PROPOSAL: EVERYONE-BE-QUIET DAY.
The Idea: Ann fretting about leafblowers disturbing the local birds, and me wondering what the world would sound like were all the machines to be turned off for a while…
The Action: On January 1, 2010, between 12:01 a.m. and 11:59 p.m., everyone in the world turns off all cell phones, computers, televisions, radios, games, leafblowers, lawnmowers, weedwhackers and cars — in short everything that beeps, rings, roars, rattles, or makes a sound louder than a normal human conversation and isn’t essential to maintaining human life. (Sort of like The Day The Earth Stood Still, but voluntary.) Conversation is optional during this period, but it might be fun (and instructive) to enjoy the silence in silence.
The Method: Get the word out by linking this message through Facebook, email, Twitter, Usenet, phone-pole posting and asking Stephen Colbert to bump it. (That last is optional, but I’ve always wanted to meet him.)
Motto: “Shhh.”