At the start of this year’s Ideas for Change in America competition, there was never a doubt in our minds that Change.org members and supporters would submit some unique and exciting ideas. From your thoughtful comments on our blog posts, to your unending efforts to raise awareness of key issues via email, Facebook, and Twitter, you’ve shown that you are passionate, creative and more than willing to take action.
Over the past two weeks, over 1500 ideas have poured in from all over the country. These ideas are diverse and varied in scope and implementation, ranging from fighting childhood disease to creating on-ramps to jobs for former prisoners.
Now, with two weeks left in first round of the competition, we wanted to provide a quick overview of the current top ideas in the 20 competition categories. At the conclusion of the first round of voting on February 25, the top three ideas from each category will advance to the next round of voting.
Check out these great suggestions:
Animals: Provide Legal Protections for Animals Through the Animal Bill of Rights
The Animal Legal Defense Fund proposes that we stop thinking about animals as property, similar to a table or chair. Instead, they are asking that Congress pass legislation that protects animals and recognizes that, like all sentient beings, they are entitled to basic legal rights in our society.
Civic Engagement: Televise the Supreme Court of the United States
What do those Supreme Court justices do all day anyway? The Alliance for Justice proposes televising Supreme Court hearings in order to give citizens a chance to personally observe one of their most important government institutions and, in the process, gain a richer understanding of how it works.
Criminal Justice: Legalize Recreational Use of Marijuana
As the War on Drugs continues to rage on without any clear sign of victory in sight, Spencer Pearson proposes that the government legalize the recreational use of marijuana, thereby cutting law enforcement costs and bringing in potential tax revenue.
Education: Obama, introduce Esperanto as a Second Language subject in schools
Journalist Renata Ventura suggests that, in this time of ever-growing connection between nations, our children need to be equipped with the tools to better communicate with people all over the world. One of these tools is the language of Esperanto, created to serve as a truly universal mode of communication, which she believes should be taught as a subject in schools across the country.
Energy: We Must Change Energy Behavior – An MPG Rating for Your Home
When people buy cars, the MPG rating is one of the most important factors that they consider. The Earth Advantage Institute proposes creating a similar ratings for people’s homes in order to encourage efficiency and curb waste.
Environment: Five Ways to Solve Global Warming Without Wall Street
Lets face it: Wall Street has proven that it’s not exactly up to keeping itself out of trouble, much less helping solve world problems. As a result, the Friends of the Earth are proposing five concrete steps we can take without Wall Street’s help to solve global warming.
Food and Agriculture: No Farms No Food: Save the Land that Sustains Us
According to the American Farmland Trust, we lose two acres of farmland to development every minute! They ask that Congress makes saving farm and ranch land a public priority so that farmers can continue to produce the food that keeps this country going.
Gay Rights: Count Everyone – Queer The Census!
Every ten years, the government uses the census to collects essential information to answer critical questions about our strengths and vulnerabilities as a nation. But how can the data they collect accurately reflect the American population if they refuse to ask questions about sexual orientation and gender identity? The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force asks that in 2010, the government counts everyone, including members of the LGBT community.
Global Health: Give women access: 215 million women want but can’t get contraception. Empower these women!
Women all over the world are seeking access to safe and effective family planning methods, but are unable to use them because they lack access to services or the support of their husbands and communities. Americans for UNFPA proposes an increase in budget spending on this issue in order to allow for greater access to contraception all over the world.
Government Reform and Transparency: Don’t Sell Elections to the Highest Bidder – Enact strong standards of political conduct for corporations
The recent Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance has opened the floodgates for further corporate involvement in electoral politics. In order to keep our elections fair and representative of the will of the people, Corporate Accountability International proposes strengthening campaign finance regulations and enforcing strict transparency rules to keep corporations out of the political process.
Health Care: Improved Medicare for All
As the health care reform debate continues to rage on Capitol Hill, Physicians for a National Health Program propose a simpler approach to solving the nations medical problems by expanding the Medicare program to serve all Americans.
Homelessness: Categorize Crimes Against the Homeless As Hate Crimes at the Federal Level
A hate crime is defined as any attack on an individual solely because of that individual’s perceived membership in a group, be it ethnic, religious, disability or sexual orientation. Based on this definition, Change.org editor Josie Raymond suggests that crimes against the homeless, which continue to rise every year, should most certainly be classified as hate crimes.
Human Rights: Return Adult Adoptees the right to their Original Birth Certificates
Cully Ray, who was adopted in 1947, proposes allowing adult adoptees to gain access to their original birth certificate in order to learn about their ethnic background, and potentially their medical history. While those opposed to returning birth certificates claim it will negatively impact the privacy of the birth mother, Cully argues that it is an infringement of the adoptees’ basic human rights.
Human Trafficking: Ban Import of Consumer Goods Made By Child Slaves Overseas
Change.org Human Trafficking blogger Amanda Kloer writes that every day, Americans buy thousands of consumer goods created by child slaves overseas. While we can’t free all of them, we can take steps to decrease the demand for child labor by banning the import of goods created by child slaves.
Immigration: Pass LGBT-Inclusive Immigration Reform
Every day, an estimated 36,000 lesbian and gay families live separately, or are facing imminent separation, because of discriminatory U.S. immigration laws. By working to pass The Uniting American Families Act, Immigration Equality hopes to help create LGBT-inclusive immigration reform.
Jobs and the Economy: Focus job creation on spurring millions of green jobs
As President Obama and Congress are all talking about focusing on job creation in order to spur our economy, 1Sky proposes that they make sure that their job creation efforts include a focus on green jobs. These types of jobs will not only help us fight the climate crisis but also unite our nation around unprecedented labor mobilization and economic vitality.
Poverty in America: Facing Up to Senior Hunger in America
Thousands of Americans go hungry each day, but one of the most vulnerable populations are our seniors, who often are forced to suffer in silence. Meals on Wheels share their idea of ending senior hunger by encouraging people all over the country to take meaningful steps, such as volunteering and donating to hunger prevention agencies.
Social Entrepreneurship: Increase awareness, education and involvement of young Americans in the fight against global poverty
Innovative thinking is the key to Opportunity International‘s idea to create a corps of young Americans to serve as leaders in the micro finance movement. They believe that by creating a generation of globally minded philanthropic professional who support empowering, sustainable solutions to global poverty, America can create long lasting results in its poverty elimination efforts.
War and Peace: Freeze Pentagon spending and fund human needs, like health care, education, and jobs
As Congress and the President continue to search for new ways to reign in the deficit, Peace Action West proposes that they look to the Pentagon’s out of control budget. After all, our total cost of wars since 2001 will top a trillion dollars in 2010!
Women’s Rights: Invest in a More Stable World, Invest in Women
Research shows that mothers play a vital role in the economic health of their families and communities. Thus, White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood suggests that the UN invest more money and time in the well-being of women and girls in the poorest corners of the world.
After reading all of these ideas, it’s hard not to feel inspired by the many thoughtful ways in which people all over the country hope to change things for the better. Did you see an idea that you found especially appealing? Go vote for it! And, while you’re at it, check out the over 1500 other ideas and vote for others that you like as well. You can vote as many times as you like in the first round, which ends February 25th, so make sure to cast your votes before it’s too late.
Photo credit: jonathan.youngblood
I would like to see a lot of changes! Most of all I’d like to see the american people bailed out instead of corporations. Cut our taxes and let us choose where we spend that money. You will find out fast which corporations are important to society. They will thrive from the extra business created by tax cuts!
Oh! i like America as it is very beautiful.
Julia
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http://www.platinumplay.eu/ppslots/btag-ad309993
Do you think it is right for CHANGE.ORG to screw with peoples petitions? What gives than with the following …http://www.change.org/actions/view/tell_changeorg_to_change_back
http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/actions/view/twenty-first_century_metric_america_in_your_state
Someone at CHANGE.ORG SCREWED with My Petitions.
Rebuttal to the Rogue is available on Amazon, and all proceeds go to Planned Parenthood.
Women constituted the majority of voters in the 2008 election. To John McCain’s surprise, gender was not the motivation for our votes. McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate was outrageous. Some women voted for McCain in spite of Palin. Others worked harder to elect Barack Obama because of Sarah Palin. Grandma Palin is tenacious. She has demonstrated her ability to accomplish a goal, but tenacity and prolificacy should never be confused with competency. Palin is not a professional woman or a dedicated mother. She characterizes herself as a “rogue” and the “Rebuttal to the Rogue” illustrates why that is an accurate description.
My husband and I share an e-mail address. How can he vote as well?
How come nobody is calling for the first, most important issue and that is, Stop the Wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq? That is what I vote for as the top ten things to do to improve America. Other issues then will become ready for the work to begin to improve the situations and implement solutions.
honestly, things are so much screwed up than most of these people realize, the only person who commented, that even has a clue is John C. Lamb.
Yes John, stop the wars, bring the troops home, fix the problems we have here, get the rats out of washington, restore the Constitution and freedom back to the people, where it belongs.
i am in the military, and i can tell you, honestly, that right now, every flippin’ day, we, are, working, for, the wrong, people. see, if things were the way they were supposed to be, i’b be working for you, the American people, but sadly, i am not (but i will be soon, you can fn bet on that one).
i’m here to tell you, because, frankly, no one else will, (because they’re too happy in their well paying, automatically paying, secure, and happy lives) that things are going to get worse, much, much worse, before they can ever get better, and, almost everyone is going to be pushed to the limit of, asking themselves, “when is too much, too much”, and, “how far can they push, before it’s time to fn do something about it”…
i’m telling you, because i am at that point now, and i hope that when i do decide to “do something about it”, that i am not standing alone, as i am now, in this room, a belittled, mockery, “oddball”, “crazy”, well, if i am any of that, than all the unhappy Americans in America, are all fn crazies, and that is just not so, at all.
you tell me…
They have us divided, bickering about small fry s%$t like they matter, while we lose focus on the bigger picture, our god given, blood shed freedom, that those who came before us had given, so much, to ensure that our todays, their tomorrows, be not filled with dread, but dreams, improving all of our todays, for even better tomorrows…
There is no “left”, “right” wing, this or democrat, or republican, extremist, anrchist, religious, …
only free, or not free, divided or united, we make our realities, don’t let someone else make our reality for us, because it’s happening, it’s been happening and it has to stop.
Here is the problem, and once again, because no one else will say it…
EVERYTHING, is ass backwards (pardon my language, but i am infuriated at how things have come along), everything from what is reported to us on the media, mis-information, to the food we stuff into our mouths, produced by somebody else (and designed, altered and proven, to lower our IQs, focus and overall intellect (amongst the nicer things)), all of it, backwards.
this one day, not long ago, i was pondering this, and i realized that you get a better idea of the truth, if you were to flip everything that came to your senses, right over on it’s back, then, you’d have a better idea of what’s really going on…
For example, the war in Iraq, major operations, with the word “freedom” attached at the end, but in reality, we have killed, at a minimum, 1 million Iraqi citizens and “insurgents” (people living there or near there, defending their homeland from foreign invaders, yes, US).
The war in Afghanistan, still counting.
Another example, fast food, watch any commercial, and see all the little, happy, smiling children, run and play with their McDonald’s food, soooo, psychotic, when we know how bad the food is, we know, but yet we eat, feed it to our children…
because it’s cheap, and it’s delicious, diabolically designed so, not by me or you, again, someone else…
I find it shocking that the most popular cause for Change.org supporters is the legalization of marijuana for medical pruposes. I support this issue, but is it the most important issue facing our country. No way. It should not even be in the first 25. I’m not sure what this says about Change.org, but it sure doesn’t represent my idea of a critical issue for the coutry.
The first Human Right is the inalienable right to life. VOTE for “Abolish the Death Penalty” http://tinyurl.change.org/TMCDB
Our government should require all US auto industries to come up with alternative fuels for our automobiles within the next 5 years. This way we would not be dependent on foreign oil any more. There is already several fuels that could be used in our existing automobiles. Some minor changes is all that is required for use of hydrogen and natural gas in todays vehicles. These gases are plentiful and cheap. We do not need to use foreign oil. The engineers and managment at the auto manufacture plants are complacent and in bed with the oil companies. They need to get off their rear ends and help our country in lieu of helping the big oil companies overseas.
Phil
MISSING CHILDREN: Whether or not the petition I started here, on behalf of the over four million people living in the U.S. who have a reported Missing family member, had any influence on helping get the two National Programs, to help find Missing Children, “fixed” so they function at the level of efficiency they are intended, I don’t know. However, since submitting the petition I’ve been able to arrange an appointment on 4/13/10 with the liaison of Senator Barbara Boxer in San Francisco to discuss our charities discoveries and accusations, that the four Federal Agencies responsible for the management and operation of the “GSA Missing Child Notice Program”, and the “NALC/USPS Child Alert Program” have failed miserably (a horrific failure) to manage and operate these important and vital FIND MISSING CHILDREN PROGRAMS, so they function as intended, and are able to accomplish what they’re capable of: FIND MISSING CHILDREN. Senator Boxer has stated she will open a “formal inquiry” into this horrific failure by the General Service Administration (GSA), the Department of Justice, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the U.S. Postal Service. I’ll keep you updated on the result of the meeting scheduled at Senator Boxer’s San Francisco office.
Technology has made it easy for people to make a difference. One way is to visit cafegive.com and shop at one of over 340 online stores such as Best Buy and Home Depot. CafeGive is an online shopping portal which allows a percentage of purchases made at these stores to be donated to one of 36 great causes. What makes CafeGive different from other micro-donation sites is the ability for the shopper to choose where their donation goes. Although we currently have 36 causes, we add several new ones each month which increases the chance there’s a charity which connects with everyone. Visit cafegive.com and feel good about the online shopping you already do!
How would I like to change America? Well, the same way I would like to change Canada, the UK, and any other country in which the feminist movement took place. Which is to put a full stop on the feminist movement and the hate-campaign on men and focus entirely on salvaging what we can from a ruined society. Thats right, I’m saying that the feminist movement wasn’t justified and it factually imposed and is imposing more damage to society than good. Now thats a pretty bold statement for one to make, especially on a feminist website, but I’m fully prepared to defend this opinion with clear, fair, and intelligent rationality. We are being told women are being oppressed sexually, emotionally, and economically. I don’t know what decade they are referencing but I’m absolutely not feeling oppressed in any of these ways. At all. In fact I’m only aware of the very real oppression of men in all of these fields to a truly offensive level. We are told we live in a “male dominated” or “patriarchal” society, but this is ridiculous given the following facts; Men make up over 95% of workplace deaths. Men make up over 95% of war casualties. Men make up over 80% of the homeless. Men lose over 80% of custody cases. Men are the victims of marriage if it turns to divorce, (which is initiated 2/3 of the time by women). Men make up over 3/4 of suicides. Women control over 70% of the total wealth and live longer. (When in history has an oppressed people had more money and out-lived their oppressors)? Now I know what you’re thinking. “But Rhonda, most politicians and positions of power are men”. Well, just like the pay gap there is a rational, logical justification for that. The number of men choosing careers in these fields far out-weigh the number of women choosing these careers. In addition, it is evident from the fact women out-number men and control 52% of the vote and are more likely to vote than men, that we women also prefer men in these positions. The pay gap? Well if you actually break it down and factor for things which equalize the comparison, it turns out women are actually making more than men. Its true. I can go into great length on this but this is getting long enough already. If anybody is interested in discussing this subject, I’m more than fully prepared to do so. In fact, I’m happy to do so. Drop me an email at RhondaL3000@gmail.com
No hate-mongers please, this is purely in the interest of intelligent conversation and education because, like I said, I’m convinced the feminist movement is and was unjustified and is doing great damage to society.
Cheers.
-R
I would like to see an aligned housing process that is more effective and time sensitive nationwide. It is a travesty when single mothers with special needs children and have gone through all the appropriate protocol, are treated with indifference. The urgency of their situation does not incite compassion or expediency. Another woman in Texas is perilously close to being evicted because her landlord refuses to accept her church vouchers, and she has been informed that the section 8 housing will take five years. What has happened to human decency? Red tape is not acceptable in this, the wealthiest nation in the world. When are our own citizens get VIP treatment? taking care of home should be a priority. Strengthening, supporting, enabling, and providing resources to families in danger of losing their homes must be addressed immediately. The breakdown of the family structure is the beginning of the demise of the U.S. we need to quit using band-aids and start fixing the problems that are plaguing families.