I was just about to put up a new post, but decided I’d lounge a bit with my cup of coffee and my Google Reader first.  David, The Good Human, has a post up for Blog Action Day, and I was so inspired by it that I decided I’d put aside the post I’d planned for today to talk about the Blog Action Day topic – poverty.

There are almost 11,000 bloggers participating by blogging about poverty today.  If you’d like to join in, check out BlogActionDay.org.

Last night, I was exhausted.  I tried to watch Frontline’s study of the presidential candidates, but kept dozing off.  I did, however, wake up in time to hear a clip from a speech by a certain presidental candidate, and even though I’d heard it before, I was moved to tears.

If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandmother. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It’s that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper — that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. “E pluribus unum.” Out of many, one.

I don’t believe that the environment should be a partisan issue, which is why I shy away from discussing politics on this site.  All politics aside, I think this is a beautiful concept.  We are all in this together, aren’t we?  The very existence of poverty makes all of our lives poorer, even if we feel it doesn’t touch us directly.

The amazing thing about taking up poverty as a cause is how easy it is to take action.  Action can be as simple as stopping by a shelter with warm winter clothes your family can no longer use, knitting up some hats and mittens with yarn leftover from a project, or sewing a quilt out of fabric scraps to help keep someone warm.  Action can be forgoing one dinner out a month to sponsor a child through Children International, loaning money through Kiva.org, or donating time through the Hands On Network.  It can be bringing your garden surplus to a food pantry, picking up a few extra cans of soup or beans to donate, or making an extra casserole for a neighbor who’s having trouble making ends meet.

Most of us feel stretched thin on time and money right now, but if the existence of poverty makes all of us poorer, collective action against poverty stands to enrich all of our lives.

In the spirit of Blog Action Day, I will be donating today’s advertising income to The Cambodian Children’s Fund through my friend Neil’s project.