Change.org: non-Millennials need not apply

Well, I wanted to write more about Marion Stoddard...and I will. I just came up with so many questions...what did she do before she got married and had children...where did she grow up, etc? So, I wrote to the NRWA asking for more information. They may answer me...or I may have to find people in Groton who know her better than I did. I will get back to her story.

Tonight, I'm not feeling my usual optimistic self. Tonight, I feel every bit my age and discouraged.

I've been hounding change.org to include disability rights in their top agenda items. I mean, they did start with some issues that they felt were not negotiable: End Homelessness, End the War in Iraq, etc.

Change.gov (the official site of the Obama-Biden Transition Team) has had disability rights in the top 24 from the beginning.

Change.org is supposed to be the companion citizen site. Except it's not.

Change.org is the 'Y' generation or Millennials site for social entrepreneurship. It took me a lot longer than it should have for me to get the hint. The site is designed to be the voice of a generation....not mine.

I don't mean to bad-mouth them. I think the discussions and humanitarian drive...and problem solving is terrific. I like the writing and the issues (except for not including disability rights), but between Alex Steed's FEATURED blog and the age of all the bloggers; I realize that the site is NOT for EVERYONE.

I wrote both to Ben Rattay, the 28 year old founder, and Alex Steed, the 25 year old blogger. Rattay has never answered me and Steed carefully explained that while there MAY be older people like myself using the Internet for Social Activism, he was interested in helping HIS generation find their identity and wasn't interested in speaking with anyone but Millenials about Online Activism.

I guess the fact that I feel disappointed means that I really liked the site.

Take a minute and go to: http://millennials.change.org/blog/view/old_people_stop_excluding_us_because_were_old

It's not that we're old, Alex. It's that we're not young (white, rich, christian, straight...yeah) and so don't fit into your "club." Of course, I'm being facetious, but until you've experienced ageism or sexism, you probably wouldn't understand what I'm talking about.

So, that's why I'm feeling rather down tonight. The concept behind Change.org really appealed to me...now I feel like an idiot for getting all charged up and sending my "idea" to all my contacts. Yeah, I probably won't get kicked out, but I'll be aggressively ignored.

Now that I've got this off my chest, I think I can move on...