Filthy water, thristy dogs, Twitter and Charity Water
“Filthy rotten water, yeegads!” I would yell at our dog as he drunk out of a dirty puddle. He would do it all the time during walks. I suppose a dog doesn’t care or know better. Perhaps, as my Dad always said, he has the correct metabolism to drink dirty water. At any rate, I was usually able to steer our pet away from puddles laden with salt, mud, engine oil and a bit of stinky beer, towards the fresh bowl of water waiting at home. As far as my own body, I would never in a million years think of drinking that crap in the puddle!
For 1.1 Billion people in the world, there is no choice like that. You can have the dirty stuff or just greet death with open arms. Those are your choices. Scott Harrison of Charity Water felt that shock after visiting Africa. Since then, his charity water organization has been partnering with various programs to provide, wells, pond sand filters, rainwater catchment and water towers. To date, there are 1,247 water programs that are either completed or in progress.
How Asheville and the Tweeterverse comes in.
The Twitter web site is such a hoot, but more importantly, to some of those who are rather observant, it seems to connect communities. I’ve been messing with this strange bird for around a year which has enabled me to meet a whole passel of weirdos from Asheville, NC. Normally I’m a rather quiet person, but Twitter is the trick for getting me to talk with people I would otherwise not know what to say to.
Behold! We all got together for lunch at 9-mile a while back. (It was my birthday actually, but I was quite about that!) Several tweeters including @h0zae, @itswendylou, @juneallison, @ellelily and @rorris got the ball rolling on the Twestival. Soon after, the web site for Asheville Tweestival went up by the ornery @loknessmobster. There are several ways to donate, even if it’s 5 lousy bucks, so no bitching about the bad economy. Hell, you’ll blow that on a gormet beer someplace.
The big deal though, is the Asheville Twitter Festival (Twestival) being held at Windows on the Park on February 12th. There will be some cheap $1 beers from Bruisin’ Ales ($10 cover . . . It’s nothing!) along with music, a silent auction and plenty of colorful people that make this town lovable.
So try to come out this Thursday if you can, or least donate a lousy 5 bucks. You’ll sleep better for it, I bet.