Turn off your TV

[Earth_First]

Leave your house
Know your neighbors
Look up when you are walking
Greet people
Sit on your stoop
Plant flowers
Use your library
Play together
Buy from local merchants
Share what you have
Help a lost dog
Take children to the park
Garden together
Support neighborhood schools
Fix it even if you didn't break it
Have pot lucks
Honor elders
Pick up litter
Read stories aloud
Dance in the street
Talk to the mail carrier
Listen to the birds
Put up a swing
Help carry something heavy
Barter for your goods
Start a tradition
Ask a question
Hire young people for odd jobs
Organize a block party
Bake extra and share
Ask for help when you need it
Open your shades
Sing together
Share your skills
Take back the night
Turn up the music
Turn down the music
Listen before you react to anger
Mediate a conflict
Seek to understand
Learn from new and uncomfortable angles
Know that no one is silent though many are not heard. Work to change this.

from: "How to Build Community"

[MadBadger]

1. Can it wait till Countdown is over?

[malaise]

3. You know?

:D

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Good Advise ,Thanks

[lligrd]

4. Been Off For Days

I've had enough. I can barely stand to read the news on DU anymore either. I don't care what Alex Baldwin or Imus said. I am saddened by the Virginia shootings but it really is a molehill compared to Iraq. Corruption has taken over the White House and the News Media and we sit her arguing about the stupidest sh!t.

:rant:

[live love laugh]

5. What you said. nt

:hi:

[Madspirit]

15. I don't agree

I don't agree that it's stupid to DISCUSS the human condition. I refuse to JUST care about the war. I know every time another subject comes up someone feels a need to admonish everyone for talking about it but sorry, I'm actually PROUD that I am able to care about more than one thing.
Lee

[lligrd]

18. I Never Said You Could Only Care About One Thing At A Time

But this administration has given us so much to talk about that we can't talk about all their incompetence and corruption enough to get it to the forefront. And then we let them off the hook as we debate inane issues that have no bearing on our world while it silently dies.

[Madspirit]

28. Not Inane

Issues of racism and sexism and homophobia...(Imus), child abuse, poverty, mental illness, etc....(Cho)...are as important as the war. Easily. Our own social conditions are the crux of all that's wrong...millions die from these social issues...(as many as die from any war)...and they are the root cause of a mentality that results in wars.

I cannot relate at all to someone who thinks our own social issues are irrelevant. I think these ARE core the issues. The way people treat other people is at the root of it all.
Lee

[lligrd]

30. I Hate All Of The Forementioned

but education is the answer to those. And there are priorities right now. We have invaded a country, our pResident is a fricken pathological liar, they really do want to attack Iran, they are taking over the judicial system, they've corrupted the military and the world is in danger of dying due to greenhouse gasses. But let's take time out to debate Baldwin's parenting skills!

[mike_c]

6. mine's been off for decades....

I wholeheartedly agree-- TURN THAT SHIT OFF!

Ahhh, and now back to peace and quiet....

[Jcrowley]

7. Definitely

"American children and adolescents spend 22 to 28 hours per week viewing television, more than any other activity except sleeping. By the age of 70 they will have spent 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV."
-- The Kaiser Family Foundation

[bigwillq]

8. Good list!

Thanks for posting it! :hi:

[derby378]

9. My wife and I did it for the majority of last week

We hit the beaches instead. Woo-hoo!

[liberalEd]

10. I do turn off my TV

And then at times I switch it on.

When I want to watch something, I switch it on. When I'm done, I switch it off.

It's really easy. I'm in control.

[El Supremo]

11. Not right now.

The Yankees and Red Sox are on. :)

BTW, you should turn off your computer and internet too.

[misanthrope]

12. Best post I've seen here in a LOOOOOOOONG time**nm

**

[dweller]

13. done

thanks for the reminders.

turn up the music instead.
( currently listening to Alexi Murdoch 'Time Without Consequence' )


proud to be rec #5, so off to the Greatest Page with you little blue marbled baby.
dp

[Gregorian]

14. Rollins!

He's on in one hour. I wouldn't miss it for the world. As good as DU.

Daily Show.

Linktv.


Those three are worth every bit of the money I pay per month. Otherwise, it's all crap. I can't even tolerate Olberman, as good as he is.

[huskerlaw]

16. But my neighbors are *on* TV!

:shrug:

[KoKo]

17. What if...there's NO ONE on my PORCH or STOOP...Out there?

:shrug:

[DKRC]

20. Sit in your swing and wave at the folks drivin by of course ...

:hi:

[katsy]

19. k/r

:kick:

[Telly Savalas]

21. The Royals are up 7-4. The TV stays on.

[bliss_eternal]

22. Kick!

:thumbsup:

[Democrats_win]

23. Before, I did turn off my TV. Now I don't turn it on.

There is nothing on. Good thing or I wouldn't be listening to "Carmen" on the radio.

[Clark2008]

24. Mine was off up until Countdown, then on for that hour and is

off again now.

:hi:

[proud patriot]

25. This brought a big smile to my face

:hi:

[Straight Shooter]

26. TV's been off for years. I can't seem to turn off the frickin' computer!

:7

[AikidoSoul]

27. I'm with you.... this computer and I are like obsessed lovers who

can't stop touching each other. I think I'm STUCK to it.

[Straight Shooter]

29. Major love/hate affair going on with my computer.

:)

[riverdeep]

31. Beautiful post

I don't think this is meant as literally turn off your TV forever, just that TV is SO easy as a time waster, a baby sitter, a mind number, that we should think twice about what we are giving up when we choose TV over activities that would satisfy us more.

I especially like barter. Maybe this doesn't fall into the strict definition but imagine for example sharing the second car, which a lot of people have, with a neighbor. Most people don't need it everyday, it's a convenience. Halving the insurance, gas, repairs, etc. is quite economical and would only interfere minimally with the conveniece factor with good planning and communication.

[tavalon]

32. For years there has been no connection to cable or even rabbit ears in my house

Yes, we have a TV but it is only for use with a DVD player. Nowadays, our lives are so busy (a poly house with 4 adults and 2 children is guaranteed to be busy) that pretty much the only time the TV gets turned on is for Movie Night on Tuesday where all the family members and any guests convene for popcorn and the movie chosen by consensus.

I like seeing the layer of dust that is collecting on the top of that TV.

[MLFerrell]

33. I turned off the TV for good about six years ago...

And I'm not turning it back on, ever.

[intheflow]

34. My old church had this on a poster in their hallway.

Great advice! :kick:

[LWolf]

35. It's off.

And likely to stay that way til I collapse tonight and call myself "done." Then it will play a movie, or perhaps a soothing "law & order rerun" that brings familiar voices and sounds into the room as white noise while I read my book.

It is so rarely tuned in to anything else that all of the threads about "who's watching ___________?" and "Did you hear what ___________ said?" pass right by me without recognition.

Happily so.

[SecularMotion]

36. I discontinued my cable service this week

I called on Thursday and it was unhooked on Friday. My computer is jacked into the TV set and I can stream all c-span stations and Democracy Now at full screen. That's all I need. I am sick of the "professional wrestling" style discourse of the "news" networks. I will miss Countdown though.

[Gabi Hayes]

37. don't turn it off! do this, from John Prine

Blow up your T.V., throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own

http://www.musicsonglyrics.com/J/johnprinelyrics/johnprinespanishpipedreamakablowupyourtvlyrics.htm

[midnight]

38. This is wonderful advice, and now that it is warmer out, very

easy to put into action.

[mondo joe]

39. NEWSFLASH: You can do all those things AND turn your TV on.

:eyes: