what is service, and how do we get people excited about it? that’s where we started. where we’re at today is a focus on the idea of making our communities better by doing whatever it is we as people do. as designers and visual storytellers we’re part of a movement of artists, writers and creative culture makers who have set out to use our work to help build a better world. we designed a project around this idea and put it out there in hopes of getting people excited about service and making things better.

whatever (this) is, well that’s up to you, the visitor. in a general sense, everywhere we look — our schools, our health, our workers, our country, our planet — we are in need of serious improvement. yet, by volunteering our time, talents and energy people are making a difference every single day. it’s that special d.i.y. attitude in our local communities that has profound impact.

on this site we’ve come a long way. we’ve commented, critiqued, inspired, motivated, and celebrated. we’ve walked that thin line between cynicism and hope, anger and action. we are now asserting ourselves on the side of ideas over intolerance, building rather than belittling, love over hatred, “we’re all in the same boat” instead of “you’re on your own, this is my boat.” there’s just too much to be done if we want to get to a vibrant and robust society based on those democratic principles of freedom and equality FOR EVERYONE.

we’ve met a lot of great people since we started this site and look forward to more projects that create hope, change and progress. in the spirit of optimism, service and working together, onward! -jk-

for inspiration and ideas, please visit:

urban arts partnership
rock the vote
causecast
united we serve
current tv
nextaid
dosomething.org
takepart
the mighty united
serve.gov

Work to promote smart growth. That’s the gist. Smart growth. As opposed to growth that is not smart. I.E. dumb, silly or foolish growth, looking backwards, or regressing. That is the heart of sustainability and where it’s taking us.

With 6+ billion people on the planet and a projected 10 billion possible by mid-century we will need plenty of growing, building, and progressing if we’re going to deal with the many issues we have now and will have in the future. If we’re going to get away from the American style of 4 extra planet living, we need to be smart about it.

We’re on the brink. Not of death and destruction, but of a new, smart revolution, and it’s feeling pretty good. (more…)

profits are up, people are down, and the symbol for health care in america is burned black — tattered, torn, cracked and crumbling, despite patchwork attempts at reform. ha! the sad fact: we have the most pathetic, inefficient, ruthless health care system on the planet. and we have an ingrained aversion to the -ism we dare not speak and government intervention we claim so feverishly to be the most hideous of outcomes. as it will apparently lead us to a weak, dependent society. and with that, complete moral decay. or something like that.

as a system, the headline reads: just don’t get sick. in the vocabulary of pre-existing conditions, “experimental” surgery, and high risk, the business of health is a highly profitable, money-making machine. it’s a racket. and a disgrace to the idea of life and liberty. while the ever-so-simple-answer of single-payer is mocked in the establishment press and denounced as some great evil.

well maybe, but you tell me another way to create a simple answer to the most budget-crushing question of our time and i’ll be happy to forego my demands. those being: cover everyone, and treat us like people. -jk-

The future belongs to the society that best educates its citizens. And we citizens should determine the success of our nation, city or community not by what we can collectively destroy, but what we can build. In a world where the old norms have been wiped from the earth and everything is undergoing a grand remaking, it’s time now, to demand, the investment in our minds that will spring us into the next.

Right now, we, the United States, spend more money on our military than the rest of the world combined. And a culture of militarism persists. In these last decades, we have chosen to cut funding and ignore our crumbling services that are the very nature of what a government is supposed to do. We have allowed our schools to degrade into a shameful apparatus of failure while pumping more money into that which kills: more bombs, more tanks, more robots for war.

Continuing to spend half our budget on our war machine and expect our tools of government to foster prosperity is preposterous. We can no longer underfund education, thereby funding costly ignorance, and expect to lead in this world. We’re falling behind. In business, invention, technology, and ideas. We get what we pay for. In the uncertainty of “what is next,” will we be the ones able to comprehend the transformative thinking necessary to participate in life on this planet after we’ve come to realize the existential changes coming at us at increasing speed? -jk-

CALLING ALL CITIZEN DESIGNERS, DESIGN FOR ACTION!

Change is tough. Change doesn’t just happen. Change has to be ignited. It has to be forced from the hands of the well-fed power brokers who lobby the cronies of a collapsed capitalist system for more profits, more laissez-faire, more bailouts and more wars.

And the media machine is fixed. It trickles down a trite, compromised story line that it thinks the people will swallow, accept as fact, then go back to the Wal-Mart flat screen and carry on consuming. That is, until the bottom-up breaks the machine in half.

The change that we, the bottom-up, are demanding has entered the media war. The corporate system has set out to squash it. We, the citizens for true progressive change, after 30 years of savage corporatism, are losing, and must now push back.

We are living in the first 100 days that will set the course for the next 1200+ and are in need of some serious creative thinking. We are pushing our vision in the positive, adding momentum to the movement we see in our communities every single day. Because it is glaringly obvious institutions are failing us — ruining the planet, fighting meaningless wars, ignoring degrading inequality, teaching our children ignorance, and failing to build a brighter tomorrow. In short, there’s a fire, and we need to move.

While the media work us over completely, our push back now has to be loud.

Engage local efforts at the grassroots for change. Find a nonprofit in need of louder communications. (See Idealist.org.)  Participate in graphic efforts at Repressed IV: May Day, Good 50×70 2009, Imagine Peace, or Green Patriot Posters. And send us your posters that move people to action. Inspire and ignite us for change.

From now until May 1, in these crucial 100 days, here at Power to the Poster, onward! -jk-

Step 1: Get Barack Obama Elected.
Step 2: Remake America. And do enjoy yourself along the way, because this is the moment we’ve been scratching and clawing for.

The duty of the artist is to defeat the lie. And that is painfully necessary. But it is also our task to inspire the truth. If the image of the day is truth, justice, and equality, then we can defeat the forces of imperial militarism, “greed is good,” and hyper-individualism.

If we look out and the image is sustainability, then we can defeat the notion of separateness and dominance over our natural environment.

And if the image is for a “we the people” form of government, then we defeat the apathetic, wasteful consumer view of ourselves and are remade to act in the caste of citizen. With that, there is to be millions demanding progressive action.

There’s a shift happening. A new dynamic with a holistic worldview. A reigniting of a participatory democracy. A real power to the people movement. (more…)

This beginning is fresh. The forecast is for sunny. Though the problems are many, big, and scary, the will to solve them is great. What we set out to do now until May 1 will have profound effects into the long-term that is our future in this country. In this world. So, what’s it gonna be?

What are the priorities? What next? What is the most important things to do in this moment?

Universal Health Care? Green Collar Economy? Renewable Energy Future? An Investment to Eradicate Poverty? A Push for Peace?

We can’t do everything, but what we decide to do must include a holistic view of the total. One that employs thinking in the long-term. A view that will set us on course for a brighter tomorrow and creates the needed momentum to take us into a sustainable and just world.

Until January 21st…
-jk-

The “War On Terror” has shaped our thinking for far too long. It is time we cease using such an outmoded way of viewing the world. Wars aren’t a proper frame for our existence. We’re in the midst of a new creation. A new vision. A new dawning of what could be our finest era of progress that sets out our future in the long view.

We’ve come a long way these last eight years. We’ve grown up a bit. And we’re in the process of coming of age in a transforming world. One challenging in its complexity yet inspiring in its connectivity. Both ruthless and blessed. At times full of hate, other times full of hope. Most of all, full of energy. People are energized. People are hopeful, working for a brighter tomorrow. We’re moving beyond petty bickering, bitching, slandering and whining. We’re acknowledging the negative and focusing on the positive. Because cynics are a dime a dozen.

With so much going for us, so much possibility, it would be best, for our frame of mind, in an act of unwavering confidence, a cathartic act of vindication and honest relief, from this day forth, that we toss out that tired slogan known as the “War On Terror.” (more…)