Mario Depeine is a firm believer that everybody counts. He likens the individual voices of each American to a dripping faucet. Each drop by itself seems insignificant but if you have a bucket collecting each one, after a while the bucket will fill up and eventually overflow. Mario says: “This is how we should think about Americans and our government; we must look at each person as that drop that collectively will make a HUGE Difference! No ‘voice’ is insignificant. The key is, each ‘voice’ needs to keep “dripping”, speaking until our nation moves as the people want it to move. Remember, this is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Therefore, the voice of the people must be magnified.”
Mario-D is a full time Science teacher in a New Jersey Public School. “Mr. D” graduated from Princeton University (same graduating class as Michelle Obama) with a degree in Social and Personality Psychology. He spent his first eight years in Haiti. In March 2010, he visited Haiti to help with some relief efforts and to document the devastation that occurred as a result of the January 12th Earthquake.
I love this passage in Isaiah 58: 6-11. It challenges anyone who wants to be righteous, to really make sacrifices that will help the less fortunate, the oppressed, the hungry and those without shelter. I believe in speaking up so that good could be done for more people. Silence is comfortable in most cases, but it can also be deadly when others count on your voice because they have “lost” theirs.
Mario has addressed some issues with his work on CNN iReport. Some of his videos were featured during CNN’s TV broadcasts. He has done some writing on Helium.com as well as Yahoo Associated Content.