GuvWurld
This blog has relocated to http://WeDoNotConsent.blogspot.com

Last year on April 3, I wrote the GuvWurld 1st anniversary post, paying homage to the first-ever GuvWurld post, and linking to some of the highlights of the first year. Another year later and one of the biggest highlights yet occurred one week ago. That's when I launched We Do Not Consent (.pdf), a free online book containing the essential GuvWurld Blog posts of the past two years. While a tad early, consider the homage to be more robust this year. We will look back on 2006 as an even better vintage still.

Together, this set of complete essays portrays advocacy journalism in action. The GuvWurld Blog was conceived for writing in this style, as I've noted many times. Yet now that this material has been assembled this way the advocacy journalism concept requires increased emphasis. Hence the Introduction and Epilogue, both written specifically for the book, and of course the press release. Everything written here is meant to advance the Movement for a peaceful revolution (.pdf).

GuvWurld is advocacy journalism. That means I often write about the work I do for change in the world and I write in a way that promotes these efforts. To judge whether my advocacy journalism is successful, I consider only whether my intended real-world results are produced. What better way to be the media than to create my own account of what I'm doing?

--Introduction, We Do Not Consent (.pdf)

For evidence of how this approach works, read the book. There will be a slight version change in the next few days before we print the first batch of hard copies. The only difference will be the quotes added to the inside of the back cover. Here are a few of those kind words:

"I urge everyone to read "We Do Not Consent", and distribute it as widely as possible."

--B Robert Franza MD, Seattle, WA

"What's special about this book (and it fits because there's nothing more fundamental to Democracy than our vote) is the raising of consciousness. Someone recognizing they have no basis for trusting elections may well ask what else is being taken for granted."

--Eddie Ajamian, Los Angeles, CA

"If in the future we have vital elections, the "no basis for confidence" formulation that GuvWurld is popularizing will have been a historically important development. This is true because by implicitly insisting on verification and checks and balances instead of faith or trust in elections officials or machines as a basis for legitimacy, it encourages healthy transparent elections. It's also rare that a political formulation approaches scientific certainty, but this formulation is backed up by scientific principles that teach that if you can't repeat something (such as an election) and verify it by independent means, it doesn't exist within the realm of what science will accept as established or proven truth."

--Paul Lehto, Attorney at Law, Everett, WA

All of these, and other quotes I've received, are very flattering and encouraging. But Paul's quote is something else. Historical importance will require quite a bit more reinforcement of the "no basis for confidence" message than I can hope to convey by myself. Fortunately, I know and work with people like Larry Hourany. See his Eureka Reporter opinion column from Sunday for a great piece on current election conditions in Humboldt County. Larry has also put up $100 toward book printing costs, bringing us to 32% of the goal, which is $500.

If you would like to support GuvWurld brand advocacy journalism, withdrawing the Consent of the Governed, and creating a peaceful revolution, please help get this message out to a larger audience by making a small donation using the PayPal button at the top left of the GuvWurld blog or by clicking here. All monies collected will go toward printing copies of We Do Not Consent (.pdf).

Larry's use of the "no basis for confidence" angle, Paul's high praise for "the formulation," fantastic news coverage from sources like the Lone Star Iconoclast and New Zealand's Scoop, and recent endorsements of the Voter Confidence Resolution (VCR) from the Human Relations Commission of Palo Alto, CA (.pdf) and Progressive Democratic caucuses in Washington state - these are essentially the day to day signs of progress for advocacy journalism. The next stage, in addition to gaining even more widespread adoption of the VCR, is to prompt other writers to take up this organizing style and other organizers to take up this writing style.

A few other things on the horizon: a long awaited re-vamp and re-launch of the Reinventing Activism program, the original source for my advocacy journalism concepts; first-hand courtroom reporting on the VoterAction.org lawsuit (.pdf) from GuvWurld correspondent Jane Allen in San Francisco; development of a media and speaking appearances history to reference available interviews and articles in a single place; expanding upon that list with many new media appearances in support of We Do Not Consent (.pdf) (Hi Tom Sebourn, I'm ready for Thom Hartmann's call!); and more collaborative efforts with HumboldtRevolution.org, BradBlog.com, VelvetRevolution.us, California Election Protection Network, and Study California Ballots, among others.

So after two years I think it is fair to say that the GuvWurld blog has stayed on track and true to its purpose. Tangible progress has been made with both immediate impact and long-term big picture implications. Though I don't update GuvWurld every day, 320 posts, the VCR, the Blueprint (.pdf), and We Do Not Consent (.pdf), plus more than a dozen published letters and essays all show I've met a personal goal of being more prolific. What will be the highlights of the GuvWurld 3rd anniversary post? Keep your mind open...the future's coming.
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