It is the first full day of spring and it is getting colder outside. I would like the weather to give us a break but cannot control it, like many other things in life. However, I can control taking a break from the computer for a few days, maybe just checking emails on my cell phone but not much else.

Taking Sunday through Wednesday off the computer seems like a little thing but sadly, for me, these days it is huge. Writing something with handwriting seems foreign to me but I will try.

A friend sent a quote today that made a lot of sense: “He or she who lives by the “news” stories doled out by multinational media corporations, dies—spiritually, mental and physically—by the “news” stories doled out by multinational media corporations.” (Emmanuel Charles McCarthy) The same might be true for those who live by the computer and internet. I am hoping that as long as we can keep “net neutrality” the internet will be open, for a little cost, to anyone. However the big media corporations are working overtime to control the internet.

But net neutrality or no net neutrality the internet is just a tool that can be used to free people by open communication or keep people silent by creating illusion of protest or making voice heard. There was a Saturday Night skit around Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, and it was repeated tonight, when Martin Luther King Jr. appears to a young white man writing a paper on him.

Martin asked the young man if he joined in the protest movement. The young man said yes and showed Martin how he tweets approval or disapproval of what is happening. I get lots of online petitions from saving the Rainforest to saving a pet. Although I do not believe in them I sometimes sign them since it seems like the right thing to do. But seldom does it seem to make a difference. The same goes for letter writing, letters to editor and other forms of so call ‘protest.’ Even walking on the Marquette University campus with a big banner saying: “Marquette Teaches Killing” is ignored.

What to do for real change I do not really know. Real creative nonviolence with openness to civil disobedience seems like it might work but not many are interested in taking risks these days. I do know what I must do and will, with God’s help do it, to the best of my ability, despite insults, rejections or being ignored.

Computer or no computer, Media or no media, doing the ‘right thing’ and keeping hope alive is all we can do.

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