Thursday, June 5, 2008

Speaking Up

The other day, Ella and I were watching a children's show on PBS and they started listing the contributors who made the show possible. I was shocked to hear the announcer say their sponsors included Kraft, a subidiary of Phillip Morris. I immediately wrote a letter to the station and to PBS in general because I don't think they should be accepting money from a tobacco company for children's programming. I received a personal response from the local station manager this morning assuring me that Kraft is no longer part of PM. He also told me he'd contact PBS about the announcement mentioning PM. I truly appreciated his taking the time to personally respond and address my concerns.
This experience reaffirmed my positive feelings about speaking out on issues you care about. I've written numerous letters and emails and signed lots of petitions. Many have been unanswered, but I've also had local politicans respond personally and letters to the editor published. When I feel small in such a big world, these kind of experiences demonstrate that our voices do matter and one person can make a difference.

2 comments:

Jeff Hamm said...

We could all do more of this! Thanks for sharing your story as it often seems that the "I can't make a difference" feeling ends up always being our excuse.

Rebecca Pierce said...

Chris is a big letter writer, though for less noble causes. His causes usually positively affect our cash flow. Free airline tickets, a 50% off pass for my baby crib at Toys R Us, the other day it was cheaper tires at Les Schwab, and when Frontier Airlines called to let us know they had cancelled our flight and they tried to give us a really inconvenient itinerary to replace the original, he elevated the call until he got what was best for us. I should let him know there are some better uses for his efforts, but he's a customer service diva (in his defense, he's also in the customer service business and goes the extra mile and then some for his customers).