Los Angeles is bustling city that is known for its movie stars, sunshine, and traffic.  For those who have ever visited the 2nd most populated city in the US, you know that there are tons of pedestrians, bicyclists, skateboarders, and other non-driving citizens of the City of Angels.  These very people are gaining momentum to bring Ciclovia(bike way) to Los Angeles.  An organized community and open space gathering that is to occur every Sunday in Los Angeles where major streets and intersections will be temporarily closed down to allow anyone without a car to take a stroll, ride a bike, or walk their dogs throughout the city.

The movement originated in Bogota, Colombia 30 years ago when activists and city officials organized major street closures on Sundays to alleviate the terrible traffic and car congestion in the city.  It also gives neighbors a chance to get acquainted with eachother and brings a sense of community to the once crowded streets of a major city.

Last fall a small group of bicyclists, pedestrians, and open-space activists teamed up to bring a weekly community/traffic free gathering to Downtown Los Angeles.  LA's version is called cicLAvia(get it?) and is aiming to get the first cicLAvia in the spring of 2010.  So far, they've launched small scale events with help from the LAPD to gauge how different communities would react as well as to figure out the most effective routes.  New York, Portland, and San Francisco already have versions of a Sunday road closure and Los Angeles looks to have their very own Ciclovia very soon.

For more information be sure to visit the official cicLAvia blog.

For the month of October, Just 1 Click will support The Greening of Detroit and its mission to "guide and inspire the growth of a 'greener' Detroit through planting and educational programs, environmental leadership, advocacy, and by building community capacity." From community vegetable gardens to park restorations, The Greening of Detroit is making important change in its backyard. Click to support its efforts! 

 

Click to support the Greening of Detroit, and organization that is improving the quality of life in Detroit through educational, environmental and community-building programs. 100,000 clicks = $500!!

 

It only takes a second to help out a great cause, so what are you waiting for?! Help now!!

I came across this article on www.redcrossyouth.org and I thought it was really cool! Who doesn't text now a days, and even when times are tough, most people can spare an extra $5 to help others. Skip that iced triple grande caramel macchiato in the mid afternoon and send it to help those surviving the tsunamis, earthquakes, and typhoons around the world! Every little bit helps!

Thousands of people have been affected by recent flooding in the south, and the Red Cross is there, providing shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance. You can help people affected by disasters, like the floods, by donating $5 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund using Text 2HELP.

Subscribers of participating wireless carriers can donate $5 simply by text messaging the keyword “GIVE” to “2HELP” (24357). Donations will appear on customers’ monthly bills or be debited from a prepaid account balance. Standard text messaging rates apply. To opt-out send “STOP” to 24357.

The national Text 2HELP Initiative is a partnership between the American Red Cross and The Wireless Foundation that allows customers of participating wireless carriers to send a text message to the Red Cross and make a donation to support the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. This fund enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance to victims of all disasters. On those rare occasions when donations exceed Red Cross expenses for a specific disaster, contributions are used to prepare for and serve victims of other disasters.  Visit RedCross.org for additional information on the Disaster Relief Fund and Text 2HELP. 

 

Now, more than ever, we need to come together and help each other. 26% of the US under 18 years of age. That is roughly 99,306,846 people under 18. Take out the youth that are too young, don't have a cell phone, don't have the means, etc. That's a good 10,000,000 youth. Imagine if we all sent in just $5 once. $50,000,000 to help struggling countries and peoples live. 

Truth, the youth isn't the future. Face it, we're not. Sorry to burst your bubble.

But you know what we are?

We, the youth, are the PRESENT.

We're not just going to be living in the future, we're living now. Living in the US there's so many opportunities and doors waiting to be open. Can't we lend a hand to our youth around the world, praying just to make it through the day and hopefully have some clean water and if they're lucky enough to find food.

 

I have been fortunate to not personally know anyone directly involved with the any of the disasters that have happened in the past two weeks. However, one of my coworker's husband just moved back to the Philippines last week, right after the large typhoon hit and the country was being flooded. His house was destroyed and he's now living with his family up in the mountains. He's in his 40s, grew up in the Filippines, and he-like many others-is devastated by the state of his own country.

For more information on how to help, visit www.redcross.org/en.

Take some constructive criticism for a moment and just hear me out.

 YOU ALL ARE NOTHING.

 Everyday, I visit so many websites and forums and discussion boards, such as those here on Youth Noise and Socialvibe. Everyday, I see thousands of people, young and adult, big and small, depressed and content, so many different people chatting on the net. Everyone on these sites have one thing in common: They want to see a change in our world. A change for the better of course. Keep keep coming up with ideas of how we should make this change. But most of the time, it seems that we're trying to tell our leaders what they should be doing!

But you know what? WE'RE NOT THE ONES IN CHARGE!

 This is the fact that everyone must admit to FIRST, if we are to actually get anywhere with what we want. Again: what DO we want? CHANGE for the BETTER!

Now, when I say "We" I refer to us as in the thousands of people on the net that are chatting on these forums everyday.

 So, the only thing we seem to be doing EVER is talk about it! And we keep asking our leaders to do what we want them to do. And what happens when they DON'T listen? We COMPLAIN!!!

 COMPLAIN!?!?!?!??!???????

 Everyone is acting like a bunch of little kids these days! Just last night in the news I saw a riot outside the "Late Show" with people shouting "David Letterman is a perv! Fire him!" And I thought to myself, what the HELL?? I thought only young, rebellious teens called people pervs!

 I just don't understand why this is so complicated. If they don't hear you guys the first time, you don't fall back and start complaining.

YOU SPEAK LOUDER!!

Maybe they'll start listening if you start speaking out a bit louder!

DO NOT LET THEIR DECLINE MAKE YOU GIVE UP!

NEVER GIVE UP!

When they say "NO" I don't want to see people take that as their final answer! Keep chasing them! Keep yelling at them! Keep telling them what you want! But support it, of course! Tell them WHY! Give them a good reason! Tell them how it will affect THEM! Tell them how it will affect the country!

Because all these leaders care about it making their country look good, we have to help them if we're going to let them listen to us!

Most if not all politicians are greedy! And GREED is the root of all evils. GREED is the reason we are still at war. GREED is the reason change will never come!

So we have two choice: find a way to take away their greed. Or, help them get what they want! Satisfy their greedy souls.

THEN AND ONLY THEN WILL BE THE TIME TO MAKE OUR MOVE AND ASK FOR OUR CHANGE!

I will come to an end of this call to action soon. Let me just clear something up before I do end.

As for me, don't think that I am complaining also. I keep yelling at these leaders every day, in whichever way I can. Adn I don't have very many choices, seeing as I'm only 15 years old! Nevertheless, I am doing all I can, 24/7, to get the word out to our leaders that we want peace! We want justice! We want the TRUTH!

Put an end to all liars! Put and end to all wars! Just leave each other alone if that's what it'll have to take!

By the way, please understand that you should not blame OUR LEADERS for the wars. I can tell you for certain that they are doing ALL THAT THEY POSSIBLY CAN to keep war OUT! They would LOVE to end the War in Iraq right now! There's just one problem: the other side won't stop shooting.

And THAT'S what everyone doesn't get, which is why they like to blame our government for war. It is WRONG!

 Thank you for reading, and I hope you will take action.

 

Christopher Michael Speciale.

Future Peace Activist and possibly First Man to Set Foot On Mars (2038).

A few weeks ago I wrote a paper on animal rights activists for my English class. It was actually a summary of someone else's short article, but I couldn't help but expand on the piece. It was a piece titled "Who Are Those Animal Rights Activists Anyway?" by Tom Regan. He addressed the myths about animal rights activists and brought up an undeniable point, everyone is an extremist about something, yet only certain groups are labeled terrorists.He used our society's look on child abuse (it's wrong) as an example. As a whole, we don't make exceptions for someone who hurts their child. If it's brought to our attention we tend to be disgusted and feel sorry for the child. I know I, along with my friends and family, do. Not once have I ever felt a child deserved to be hit (including spanked). It's violence, pure and simple. Of course there are some people who feel that they have some "right" to keep their kid in a very narrow line. They think they effectively do this by physical and mental assault. Yeah, mental evolution hasn't reached everyone apparently.The Animal rights cause is just like that. The only difference is the majority currently allow the suffering of innocent creatures to happen for various reasons. I've found the two most common to be pure ignorance and personal greed. Sounds familiar doesn't it? It's exactly what humans have done for however many years we want to go back. We like to think the world is a fine and dandy place. Kids aren't being objectified, nor are animals (they're here for us to use, don'tcha know!). If it puts food on my table then it's a good thing little Johnny works in the fields for ten cents a day. It's a good thing Betsy produces much more milk than her body was meant to.Now to my point; A few days ago (okay, more like a week or two ago) the FBI added some animal rights activists to their list of most wanted. One person in particular is wanted for doing property bombings (no one was harmed, and from my understanding no one was on the properties when they occurred). I in no way condone the use of violence to further the cause, and in no way can I justify such an action. But aren't there people out there who are not members of the animal rights communities and blowing off bombs?

I'm well aware of how things work. Generalizations are made because they're easy to get away with. However, does that justify calling the many, many animal rights activists in the States terrorists? Isn't that like calling every athlete a drug user and abuser because some have come clean about steroid use? What about the people poisoning our food supply and robbing us for everything we're worth? What about the way they take advantage of the fact that we, as a group, trust them to do what's right for the country, not for their wallets? How many people have lost their shirts off their backs because of greed? What about the people who've brainwashed our society to want, want, want because we can never have enough to be happy? What about the people who've ingrained in our heads that we have to be PC because this is America? How did they manage to get rid of our Constitution? Aren't they more terrorists than anyone else? Don't they pose the greatest threat to what our country was always intended to be ... free?