Nicholas Kristof's column in today's New York Times looks at Change.org and its power to create, well, change. After describing the way a fourth-grade class in Massachusetts persuaded Universal Studios to green its advertising for The Lorax, a movie due out in March based on the Dr. Seuss book about protecting the environment, Kristof goes on to describe the dramatic expansion of Change.org. It turns out that when I joined Change.org last month, it was a one-in-a-million thing--by which I mean that Change.org is adding a million new members per month.
Although still small (compared to Facebook), Change.org now has offices on four continents. The company plans to have offices in twenty countries and operate in Arabic and Chinese by the end of 2012. There will no doubt be censorship battles ahead, but the beauty of a petition is that can clearly articulate the will of the people--peacefully.
The "right of the people . . . to petition the government for a redress of grievances," as the First Amendment puts it, is an important right. Change.org makes it easy to exercise the right.