Grassroots For A Level Playing Field, Inc.

There's so much bullshit going on these days…shady, lowdown, underhanded tricks being played left and right.  We've got mercury in our fish, fish in products that shouldn't contain fish, genetically modified fish…you fuckin' name it.  The FDA, the EPA…they can't do anything about it.  They're a bunch of nerds in Dockers and oxford shirts who plan projects and generate budgets.  Besides, they're buying all of their groceries from artisans and farmers' markets and tony, boutiquey fishmongers, so they don't give a shit.

Our foods are being poisoned, our environments are being degraded, and that's just the beginning.  And it's not just about the fish, which are merely examples, symptoms of a larger problem.  You know those all-u-can-eat shrimps and scallops that you get at Red Lobster?  Those things are all farmed in pods on "ranches," just like in the Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.  It's fucking insanity, a sci-fi nightmare come true. There's practically no end to the ways in which the general population is getting screwed over by big businesses and governments.

It's usury, age-old and age-thick, and it's liars in public places.  Ezra Pound said it a century ago, and now all of that nasty bullshit's just another age older and another age thicker.

And it's not just here in America and "the West," either; it's global. When those tsunamis happen in Asia and Japan and wherever, the tidal waves bring schools of fish inland and then, when the water recedes, all the fish are left to die and rot.  So you've got these communities who've just been devastated by a tsunami and they're trying to put the pieces of their lives back together as they mourn their dead, and now they have to deal with piles of rotting fish everywhere. The authorities may have the power to solve the problem, sure, but do they have the will?  Of course not.  So in one place you've got these refugees in shelters without enough to eat, and then fifty miles away you've got a neighborhood where the streets are lined with fish that are all going to rot before anyone can eat them.  It makes one wonder if there's really any point to civilization.

But what's the use in complaining if you're not prepared to take action? And there's the rub: ordinary people have neither the time nor the resources to effectively fight the powers that be.  Folks are so busy with their workaday lives and their appointments and errands that, by the time they get home, they're pretty much exhausted.  Perhaps they have a modicum of energy to offer -- a few hours to volunteer here, a few dollars to donate there -- but they don't know how to channel their efforts and contributions.  And so they don't.  The populace's state of perpetual weariness all but conquers us and, in doing so, it leaves us divided, isolated in our silos, and unable to connect and synergize.

That's where I come in.  I could start a nonprofit organization that harnesses the masses' potential for activism by helping people to (a) identify their interests and (b) choose to bring their resources, individually modest but collectively mighty, to bear in some particular and focused way.

Let's say someone comes in looking to get involved.  First, we'd give him/her some sort of aptitude test to figure out where her interests and passions lie.  Maybe environmentalism's her bag, maybe gun control, maybe socio-economic justice…demilitarization, campaign finance reform, police brutality, saving the whales, regulation of the fishing and seafood industries, mortgage rates adjustments, the energy crisis, whatever.  We'd determine if she wanted to get involved with local issues or at a national or international level, whatever.  Does she want to donate money or does she want to donate time?  If time, does she have any special skills or expertise?  Then, once we'd done the assessment, we'd help her pick an organization to write a check to or apply to for an internship or something.  And she wouldn't even have to ever actually come in to receive this assistance…we could do it all online!  We could serve hundreds of people per year in this manner, maybe thousands. We'd be providers of a meta-service: we'd serve those who wished to serve.

I'd definitely want my company to be not-for-profit as I'm not in this for the money.  All I need is some nice office space, a small but dedicated staff, and a comfortable salary with benefits.  I don't care if this company ever makes a profit.  Fuck Monsanto and General Electric and their profit-centered business models!  That's the whole point.

So I'm looking for funding opportunities and volunteers with the skills to capitalize on those opportunities.  If you work at a foundation that might support a project like this or if you have ties to socially conscious investors of any sort, please contact me.  Likewise, if you're a grant writer or a lawyer or an IT person or a finance person or something like that and if you want to get involved, please shoot me a quick email.