Barbados Free Press is the most amazing web site.  I found this billboard there.  Those folks are kicking serious butt on an island most of us think of as paradise.  They are funny and irreverent.  They’re also very serious, passionate, brilliant, and committed to Outrageous Acts of social justice.  They are fearless yet prudent.  They’ve got guest articles, cartoons, photos, and so much more.  My hat is off to them!  Bravo, Barbados!

For those of you interested in what’s happening with Rihanna and Chris Brown, they’re on top of the story.  I’ve added them to my blogroll to make it easy for you to find them.

But, that’s not the only reason I’m so impressed with what they’re doing.

Since I started this site just over four months ago, I have struggled with how we can establish a community of people committed to the same vision.  The folks at Barbados Free Press showed me how.  I am ever so grateful to them.

So, I’m going to ask all you shy flowers who tend to visit without commenting to get some interaction going on.  We’ll start with a poll.  A Mom’s Random Mind asked this week why bloggers aren’t doing more to demand change.  We are, but I think we’d be more effective if we had a community or forum or platform where we could gather and exchange ideas and information.

Ideally, I’d love to have a second (or third or fourth or fifth) blog on this web site.  But, WordPress isn’t there yet.  So, I’m debating between ideas:

Guest Posts

A page on this site devoted to an anthology of survivor’s stories.

Maximum length:  300 words illustrated with photos, polls, YouTube videos, slide shows, etc.  Basic journalistic questions:  who, what, when, where, how, and why?  Share with us what’s worked for you in your recovery from abuse (child abuse, incest, molestation, domestic violence, sexual harassment, workplace abuse, etc.)  Where are you in your path to recovery:  barely surviving. . .thriving. . .finding joy?  Finally, how are you paying it forward?

Shameless plugs of your web site or blog are OK.  Whining is not.  There are no victims here.

I have a little used e-mail account where y’all can send your submissions.  My thought is that you would simultaneously publish your piece on your blog or web site with links so that those walking in our shoes can easily find available resources.

I’d be looking for writing that is the quality of something that might be published in a major, mainstream magazine or newspaper.  We’ll be writing about issues that are very serious so we need to lighten them up with humor and illustrations.

You can write about anything that has been helpful to you. . .food. . .exercise. . .spirituality. . .art. . .books. . .hobbies. . .people. . .ideas. . .dreams. . .poems. . .song lyrics. . .photography. . .whatever.

If your story is published, you will receive an award icon that you can publish on your blog or web page.

“Bravo, Blogger!” Awards

Once a week, I will check out what’s been posted and tell you about significant achievements, useful information, etc.

To make it easy to navigate to these resources, I will create a category for these posts and include lots of links.

If somebody with graphic artists talents has the time to create an icon for this award which can be posted on award winners web pages, I think that would be very cool.  Maybe we can have another poll to pick the winning icon.

“Clueless” Awards

Light-hearted rants about public figures, government officials, and media personalities who just don’t get it.

Submissions from y’all would be very helpful.

Please vote:

Please share your comments and ideas on how you think we might best create a sense of community.