If you’ve ever met me in real life, you may have noticed this. But I have a whistle. And I wear it, um, every day. Like literally everyday. It’s as much a part of me, I feel, as anything. I wear the whistle, not only because I think it makes me look cool and hip, but also because it stands for something much bigger than me.
I remember back to a sunny (like there’s any other kind) day in my Santa Monica apartment. A great friend of mine from my time at the University of Texas, Sean, had just moved to LA and was sitting on my apartment floor watching the Olympics with me. Sean had just returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another friend of ours, Blake, started a company called Tom’s Shoes who pledges that for every pair of shoes you buy, he puts shoes on a kid’s feet. Blake takes volunteers to suffering countries and does just that, puts shoes on feet. Anyway, Sean had been helping Blake out over in Africa and then took some time afterwards to go wandering. He ended up stumbling upon political chaos he had never even known about. Spending nights in prison, in bunker’s with child soldiers, in villages where mothers wept the loss of their young sons. Sean saw something he couldn’t have ever imagined.
He sat on my apartment floor telling me this and began to cry.
“I wish I could erase what I saw. I wish I didn’t know what I know. But what I saw, I will never forget. I have to do something about this. I have to help them.”
Sean told me the story of a young boy. He was too young and small to carry a gun, so he was given a whistle and sent to the front lines.
“With falling whistles, their only choice is to feign death or face it.”
And so an organization was born. In a matter of months, Sean had done what I thought impossible. He imagined, created and executed an idea.
Their weapon could be our voice.
And Falling Whistles was born.
Sean and his team sell whistles and other merchandise to try and raise awareness of the conflict. Sean encourages people to "Wear the protest." Since Sean first gave me a whistle back in those early days of the non-profit, I take it off only briefly. Showering mostly. Sometimes I take it off while I sleep, but only sometimes. In those early days, I printed off my own version of a flyer that I carried in my wallet. Every time someone asked me about the whistle, I would give them a flyer. It was insane how much buzz wearing a simple piece of jewelry can generate, but in my first 3 months I handed out 100 flyers. I begged Sean to send me some official pamphlets and finally he did. He sent me 10. I think he underestimated how much people ask about them.
Since then, I’ve bought and handed out over 20 whistles of my own in addition to hopefully influencing the purchase of several more.
And now I'm throwing it out to you. If you can spare around $34, PLEASE please please, go and help Sean out. He is doing a great thing here. And in the Special Instructions, write Sean a quick note letting him know where you heard about it. I’m not getting anything back from this, I just want him to know that I’m still doing everything I can to spread the word.
If you can do nothing else, go to www.fallingwhistles.com and watch the video or watch it here. It will move you.