Prompted by my last post, Ben Mack Is an Extremist Idealist, I was just Googling the words “idealist” and “extremist” and came across Joe Satriani’s “The Extremist”. Enjoy!

Also check out the original music video for the studio version of “The Extremist” (embedding is disabled on it or I would have included it here).

Like I said in my last post, “Greatness isn’t achieved through mediocrity. Innovation doesn’t flourish in the middle of the road.”

Yes, Ben Mack is an extremist idealist, and that’s a good thing. Frankly, I’ve known that about Ben Mack as long as I’ve known him.

Why is Ben Mack an extremist idealist?

Well, for one thing, Ben believes that every person on Earth deserves clean drinkable water.

So do I.

So do the supporters of WaterAid America, who contributed just over $2.6 million last year to “programs and services that benefit people in need of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education.”

So do the supporters of charity:water, who last year contributed just over $1 million directly to “hand-dug wells, deep wells (boreholes), rehabilitations, spring protections, rainwater harvesting schemes, and biosand filters” around the globe.

So do the hundreds of people who are talking about clean drinkable water on Twitter.

So does Michelle Greer, who helped raise $8,868 for charity:water through Austin Twestival. By the way, that effort helped Michelle become the overall winner of the Texas Social Media Awards this year.

That’s a whole lot of extremist idealists.

Good.

As Margaret Meade once said:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

(more…)