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True confession: I used to be one of those sales clerks. I took everything personally, and usually saw customers as a source of frustration and an unwelcome interruption in my day. You know the type. The ones you dread dealing with. Yep. Guilty.

Part of it was my age. I was suffering from a typical case of post-adolescent narcissism. Part of it was lack of training. There aren’t many retail jobs that provide the kind of training that gives you a sense of pride or professionalism. The crap wages didn’t help much, either.

I don’t recall how I landed there, but around the time I started university I got a part-time job at Mark’s Work Wearhouse. That was back in the day when they mostly sold serious work wear, before they went upscale and focused more on fashion. I somehow ended up as product manager for boots and shoes. I was about to become the resident expert on work boots, which also meant I was responsible for ordering thousands of dollars of inventory. I got some basic product information from another staff member and one of the regional managers, and I was off to the races.

I didn’t feel like a generic sales clerk anymore.

This just in—the economy is a construct.

I know. That’s not news. We usually think of the economy in terms of paycheques and employment rates and the price of electricity and groceries. But the “economy” is like a strange fantasy world where we exchange pieces of paper for the work we do. Somebody somewhere put a value on that work, and we more or less agree with that value. The things we buy are also assigned a value. Sometimes that value changes.

It’s pretty weird when you think about it that way.

I’m new to the blogging game, so I just found this out – October 15 is Blog Action Day, where bloggers the world over are called to write about an important global issue.

This year the topic is climate change.

Mark McGuinness wrote a great post about how we can convince people to take action, and points out how hard it  is to change minds.

We do like our ruts.

Al Gore told the world about the danger we’re in. People still aren’t getting it. No, wait. People are getting it. There are many individuals who are investing in solar power, changing their vehicles to run on cooking oil (which I hear isn’t too difficult if it runs on diesel), turning down their thermostats, and carpooling. The big problem is leadership. How do we change the minds of politicians?

We tell them to.

Politicians are always looking at voting issues. My member of Parliament told me if he gets a dozen contacts about something, it’s an issue. 12 messages. That’s all. That’s how much power we really have, but don’t realize it.

This gives a whole new meaning to the word “grassroots.”

So here’s my challenge: contact your government representatives. Take 10 minutes out of your day to send one email to your municipal, provincial or state, and federal reps. Tell them to wake up and get busy. Tell them they work for you, and you’d like clean air and water, thank you very much, for the next generation. Pay particular attention to your municipal government, because that’s where change really happens. It starts small and gains momentum. Google is an easy way to find government contact information.

A little bit of research. One email. A world  full of voices, and you can be part of it.