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A Day to Remember, A Day to Act

Lots of folks today remembering, looking back at September 11, 2001, six years ago. Remembering what was.

Remember also who you were and how much you’ve changed, what powers you have now that were unthinkable back then.

In 2001, there was no podcasting. Blogging was relatively limited.

In 2001, there was no Twitter, and IM presence was silo’ed heavily.

In 2001, there was no Flickr. No YouTube. No Blip.tv. No TubeMogul.

In 2001, there was no Facebook. No MySpace.

The reach, the powers, the abilities you have as a digitally connected human being six years later VASTLY eclipse what you could do in 2001. You have at your fingertips more tools, more methods, more strategies for communicating and sharing with your world than ever before, more ways to tell your story and experience the stories of others.

You have the power to change the world.

Fundamentalism, be it neoconservative ideology, radical Islam, or Jerry Falwell (how’s the temperature down there, buddy?) requires an absence of knowledge. It requires an absence of differing points of view, a willful deprivation of any information that does not conform to a single party line. Now more than ever you have the ability to engage those around you and share your knowledge, share your stories, and in doing so chip away at fundamentalism.

If you lament 9/11 and what has happened since, commit ever more strongly to using the tools of new media to make the world and your community a better place. Only together, through our direct connections to each other and to the world around us, can we defuse the potency of fundamentalism.

How do you get started?

As my good friend Chris Brogan says, “Just press record.”