You had the action figures. You watched the cartoons. You even had (or even still have?) superhero underoos. When you were four, being a superhero was the obvious career path for you. You never understood why adults like your parents somehow chose NOT to be superheroes.
Sigh. After a not-too-successful stint as the invisible man and a failed attempt to fly off the roof, you’ve conceded that your image will never be powerful enough to grace the underwear of little boys everywhere.
Not to worry. Here are a few projects you can tackle that do not require you to have superhuman physical strength or x-ray vision:
1.) Trish Forant started a campaign that allows civilians to stay in contact with a member of the armed services at emailourmilitary.com. Currently, if you sign up to start emailing a service member, you have to print a form and mail it to Trish. She is interested in having an online form put on this site. This would require some form of payment processor and SSL as there is a $2 registration fee. If you would like to help with this, please contact Trish here.
If you are technologically inept and/or lazy like me, you can still help by signing up keep in touch with a service member by filling out a form on Trish’s website. There are a host of other great projects on this site to help support our troops.
2.) I am helping collect computers and other items for Burmese refugees currently living in town. These people have suffered greatly at the expense of a ruthless and unjust military regime. They did not get a choice in where they lived and came to the United States with nothing. Here is a list of what they need:
* jobs that offer a decent wage
* English tutors, especially for the ones who can’t get out
* computers (kids know how to use them, but can’t use the school ones before or after school because they ride the bus)
* calculators for the older kids
* telephones & phone cards (MOST DO NOT HAVE PHONES)
* shoes — tennis shoes & sturdy work shoes
* diapers
* ricecookers
* non-perishable foods
* Wal-Mart, H-E-B, etc. gift cards
Since you cannot break out a can of whoopass and single handedly fly over to Burma to defeat the military regime, you can email Elaine at borntohelp(at)earthlink.net if you’d like to offer any assistance to these new Austinites.
You will indeed be defeating evil by helping out in these projects. I wouldn’t count on your image being immortalized as a tiny figurine wrapped in plastic and 100 twist ties though.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Which Superhero are You? If you can’t decide, feel free to take this super old Superhero quiz to find out.
