Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The short description in the header reads “I’m just sayin’.” When I started this little project, I thought I would just write things I thought about. The kind of thing I would say to people if they listened.

That was pretty easy when no one was reading.

I didn’t know that clean water and poverty would be such a hit. I’m gratified that somebody thinks willisays is worth reading. I’m still not sure why I get hundreds of hits a day now. Even when I don’t write anything!

A new feeling of responsibility has overtaken me. I have to have something important to say for the folks. I have to avoid offending readers. What would happen if people stopped coming by? The $4.00 in Amazon kick backs would dry up.

Yeah, it sounds pretty lame when I write it out. But that’s been me over the past few days and weeks.

I’m glad that’s over.

I worked on the Yes on 8 campaign Tuesday. I live in California. I think marriage is important. It seemed like the thing to do. I didn’t have any money to give, so I worked on the campaign. (The $4 from Amazon hasn’t got here yet.)

I kept having this nagging feeling though. I saw the New York Times picture of the two gay dad’s struggling to provide for their kid. My compassion for them and others like them has really grown. They have a unique struggle. I started to worry that I was just making their struggle harder.

These people who live differently that me were just trying to make their way in life. They were no threat to me, I began to think.

Well, you probably heard that Prop 8 passed. Just before the election though, there started to be vicious attacks on my religious beliefs. The attacks continue. But the attacks have spread to all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Erinannie at Moments of Clarity and Chaos shares the too common experience of this week:

At some point in the morning I got a ‘tweet’ about the No on Prop 8/anti-Mormon rally today in L.A. At first the way this tweet was written was specifically anti-Mormon. It wasn’t about civil liberties, or the CA state constitution, or even about love and marriage. It was flat out a threat against Mormons.

Not once have I made a public comment, whether on my blog or on Twitter, about Prop 8. In fact, I have very conflicting feelings about it, and have steered far away from any conversations on the subject. The bottom line is that I don’t live in California, and therefore, don’t feel that I should exert any influence over another state’s vote. I know many people disagree in different ways over that position. I don’t really care.

So you can only imagine how shocked I was when I personally started receiving threats today all because my Twitter account has me identified as Mormon. I was told to go to hell in more ways than I can count.

I’m having a hard time maintaining my compassion. I haven’t threatened to kill, made fun of beliefs or picketed sacred places of anyone who disagrees with me. But that’s what I get in return.

The unnoticed attack on freedom of thought has been fought slowly in the past.  Now that a major counter-attack has been won, the silent enemy is revealed.

Image by kartooner via Flickr

If you live in North America, the Caribbean or certain European countries you may have seen Fiji Water. Did you know native Fijians go without clean water?

I’ve been incredulous about the growth in popularity whole bottled water thing. I can see benefits, especially when it comes to emergency preparedness. But Fiji Water seems to take the whole thing beyond incredulity.

Short Background: They drill deep into the Artesian aquifer in the remote south Pacific island nation of Fiji. They import plastic bottles from China, bottle the water and sell it in the US and other countries with people who have more money than brains. The company has been criticized by others about the whole carbon foot print involved in production. The company has taken steps to go green.

My beef has to do with the water. In looking for examples of good clean water programs, I came accross the Humanitarian Services division of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Over the last 5 years, they’ve done clean water projects in 34 countries. More about that later.

Here’s where the two stories converge. One of those projects is in Fiji. The village Navunimono gets it’s water from a river polluted by cattle grazing, runoff and other stuff. Humanitarian Services helped the village construct 3 water tanks and now they have clean water.

Jo Vitinavulagi fills the first bucket from the new water tanks.

I’m happy they have clean water now but the story points out problems around the world. What did the military dictator of Fiji do about the water problem? What about the American company taking clean water from another part of the island chain?

Here’s an example of clean water being easily available and technologically possible. But those with political and economic power chose to do nothing. The story is repeated over and over. I’ll let you know when I see more.