On more than one blog over the past couple of weeks I have read both a frustration over the current violent state of the world and also a certain resignation that there is so little that any one person can do, that at least a writer should write - should focus on their stories and try to bring beauty into a world that clearly is drowning in sorrow. My book/story/essay/review/whatever might not be much these bloggers write, but at least I can do this, I can make something good in the midst of all this pain.

I just want to go on the record right now by saying that is not nearly enough.

Art is important, the arts have always been important to civilization and I'm certainly a supporter of the arts (and I use the term "art" in the broadest definition of the word), but sitting in your gilded middle class tower and writing away at your mystery or romance or next great literary gift to the gods (or your YA urban fantasy involving dragons, hurricanes and a sword - if you're me anyway) is not enough to change the world. It's a good thing, a grand thing even, but the folks in Lebanon or Iraq or the Sudan - or hell, New Orleans, are not lining up to read a book. They want light at the end of the tunnel, they want action.

They need their fucking worlds to be fixed and my story, your story, even JK Rowling's story isn't going to do that.

So here's what I think - first, write letters. The internet makes it so easy to send emails to Congressmen, Senators and even the White House. We are big supporters of stem cell research here and were all over that issue to everyone we could send an email to a couple of weeks ago. Did it change the veto - no. But we let our elected officials know and if enough people let them know on a certain topic, well, things are going to change.

Just ask Joe Lieberman if he should have been paying better attention to the folks back home. (I'm not anti-Lieberman but there's definitely a lesson to be learned from the CT primary.)

You can send emails and say what you think about Iraq or Afghanistan rather than just bitching to your spouse over dinner. You can write the president and tell him you want Israel to stop bombing or the War Crimes Act not to be altered or Guantanamo not to exist. You can also visit blogs that focus on these issues and read updates and pay attention. Go to Laila's blog every day and follow her links to read about the side of the story that we might be missing in the western media. Go to Riverbend and see what it is really like in the heart of Baghdad. (Residents of Baghdad are systematically being pushed out of the city. Some families are waking up to find a Klashnikov bullet and a letter in an envelope with the words “Leave your area or else.” The culprits behind these attacks and threats are Sadr’s followers- Mahdi Army. It’s general knowledge, although no one dares say it out loud. In the last month we’ve had two different families staying with us in our house, after having to leave their neighborhoods due to death threats and attacks. It’s not just Sunnis- it’s Shia, Arabs, Kurds- most of the middle-class areas are being targeted by militias.) Send their numbers through the roof - they are passing along valuable truths and deserve a lot of support. Beyond that, go to Reuters news, the BBC, Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International. Go read what they see and what they say and become informed. Know more so you can be smart when you write those elected officials.

Take a break from your storytelling to send out some words that matter today, right now, and don't need a publisher's approval.

And finally, when you buy books (or movies or music) spend some dollars on the folks who are making a point of letting us know what is going on. Buy books like the two I'm reviewing right now, Big Coal and Lost Mountain and then you will know that electricity is not cheap - it's ungodly expensive. Buy Come Back to Afghanistan or Kabul in Winter or Places in Between. Buy Breach of Faith, visit the Times-Picayune and The Gambit and refuse to let New Orleans disappear from the national spotlight.

Buy books that matter - spend some of your dollars on books that are trying to force change.

Go see An Inconvenient Truth, or Road to Guantanomo
or Why We Fight. If they aren't playing in your town then buy the dvds as soon as they show up on the shelf - or at the very least rent them.

Read, and let your dollars be evidence that you are reading. Watch, and let your dollars be evidence that you are watching.

And while you are at, contribute to the folks who fight the good fight - the National Resource Defense Council, Doctors Without Borders, and Habitat for Humanity who has been building houses in New Orleans from the very beginning. The list goes on and on - find an organization that is working for change and send them $5. You can send $5 and you know it. Just this time, instead of thinking you need to send money you don't have, put what you can spare in an envelope and mail it.

Do it today.

Do these things, do all of these things and then go write your book. Then go make your art. Then, and only then, be the creative person you feel yourself to be.

Otherwise - ignoring everything in the face of your own creations - is to be naive and even selfish. It is even to be a bit of a fool.

No more letting your stories be your sole contribution to the world. No more believing that is enough. That is a lie and you know it. Now go do something for truth.