BAD08: What's the point?

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day 2008, when (as I write this) 8626 bloggers have signed up to post on the theme of poverty. The idea is to raise awareness of issues and to spark discussion (although does that make “Blog Action Day” a slight misnomer?).

I added this site to the list what seems like a very long time ago, although I’m sure it’s only been a couple of months, if that. I think it’s fair to ask why. After all, I have asked and will continue to ask about the inherent disconnection between online conversations (and often those in the media in general) and what goes on IRL — at least or most especially in those real lives most intimately acquainted with poverty and all its consequences and other attendant issues.

Yet reflection-out-loud and an attempt to generate some discussion can’t hurt, so tomorrow I propose to reflect a little on the intersection between my own life (middle-class, male, white) and questions of poverty, both global and local. Please join in the conversation, either here, on your own blog, or on one of the eight-thousand-and-some others participating.

Let’s talk.