50 Ways IX

31. Take your kids to the voting booth.
Those in the know are saying that if we demystify the actual, practical process of placing a vote, our children will be more likely to be involved in the process when they reach 18. It seems to be backed up with statistics, but I wonder why it doesn't work when it comes to putting clothes away in drawers.

32. Remember the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
Oh man, this is so unfair! How am I supposed to make a joke out of this and not be accused of a hate crime? If it were Abraham Lincoln, or George Washington, or even JFK...but not MLKJ!

33. Listen better.
What?

34. Learn American Sign Language.
There is an exponential boom of ASL learning going on. "According to the Modern Language Association, the number of students enrolled in ASL classes in higher education institutions leapt 432 percent between 1998 and 2002." I can testify to the veracity of this factual fact. Why, on the highway alone, I see more and more people using sign language to express how they think my driving is Number One...even though they seem to be using a different digit than I would to get that message across.

35. Stop drinking bottled water.
Of course, the editorial staff of U.S. News & World Report - who are all charter members of the Nature-Good/Humans-Bad Society - think drinking bottled water is evil because only 20% of the plastic bottles get recycled and they are transported by carbon-spewing trucks and kept cool in freon-leaking refrigerators. My personal reason for avoiding bottled water has a lot more to do with having more important uses for my money - like buying gasoline.