both leading presidential candidates from both leading parties must campaign on the promise of 'change', and to clean up or fix Washington DC. So the facts are no longer secret, the truth is out. And the time for action IS HERE.
It is now time to act upon the facts given us and organize a resistance. We don't have to re-invent the wheel -just follow the blueprint. Organizing requires a journal as Ghandi mentioned. OpEdNews.com is just such a journal. Please donate articles, protest news, action alerts, and when possible, even money, to OpEdNews.com and consider it to be our publishing arm. (Power to the A.R.M.)
Publishing actions/strikes to ourselves though would be fruitless. The only way to create a broad movement is to control the media, and with a small group of dedicated activists, that's a definite possibility. If as few as one thousand people committed to writing/posting articles and Youtube videos, and those same thousand people were to rate, comment, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc., each other's works the same day that they were published, we would hit the front pages of every social network out there, reaching a large enough audience to have direct actions, strikes and shut downs. (To participate in this project contact the author at realchange@votestrike.com)
Next step in the 'blueprint' is organizing locally to demand national action. The easiest way for you to find a local group is simply to go to http://votestrike.ning.com and fill out a profile with your zip code. We'll contact you with the necessary information for local activists and activities. Or, help organize a Strike group in your town. Please contact the author for details.
