Survey says: Organic garden!

Since blogging is, at its heart, a grassroots effort, I have a soft spot for others who organize for similar projects.  During the presidential campaign, I interviewed a representative from On Day One, which wanted to promote a stronger US-UN relationship by generating a massive grassroots effort to demand action from the new American President.  They collected ideas from around the world about what action our new executive should take on his first day in office to improve the world and strengthen global relations.  After several months and boatloads of suggestions, On Day One came up with this:

And after a final round of voting, it was decided that the number one item for your day one agenda should be the substantive and symbolic gesture of planting an organic Victory Garden on the White House lawn. Roger Doiron, who submitted the idea, explains that:

“The White House is “America’s House” and should serve as a model at a time of economic and environmental crisis. You would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had food gardens before) leading by personal example on global challenges such as food security, climate change, and energy independence.”

What were the other finalists?

• Pursue The Global Common Good
• Begin to End the War in Iraq
• Commit to Global Nuclear Disarmament
• Fight the Roots of Terrorism
• Reform Foreign Assistance
• Create a Cabinet Level Department of Peace
• Restore Human Rights
• Plant an Organic Victory Garden on the White House Lawn
• Guarantee Women’s Rights

In their defense, only one other among these is an actual concrete action — absurd, but concrete.  Obama could have created a “Department of Peace” on Day 1, although Congress would have to authorize it.  (Did Dennis Kucinich send in that suggestion, or did Grandfather Twilight?)  How exactly does that bolster US-UN relations?  On Day One doesn’t explain.

The rest of these are the kind of emotional glurge in which utopians love to indulge.  A couple of them are contradictory to their mission, not that they seem to notice.  For instance, how will the US “guarantee womens rights”?  Impose them on resistant nations, like, say … Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and so on?  Or, more to the point, imposing them on UN peacekeeping troops? The same goes for “Restore human rights” (can we impose them on Cuba?), “Fight the roots of terrorism”, and the oh-so-specific “Pursue the Common Global Good”.

But no; the best thing Obama can do for US-UN relations is to plant an organic garden at the White House On Day One.  I’m actually convinced that Roger Doiron is secretly a satirist who wants to demonstrate the silliness of these contests while at the same time pointing out the uselessness of the UN.  Unlike the UN, this garden will at least produce food that doesn’t rely on exploitation by peacekeeping troops to distribute.