A teenager in Portland, Oregon—too young to vote but wanting to be involved in the political process—put up a few yard signs. (They happen to be for Obama, but that’s beside the point of this story.) His signs were promptly stolen in the middle of the night. Undaunted, he made his own sign.
Being a tech-savvy 16-year-old, Preston Fosback then focused a webcam on his new sign in hopes of catching the political vandals. His mom (fairly tech-savvy herself!) posted a link to his webcam on a political blog. That turned out to be the link clicked ‘round the world.
To Preston’s amazement, the following day he had 100,00 hits on his live feed!
Soon there thousands of concerned citizens from all over the world participating in the democratic process by helping to monitor his webcam around the clock. (Teen girls were soon spotted on a nighttime sabotage mission.)
Preston’s global supporters even formed a group: CHAOS—Citizens Hanging Around Obama Signs. The website where his webcam is displayed also has a chat window, so viewers keep a running conversation going.
While one lesson young Preston may take away from this experience is that politics can get ugly, I hope he appreciates the larger lesson that there are far more people concerned about fairness and doing the right thing. That so many strangers would take an interest in the plight of a few yard signs (and what they symbolize) reveals far more about the human condition.
If you’d like to check on his signs for yourself, here they are.
I do believe that kindness will prevail. What about your neighborhood? Have you seen any random acts of political kindness? We’d love to hear about them if you have. Or even better, why not act kindly yourself, and tell us about that?
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